Winning the Knowledge Game. Smarter Learning for Business Excellence

No discussion of measurement or evaluation should be undertaken without addressing the values of honesty and transparency. Without a desire to uncover unbiased and meaningful information and knowledge, it is very hard to achieve lasting success. However unpleasant the results may be at times, we need to uncover the facts to move forward.

Choosing to play it safe and not share vital insights can lead to unfortunate surprises such as unnecessary losses, a damaging downturn or a fall in know-how. This is particularly relevant to the process of business reporting and governance. To overcome the haunting prospects of business failure or destroying your reputation, evaluation of your know-how and performance requires a healthy combination of transparent recording and independent auditing.

To help you maintain a grip on how seriously you treat knowledge as part of your business, here are seven questions you may need to ponder:

• Does your business see better knowledge and innovation as part of its future?

• Does the business practice, encourage and reward people for sharing knowledge?

• Are your systems and processes helping people to collate and disseminate what is being learnt?

• Does the business protect intellectual property while also nurturing talent? How regularly do you learn from your mistakes, risks and successes? Is the knowledge being gained benefiting your customers, partners and society?

• What guarantees are there that both evaluation and business governance is transparent, open and truthful ?

Whether it is the honesty in financial recording, or the quality of evaluation, there is an increasing expectation that all businesses could perform better. Needless to say, the fall out from Enron and World.Com and HIH has added impetus to this cause in recent years . In this regard there have been many efforts across the world to help raise the standard of reporting and disclosure.

One such initiative is that of the Institute of Social and Ethical Account-Ability, at www.AccountAbility.org.uk. Here businesses are provided a series of frameworks (for example, AA1000 and AA2000) to help them improve their accounting, audits and reporting by being more socially and ethically responsive . In this regard a very high value is placed on accuracy and truthfulness.

For the record, the specific behaviours that are included in the draft AA2000 framework include:

• developing leading-edge practice in organizational learning and innovation

• creating effective methods for communicating results and progress

• implementing management systems that monitor and learn from business activity and the conversations with stakeholders such as employees , customers and the community

• achieving increased public trust, respect and co-operation through transparent reporting and assurance

• creating a governance process that helps to manage risk for optimal performance.

No doubt the benefit of implementing such action has a profound impact on how a business succeeds through knowledge, that is, with the utmost social responsibility, ethical behaviour and integrity. It also provides a catalyst for a cycle of innovation based on partnership with the stakeholders and the community at large, and increases the chances that what a business reports or claims can be believed.

Businesses that have incorporated this thinking into their evaluation include British Airways, CEMIG (Brazil, power generation), Ford Motor Company, IBM, KPMG, London International Festival of Theatre, Novo Group (Denmark, health care and industrial enzymes), Tesco and Verizon.