Knowledge management and business growth

To get the most from your business knowledge, you should be strategic about how to discover, collate and share it. You can do this by applying a knowledge management strategy across the business.

Creating a knowledge management strategy

Gaining a good understanding of the current state of your knowledge management is essential for the strategy development process.

To develop your knowledge management strategy, you need to:

• consider how effective your business currently is at using its knowledge
• analyse your internal processes for gathering and sharing information
• accept that acquiring and distributing knowledge is an ongoing process, central to your business strategy

You should also identify the value of knowledge to your business and the ways you could exploit it for financial gain. This may be, for example, through gaining a larger market share, developing new products or selling and licensing your protected intellectual property to others. Make sure that your knowledge management approach fits in with your overall business growth strategy.

Buy-in for your knowledge strategy

For an effective knowledge management strategy, senior managers should be supportive, committed and aware of the benefits it can bring. Discuss with them the best ways of collecting and using knowledge. It might also be worth appointing a senior manager as a knowledge champion for your business.

Remember to articulate to all staff and stakeholders the benefits of good knowledge management.