All indications are that knowledge management is still in its early growth phase. Its emergence as a formal management activity started in 1995, with a high profile international conference, and the publication of the groundbreaking book by Nonaka and Takeuchi. ^[1]

Since 1997, when many senior managers viewed knowledge management as a passing fad, it has gradually been adopted as a mainstream activity by many organizations. From its early acceptance in pharmaceutical firms, oil multi-nationals, high technology companies and management consultancies, it is now prevalent in most large corporations and many public sector bodies. Why this burgeoning interest? Part is due to the growing recognition of the value of intangible assets. Many knowledge intensive companies, such as biotechnology and software companies, have a stock market value 5 10 times higher than that of their physical assets. Another is that many organizations, having gone through periods of restructuring and downsizing, have realized only when it is too late the extent to which they have lost knowledge held in people's heads. A further factor is that technology, and especially the Internet, makes it easier to connect people to share knowledge and also to disseminate information quickly and cheaply. By accessing and reusing knowledge more effectively, pioneers of knowledge management have applied it to achieve significant benefits, ranging from faster product development to better customer service (see Table 1.1). ^[2]