Why knowledge management is here to stay

Knowledge is at the basis of wealth – more so than tangible assets. Being invisible, it is not always recognised as an asset at all, but business success depends on its good management. It is important to distinguish between information, an ingredient of knowledge, and knowledge itself. Knowledge is the result of sifting, reviewing, disseminating, sharing and discussing information. Instead of volumes of data, you get mental models that can be used to advance the business. Mental models can deal with the dynamics of change, as well as the situation frozen at the time of data collection. They can also take into account alternative scenarios. Computers bring mechanistic results far more quickly, but these results are purely rational, without insight, intuition or creativity.