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Mapping the WorldXenia Stanford, Editor-in-Chief, KnowMap and President, Stanford Solutions Inc.* WinnersWe are fortunate to be growing in both size and quality as we bring you articles from writers in many parts of the world. In this new issue alone we present articles by contributors from the United States, Canada, Italy, Malaysia and Australia. In spite of the demise of another knowledge management magazine, we are both fortunate and dedicated to being part of your success. As our Global View Director, Debra M. Amidon, says: "It is not enough to satisfy customers, we must contribute to their success." So our mandate is not just to satisfy you or even stop at delight - we are traveling forward in our mission to give you tools, case studies and strategies to increase your success. Your success is our success and as such we all are winners.
You will win through reading articles, reviews, news releases and other contents of this issue and learning from the failures and successes of others as they tread the world of knowledge management, auditing and mapping. Since there are a record 15 articles in this issue we are breaking with the pattern of past editorials and overviews where we linked to the articles as we discussed them. Instead this time you will find the listing of titles, authors and links for this issue at the end of this editorial under the heading Table of Contents for Vol. 2, No. 2. There we will also tell you how you can use KnowMap to reduce conference fees, take advantage of other products and services and obtain free subscription issues. We will give you every opportunity to win in the KM (knowledge management) stakes and we will joyfully celebrate with you. More details on how will be found under the Table of Contents. Spheres of InfluenceWhen we invited you in Vol. 1, No. 1 of KnowMap: the Knowledge Management, Auditing and Mapping Magazine we did not expect we would take you on such a whirlwind tour and already cover so many parts of the world in Volume 2. Thus it is with excitement and enthusiasm we welcome you to yet another issue packed with wisdom from knowledge experts and which will be read in over 60 countries. We had just reported last issue that we had over 40 countries represented on our map. In that short time we saw a dramatic increase in readers and the countries they represented. We decided the best way to handle this was to develop a larger map of the world and update it as we journey into every continent and many island nations covering many countries as we travel.
To view the realms we currently cover, see Figure 2: Map of KnowMap Subscribers Though we have been in contact with scientists from Antarctica we do not have a contact person so this continent is not shown on our map. In addition to those represented, our spheres include an international body and a pan-African organization, both of which are difficult to chart on a map. Besides the global coverage of countries we continue to attract readers from many different industries and professions. Daily, people from large corporations, medium size businesses, small businesses, academic institutions, government and non-profit organizations sign up to read KnowMap. We count such organizations as defence bodies, intelligence agencies, law firms, consulting firms, manufacturing, food chains and a large variety of others. Top-level executives, knowledge workers, students, professors, government ministers, ambassadors, sultans and even a princess are interested in our magazine. Thus we are delighted to be bringing all of you another issue packed with knowledge from experts in many different countries and from a variety of perspectives. Our topics this time focus on social capital and competitive intelligence. Winning Is No CoincidenceOne way we have already won is that our Global View Director, Debra M. Amidon, and her E100 network, to which several of our contributors and I belong, have been selected as a finalist in the Competia top award category CI (Competitive Intelligence) Champion of the Year. You can read more about this award, the E100 and Amidon in a current news release and article #13, a case study, in this issue of KnowMap. Also look for the link under Works Cited to the Global Knowledge Leadership Map showing the members of this special network. The timing of our focus topics happens to coincide with this selection of this social capital network as a finalist for the Competitive Intelligence Champion of the Year Award. Coincide yes! Coincidence no! For it is from social capital that we become capable of knowledge innovation and it is from innovation that we become competitively intelligent. It is this agility gained from collaboration and strategic alliances that forms the key to our success. Social Capital and InnovationIt is not knowledge management alone that will keep us competitive. It is not following best practices that will lead us to success. It is from knowledge innovation and new better practices that we can springboard into the next generation of renewed and sustained competitive advantage. Amidon quotes Peter Drucker as saying "innovation is the one competence needed in the future," and she adds: "we know from recent surveys that innovation is the number one benefit most important to the future success of the organization… [We] must make this process explicit and discover ways to manage the process systematically." (Amidon, 1999) She shows us the steps to make explicit and manage our knowledge for success in Figure 3 as outlined in her book Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy: The Ken Awakening and on her website as Knowledge Innovation® Assessment or Kenovation®.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that Amidon is leading her E100 network from social capital through collaboration and innovation to competitive intelligence success. Further it is no coincidence that others are picking up the language and concepts of Amidon, a pioneer in knowledge innovation. Leadership LeverageAs our Global View Director and as the Global Chief Knowledge Officer of the E100, Amidon brings us many writers such as Malaysian Lau Chin Hoon (surname Lau) who has written a series of articles for us. Part I (see article 6) is published in this issue and two other parts will follow in the future. Lau enlightens us on the challenges and lessons learned in his experience with a virtual social network called the Internet Biologists. Amidon also introduced us to Piero Formica of Italy, who challenges government agencies to stop constraining cluster economies. Read article 5 about the Bologna experience and see if you can learn from their mistakes. Or perhaps you have found a successful way to ensure cluster networks function more collaboratively with their government partners. Write and tell us about it so we can offer possible