Building knowledge management into strategy: Making sense of a new perspective

Knowledge management is rapidly becoming one of the next big trends. All th e signs are apparent in the number of recent conferences, articles and book s devoted to the topic. Even the comic strip Dilbert has taken notice and p oked fun at it. Our experience of earlier management trends, including BPR, organizational learning and TQM, might cause sceptics to question: so what 's new here? The experiences of knowledge management pioneers in North Amer ica and Europe show that real and significant results are possible. However , as with older methodologies, good planning and implementation are essenti al; and success is not guaranteed. This paper explores how managers might build knowledge management into the strategy process in their firms. Much has already been written about the ph ilosophy and concepts of knowledge and intellectual capital. Less attention has been focused on how to combine a knowledge perspective with establishe d strategy tools, or how to develop unique knowledge-based sources of susta inable competitive advantage. Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad have observed th at managers typically spend too little time thinking seriously about strate gy and the future. We need to ensure that in this limited time, the importa nt dimension of knowledge doesn't get overlooked. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.