OVERVIEW

What began almost ten years ago Knowledge Innovation has now reached the stage of a critical mass of insight. Dedicated experts across all disciplines are exploring and defining new management practices fundamental to capitalizing upon the knowledge-based economy.

Although there has been a plethora of articles and books on the topic, the seminal cookbook (if there ever be such a thing) is only "work-in-process." In the 1920s, when Alfred Sloan divisionalized General Motors, it sent a clear, consistent, concise message of the techniques necessary for large-scale business management. However, today driven by the acceleration of computer/communications technology and the value of collaborative networks, the real competitive differentiator human talent provides the enterprise advantage.

Today, there is an emerging "community of practice," which transcends any function, sector, industry, or geography. Participants include theorists and practitioners from education/learning systems, economics/finance, quality/benchmarking, human resources, information/Internet technology, R&D/innovation strategy, and more. The concurrent engineering, agile manufacturing, and reengineering initiatives are all coming to a common theme: transformation of the enterprise profit or not-for-profit through knowledge management.

The first conference in the United States that focused on knowledge beyond the theories of artificial intelligence was entitled "Managing the Knowledge Asset into the 21st Century." It was convened by Digital Equipment Corporation and the Technology Transfer Society at Purdue University in 1987. The second on "Knowledge Productivity" was coordinated by Steelcase North America and EDS in April of1992. The third was hosted by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) in Vancouver, British Columbia in October 1992. McKinsey and Company initiated its Knowledge Management Practice during...