The big picture

& Editorial

The Big Picture

I have always been impressed by the range of workthat I have had the privilege to review for this Jour-nal. This range reminds me that by giving the Jour-nal the dual focus of Knowledge and ProcessManagement we have encouraged contributionsabout two of the key areas of practical and theo-retical management research. I do not expect thesituation to change in any significant way in future.Organizations must increasingly focus on innova-tion as the source of their competitive survival.Innovations need to be explored both with respectto business processes and the inputs and outputs ofthese processes.

I was interested to read an article in the NewYork Times today (Some Thoughts about FreeTrade. Charles Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts,New York Times, January 6, 2004, p A27.) whereinthe authors expressed concern about how the Uni-ted States should respond to the increasing threatto the employment base posed by such countriesas India and China. The authors note that increas-ingly US firms are replacing skilled Americanworkers with equally skilled, but much cheaper,workers from rapidly emerging economies suchas India or China. It would seem that the onlyresponse that we can adopt to this ‘threat’ is tostrive even harder to be both more knowledgeableand smarter. That is we need to refine our skills increating valuable knowledge—that’s where wedesperately need to focus more and more on allaspects of the knowledge management cycle—from knowledge creation and acquisition to knowl-edge retirement. We also need to invent new pro-cesses and dramatically improve our ability tomanage and learn from the processes that weimplement. If that all sounds like a recapitulationof the Red Queen strategy—running faster and fas-ter to stay in the same place—then I am afraid thatthis is the direction we must commit ourselves tofollow.

I realize that the above is still a very genericargument. How do we proceed as researchers inKnowledge and Process Management? In whatdirection must we focus our research? Well, weneed to focus on ways in which we can both

improve our productivity in knowledge creationAND how the knowledge that we create can beshared and transferred with greater efficiency andeffectiveness. Interestingly, a number of research-ers have begun to focus their attentions onapproaches to knowledge creation with the hopethat we will be able to build on some of the ‘suc-cess’ stories but we need to do more than research.We need to ensure that the managers who we trainfully understand the knowledge environment intowhich they will be thrust. We need to genuinelyrethink the importance of knowledge creation andknowledge transfer. I was reading of one companywhere they penalize employees if they don’t makeat least one mistake a month! With this approachthe company is apparently trying to encouragerisk taking since the creation of new knowledgerequires a desire both to take risks and a desire tobuild on existing knowledge.

Perhaps another important insight is that thecreation of new knowledge requires a flexibilityof mind. We need to explore the ways in whichwe can maintain flexibility both in the managementof knowledge and the implementation and man-agement of processes. Perhaps a possible modelfor our future survival is that provided by Dell.Dell has developed a sophisticated infrastructureto combine the latest (reliable) technologies intovalue adding products. We may well have to devel-op infrastructures to efficiently and effectivelycombine the best skills and knowledge from allover the globe to deliver value to all manner of cus-tomers and organizations.

In the New York Times article I referred to earlierthe authors suggested that one area that was notunder threat would be the area where face to facecontact adds significant value. I would add to thisthe areas where localized knowledge allows forimproved customization of product or servicesand hence the addition of significant value. Sincewe have often ignored such customization in thepast we need to learn to refocus on the possibilitiesof such tailoring of products and services to custo-mers. Perhaps we also need to work harder onworking to develop tools to allow others to provide

Knowledge and Process Management Volume 11 Number 1 pp 1–2 (2004)

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/kpm.195

Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

customized products and services to their owncommunities.

I hope that some of my musings in my editorialsspark some interest and I would appreciate beingable to participate in many more interesting specu-

lations through contributions to the Journal andemails! In conclusion, I would like to offer you allmany good wishes for the New Year.

Anthony Wensley

EDITORIAL Knowledge and Process Management

2 Editorial