Introducing the Knowledge Blog

noreply@blogger.com (R. David Seabrook) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Knowledge - like everything else - costs money. It's an investment. But how do you invest in knowledge?

First you need to be clear on what knowledge is, and what it isn't. Then you need to figure out which knowledge gives you the biggest bang for your buck. Last, you need to understand where knowledge comes from and how to get it.

Knowledge is not what most people think it is. Knowledge isn't what you know; it's what you do. The "knowledge" stored in "knowledge management" systems is really information. It's what you do with it that counts. Just because I own a cookbook doesn't make me a great chef.

To understand which knowledge is most valuable, you first need to see that you can't make money from knowledge alone. You need to combine it with information and physical resources. It's the combination of knowledge, information and physical resources (KIP) that creates profits.

But profits don't come from any knowledge, information and physical resources. They come from asymmetries - knowledge, information and physical resources you have that others don't. You need to make the right investments in KIP asymmetries, and you need to put them together in the right way.

Once you've seen which knowledge is most valuable, you need to figure out how to get it. But you can't buy knowledge from a bookshop. There's no such thing as a knowledge vendor. Getting new knowledge means changing your behavior, and that's hard to buy. Knowledge is valuable because it's hard to buy. If anyone could buy it there'd be no advantage and no profits.

My book - The Three Things that Matter in Business - is the first book to explain the link between knowledge, information, power and profit. It based on seven years of research. The Three Things that Matter in Business is about how to figure out where your profits come from, and how to create more of them. It will give you new ideas for creating profits that will change the way you think about business.

The Knowledge Blog

Introducing the Knowledge Blog