solutions to those whose alliances may suffer from negative economic results. The eight Golden Rules of alliances may help Formica and others in ensuring better collaborative advantage. Larraine Segil, dubbed "the real Internet deal" and another connection from Amidon, offers us these tips in article 3. She has promised to contribute articles in future issues of KnowMap. This is one way in which we offer you collaborative advantage. Our online magazine is far from a marketing ezine as we offer the voices, words of wisdom, points of view, experiences and expertise from many rather than one company or only a few. Newly added to the Global Knowledge Leadership Map, John Hibbs, the innovator of Global Learn Day and the Socrates Academy, in article 15, shows how to connect the dots and win through learning as he announces the academy awards of education and the Olympics of the mind. Accepting the ChallengeOur theme for this issue began with the submission of Laurence Lock Lee of Australia in response to our mapping challenge. He takes us through the process and some of the lessons learned in the two part case study of the BHP Maintenance Engineers social network mapping and analysis. (See articles 11 and 12). Barbara Weaver Smith answered the challenge offered by Denham Grey regarding whether archiving is an activity in separating knowledge from information. See article 2 and submit your own comments after you have read hers. George H. Stevens and Scott M. Krasner also accepted our challenge to contribute their expertise to our readers. The first two parts of their three part series on KM as the bedrock of enterprise strategy are found as articles 7 and 8 in our table of contents list. Collaborative AdvantageA past attendee at one of my workshops, Darwin Nickel said I inspired him. Later I had an opportunity to attend one of his sessions and the tables were turned. He had been a wise student and combined some of my lessons with his own expertise on turning information into competitive intelligence and produced an inspiring workshop of his own. He further spun this workshop into a three-part article series starting with Part I and II (articles 9 and 10) in this issue. So once again we can offer you collaborative advantage through a strategic alliance. I urge you to watch for and sign up to his sessions as part of the EMR Competitive Intelligence workshops. Or ask them to bring one to your area. These are the type of quality advertisers we talk about on our home page. Competitive AdvantageWe only select advertisers and sponsors whom we believe can assist you in achieving business success through their products and services. If we err we want to hear from you. We wish to be aware of those who may offer services that can be detrimental to your business and yourself personally. This is the reason we gladly accepted a challenge to write an article for I3 Update (see Stanford in Works Cited) called "Organizational Mapping: Knowing the Pitfalls". Again our alliance with Debra M. Amidon and David Skyrme through I3 Update and other joint endeavours are used to offer you the benefit of our experiences and expertise to ensure you can use it to your competitive advantage. Always responsive to our customer needs when a library manager asked us "what is the role of a knowledge integrator?" we answered immediately and now offer more depth in an article on this topic. (See article 4.) More and more librarians and other information professionals are offering competitive advantage to their organizations and clients as stated by Peter Drucker in an interview with Special Libraries Association (SLA). He says it is not libraries (that is the buildings) and not the Internet but librarians to whom he will go first when he has a client in a new field about which he knows nothing. It is the librarian, who can tell him what he needs to read and know to understand his client's business. "Not once have I been let down", concludes Drucker, the keynote speaker at the SLA Conference in Los Angeles in June 2002. The theme for their conference this year is Leadership, Partnership, Membership: Expanding Global Knowledge Frontiers, which fits the theme for this April 18th International Special Librarians Day: Leadership, Partnership and Membership. Read more about Drucker's views and this association's conference and special day celebration in article 14 by Pauline Harris. Harris, a librarian and the editor of Knowledge Practice Ezine, brings us this competitive advantage through collaboration with Association of Knowledge Work (AOK) and its director Jerry Ash. Another magazine with whom we are cooperating is KM Magazine from the Ark Group in the United Kingdom. Their New York conference this June is one in which through collaboration we can offer you discounts and free subscriptions to KnowMap. We also offer the same deal if you sign up through us for the KM Conference in Sydney, Australia in August. See links under Other Ways to Win following the list of articles below. It is not through the demise of competitors that we become strong. No one can carry the burden of meeting the entire globe's needs in knowledge management. It is only through strategic alliances, collaboration, social capital, intelligence and innovative strategies that keep us all in business. This is the true competitive advantage - working with your competitors and customers to create alliances, build social capital and lead with innovation thereby ensuring all survive and thrive on this small island in the vast universe.
Table of Contents for Vol. 2, No. 2
Also see latest News Release Debra M. Amidon Finalist for Competia Top Award - CI Champion of the Year Other Ways to Win!Save on Conferences and Subscriptions
See other Events as we bring you the most comprehensive listing of KM courses, conferences and seminars we can find. Win free KnowMap subscription issues by responding to one of our Challenges. Other free articles and services can be accessed at Open Articles Works CitedAmidon, Debra M. Global Knowledge Leadership Map. Last updated March 21, 2002 www.entovation.com/kleadmap/index.htm Amidon, Debra M. Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy: The Ken Awakening. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997. (See Review) Amidon, Debra M. Knowledge Innovation® Assessment: Ten Steps to Success. Last updated December 20, 1999. www.entovation.com/services/tensteps.htm Segil, Larraine. Fast Alliances - Power your E-business (See Review) Stanford, Xenia. "Organizational Mapping: Knowing the Pitfalls" in I3 UPDATE / ENTOVATION International News, Issue No. 59. March 2002. Check archives and sign up for free subscription to this newsletter at http://www.skyrme.com/updates/archive.htm
Read more about Xenia Stanford and members of the KnowMap Board. See also the biographies of our Contributors.
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