Articles

We encounter four major forms of knowledge risk in organisations: knowledge continuity risks; knowledge acquisition risks; knowledge outsourcing risks and; knowledge articulation risks.

Posted on 4 March 2013

This article talks about the shifting sands of senior leader support as a risk to sustainable KM.

Posted on 20 October 2014

When Julius Caesar walked into the Forum in Rome on that fateful March day in 44 BC, he was hard pressed by petitioners. Caesar was not in Rome often: he had spent much of the previous fourteen years enlarging the dominions of Rome, fighting a bitter civil war against those who thought him too powerful, and flirting with Cleopatra in Egypt. And he was about to head east, to Parthia, to fight another war. A lot of people wanted his attention before he left.

Posted on 12 July 2003

For fifteen years, the US military has been striving to apply technology and information applications to achieve what it calls agility. The objectives will be familiar to business leaders: scale, reach, speed and flexibility in the face of changing conditions. For thousands of years, the military have been leaders in adopting and advancing knowledge management practices for reasons that become very obvious very quickly…

Posted on 12 July 2003

In the late fourteenth century, a busy Italian merchant named Datini, ordered twenty-nine sacks of wool from Spain. It would be three and a half years before the cloth made from the wool finally reached him. Business in the middle ages was complex, with a multitude of different and complicated transactions at different stages of their cycles, and spread all over the known world – including the trading routes of Asia. Each major trading city had its own currencies, sets of weights and measures, and business regulations. The business of the time had many uncertainties associated with it. Information flows were unreliable and slow, risk of war, theft or loss from other means was high…

Posted on 19 October 2002

Why then are we suddenly asking our managers to pursue risk? It is not that the manager’s job in the new economy has changed, and risk of itself suddenly brings automatic rewards. It doesn’t. We are as prone today to loss through folly, fraud and failed predictions as we ever have been – indeed, in these volatile times, some would say more prone. We desperately need sound and prudent management of the risks we are pursuing – and that means risk aversion on a scale to balance the risk pursuance of the markets.

Posted on 25 April 2000

Investors love risk, managers dislike it. Risk provides an alternative to making money by the sweat of your brow. Putting money into a risky situation is what makes profit. For those who doubt this, take a look at the insurance industry – a business wholly devoted to the assessment and conversion of risk to financial premium. In Singapore alone, about 35,000 people (almost 2% of the workforce) are either wholly or partly employed in this industry. The assets of the industry in Singapore grew by more than 50% in the two years of the Asian financial crisis to S$31 billion. Over the last five years the annual growth rate has averaged 16%, reaching revenues of almost S$8 billion in 1998. There is a lot of money in risk.

Posted on 18 April 2000

Most knowledge management theorists will rally around the motto: “If only we knew what we knew”. In fact, quite often, it’s not the knowledge that’s resident within a company that’s important. It’s the knowledge that the company doesn’t have, and doesn’t even know exists.

Posted on 2 February 2000

Videos

Knowledge Management and Risk Assessment: Part I

Dr Gary Klein discusses the importance of the human cognitive element in applying a technology assisted risk assessment and horizon scanning tool (RAHS) developed by the Singapore Government, in a dialogue with Dave Snowden hosted by the Information and Knowledge Management Society (iKMS) in March 2007. Part 1 of 4

Knowledge Management and Risk Assessment: Part II

David Snowden explains why knowledge management in its classic form can actually inhibit the ability of an organisation to effectively implement a risk assessment and horizon scanning tool such as the RAHS system developed by the Singapore Government, in a dialogue with Gary Klein hosted by the Information and Knowledge Management Society (iKMS) in March 2007. Part 2 of 4

Knowledge Management and Risk Assessment: Part III

Gary Klein and David Snowden answer questions on the relationship between knowledge management and a risk assessment and horizon scanning tool such as the RAHS system developed by the Singapore Government, in a dialogue hosted by the Information and Knowledge Management Society (iKMS) in March 2007. Part 3 of 4 (Q&A is split into two segments)

Knowledge Management and Risk Assessment: Part IV

Gary Klein and David Snowden answer questions on the relationship between knowledge management and a risk assessment and horizon scanning tool such as the RAHS system developed by the Singapore Government, in a dialogue hosted by the Information and Knowledge Management Society (iKMS) in March 2007. Part 4 of 4 (Q&A is split into two segments)