Knowledge management: what is its importance?

Knowledge management is a set of strategies used within organizations to enhance results.

In a society in which knowledge is so well recognized and desired mainly by professionals who want to stand out, it is practically impossible to try to make improvements in a business without thinking about acquiring specific knowledge.

Every day we are impacted by new information that can help us improve some aspect of both our personal and professional lives.

But it is useless to receive all those ideas if you do not know how to use them in your favor and, mainly, in your favor.

Do you find it difficult?

Keep reading this post and I assure you that you will better understand the concept of knowledge management and know how it can be applied in your company.

What is the importance of knowledge management?

The concept of knowledge management is relatively recent in the business world.

For a few years now, working on strategies that enable the intellectual growth of organizations has become a priority. Managers, trainers and business owners began to realize the importance of adding value to the processes in their companies.

The knowledge management focus is not just on results and financial growth, but on results and personal growth. They are complete strategies that generate benefits for the company as a whole, but mainly for the entrepreneurs and employees who work in the organization.

1. Advantages of knowledge management for employees

When knowledge management is applied, all the individual potential of employees is optimized and used in the best possible way.

Each of the people who work in a company has useful knowledge and knowledge for the development of business processes.

However, many times, this knowledge is not used and ends up even going unnoticed by managers.

Environments in which knowledge is constantly worked on and encouraged tend to be more creative, generating value for those who learn something new and mainly for sharing experiences.

Employees who are inserted in organizations that care about knowledge management manage to work much better and grow together with the company.

2. Advantages of knowledge management for entrepreneurs and companies

Those who are in charge of the company, as well as the company itself, win with knowledge management because this process is not specific to an area or sector, but rather encompasses the entire organization.

Perhaps the main benefit for the company is the creation of value. But it is not about financial or market value, but about added value.

The knowledge generated, shared and maintained within the company is converted into productivity, more human perspectives and increasingly better processes.

Consumers, clients, partners and society in general come to see the company as a differentiated organization. That is, its internal value gains prominence.

Organizations are made up of people, physical spaces, processes, tools, and the organization’s own culture (thoughts, beliefs, and challenges).

Knowledge management seeks to work on all these aspects simultaneously.

It is not about (with a focus on employees), but about the effective use and application of business knowledge.

Knowledge management tools

Now that you have understood the importance of knowledge management for those who work, those who are entrepreneurs and also for the company, it is time to learn about the best tools to put this strategy into practice.

Know now 8 powerful resources that can be applied within a company and its benefits.

1. Information management

Day after day companies deal with various information, regardless of whether you have an online or physical business.

For this reason, knowing which information is most important, which should be filtered and discarded, and which should be passed on to employees is essential.

In addition, you have to be sure who the recipients of the information will be, in order to enhance the results and reduce errors.

Information management is related to the control of information within the company. Not only in relation to its distribution, but also to obtaining and analysis.

Without good information management, information gets lost within the business, goes to the wrong recipients, and causes operational confusion.

Information management is related to knowledge management insofar as information and knowledge are approximate concepts, but they are often confused.

Knowledge is transmitted together with shared information. Guaranteeing the quality of information is therefore guaranteeing the quality of knowledge.

2. Corporate education

Education must be understood as a broader process than the simple and professional qualification of employees.

Training is essential to guarantee the level of quality and knowledge within the organization, but it goes further.

To guarantee good knowledge management, it is essential that the individual potential of the collaborators be exploited. All this must be done together with the growth of the company as a whole.

Professional diplomas and hours of training are good market indicators, but they are not enough to measure the level of knowledge and added value.

In general, corporate education is the result of knowledge management together with people management. When these two processes work together, the company’s long-term goals can be achieved more efficiently.

Education is designed to allow the continuity of the company over time, with continuous elevation of internal quality levels.

For this reason, the focus must be on the application of complete strategies that go beyond the mere training of collaborators. Even training must be rethought to allow real growth for all employees, with optimization for the mission and objectives of the company.

3. Corporate intelligence

Corporate intelligence is represented by the sum of all individual intelligences.

The intellectual potential within companies is immeasurable. Putting into practice strategies that aim to use this potential in favor of the business mission is always desirable.

In conceptual terms, corporate intelligence represents the integration between people, tools, practices and processes.

Having good, up-to-date tools, rich and well-structured processes is important. But so is knowing how to integrate all these aspects, generating what we call corporate intelligence.

It is about the level of compatibility between all areas of the company.

The intelligence of an organization can be measured based on the integration capacity between the most varied parts that compose it. Without this integration, without a correct exchange of information and knowledge, intelligence is lost.

4. Organizational knowledge management

To carry out organizational knowledge management, it is essential to implement various techniques and strategies.

Among them is the creation of clear and efficient communication channels, decentralization of the processes of idea formation, presentation of solutions and stimulation of individual improvement.

Within the organization there is infinite knowledge, a great creative mass and productive energy. These are very rich dimensions that can contribute to the growth of the company not only financially, but also personally.

5. Skills management

There are competencies that are useful for the business context. For each business model, different skills are required. How to manage these skills, to create a productive, rich and creative environment? The answer lies in the management of employees, focusing on the potential of each one of them.

All positive features should be encouraged, while small bugs should be ironed out. Knowledge management necessarily goes through the improvement of individual skills, so that they become global skills of the company itself.

This transformation of individual potential into added value is essential for the growth of the organization in the market. Competent professionals make competent companies.

6. Best practices

All internal practices of an institution can be improved and perfected over time.

Knowledge management shows us that the level of quality, in all sectors, does not have a maximum limit. On the contrary, it is possible to grow and improve more and more.

To carry out best business practices, monitoring, analysis of information and experiments are necessary.

In order for the changes to be embraced by all the collaborators – and not rejected, as happens in many companies – the practices must be analyzed with the help of all those involved.

Making the recipients of the changes feel part of the transformation process is critical to ensuring buy-in.

Whenever possible, managers should consult with their team, understand what practices need to be improved, and how to improve experiences and processes.

7. Talent management

Having good talent within the company is a great differential.

However, it often happens that talents exist, but are not known by managers, coaches and entrepreneurs.

The wasted potential is a serious risk for the growth of the organization, which despite having good professionals, fails to extract the best they have to offer.

To solve this problem, talent management is essential.

It is about the implementation of strategies that allow identifying existing talents within the company, promoting and exploiting each one of them. All based on the values ​​and mission of the company.

In addition, talent management allows developing skills that may be dormant, which contributes to increasing the level of organizational knowledge.

8. People development

Last but not least, the , one of the great knowledge management strategies for companies.

The employees of each company – and here we are talking about all of them, from technicians, to support, through administrative staff and general services – must receive continuous attention.

When the people who work in a company grow, the business also grows.

This is the logical result of good people management, which must be done in a complete and organic way. The human resources sector of the company is very important in this process.

The management of…