Let’s Talk Knowledge

I’ve been reading a lot of the conversations around the fate of the newspaper industry, and content in general. Of course many of them are centered on the fact that “content wants to be free”. I really don’t want to jump in the center of this debate (right now anyway), but I do want to talk about how this is relevant to those of us that do business research, or rely on information from external sources to make decisions.

The most important point to remember, as my father so often told me, there is no such thing as a free lunch. A post by Stan Schroeder on the Mashable blog actually got me thinking about this. Stan stated that Cost is not just price, but also the time to pay (and gave a great analogy about free donuts that made me go to Dunkin’ donuts). I think there is a third part of that equation, and that is the risk associated with the content.

Cost = Price + Time to Pay + Risk

So let me explain the equation. I think Price is obvious, how much direct out of pocket money is associated with the content. Time to Pay – how long does it take you to find and or access the content? Risk – how reliable and or accurate is the content.

First let me say I know people using information for business purposes care about this equation much more than those using information for general current awareness. For example, even if it takes me an hour to find out the latest Big Brother news, and it may not be accurate when I find it – I’m still not willing to pay for it. I essentially have nothing to lose (well, accept for any credibility I may have had by just admitting I watch Big Brother).

The attitude changes as soon as there is a potential for me to recognize a profit or loss from the use of that information. For example as a product manager, if I can quickly find high quality information on a market opportunity for a new product, I would gladly pay for it. First, I don’t have a lot of time to surf the vast sea of free content out there, find what is relevant, and put it into context. Second, I don’t want to use information that may be incorrect or even false, there is just too much risk associated with this decision.

I know many people today that are using and buying content for organizations are struggling with the justification of paying for content. End users have been inundated with the fact that content is free and ubiquitous, and that can be difficult to challenge. I’m hoping the above equation can help. I think in addition, knowing where and when the equation is relevant in your organization is important.

As I’ve mentioned before, it is important to align your Information Management purchases to strategic corporate initiatives, or high risk business functions (like supply chain management). When applying the equation to these types of initiatives it is very easy to see that the cost of paid-for content and tools is far less than the cost of free content.

Well, I’m off to get my “free” lunch. Of course I’m going I had to get up at 4:30 am, pay for a train ticket, and travel to and from New York City to get it, so maybe it wasn’t so free after all.

- Ken

Today my colleague Brigitte Ricou-Bellan published an e-book on the Return on Intelligence, and I wanted to follow up that wonderful piece with a post. The topic of the piece couldn’t be more timely – how to justify the investment in knowledge and information management solutions. Today more than ever as organizations are cutting costs, these kind of solutions come under scrutiny. Many times they are viewed as a nice to have, but not a necessity. The e-book tackles two different means to help prove value.

First there is the case study from Accenture on determining a tangible ROI. In Accenture’s case, time-savings was used to show a $25-1 return on investment in knowledge management solutions. In the e-book they also discuss some of the other factors that could have been used, such as increased sales, increased quality, decreased costs, etc. 

Determining a tangible ROI is of course invaluable, but something that can often be time-consuming and difficult to do however. I believe the real opportunity is to begin to change the perception around information management solutions. The fact of the matter is that when deployed and managed effectively these solutions can provide distinct competitive advantage, customer intamicy, and operational efficiencies. All of which are critical in any economic climate, but essential a down economy. 

But how do we change the perception of solutions like Factiva from Dow Jones? Take a moment to think about some of the strategic initiatives in your organization. Is there one to manage risk in your supply chain? Perhaps one to reduce the cost of sales? Maybe to grow presence in an emerging market? Projects and objectives like these often have a return on investment associated with them and are perceived to be mission critical. Fortunately, initiatives like these are fueled by information from both inside and outside the enterprise firewall. Having access to reliable and timely information can be the difference between a good decision and a bad one. 

Think about the different conversations you can have with your constituents that use your IM or KM solutions. Don’t talk about the number of employees that receive “News Alerts”. Instead discuss the benefit of a “Daily Supply Chain Risk Dashboard”, and how it is a key factor in the success of your companies Supply Chain initiatives. Both come from the same tool, but are perceived completely differently.

So what initiatives in your organization can be improved by the availability of reliable, accurate, and timely information? What projects will be made better by a tool that enables knowledge curation of all manner of information, and social intelligence? More importantly perhaps, which ones already are?

So instead of spending time justifying the investments you have made, take some time to understand the importance of those investments to your organizations strategic goals. Find use cases of IM solutions doing so today in your company. Evangalise how a down economy is when you need to invest more than ever in creating competitive advantage, customer intamicy, and operational efficiency. Convince your company about the value of the Return on Intelligence. Intelligence that you, your team, and your solutions are delivering to your constituents.

For the many reading this who have done so, I encourage you to share your stories here and take the poll in the sidebar! Remember, this blog isn’t a one way communication vehicle for me, it is a community for transforming information into intelligence. Kudos to Brigitte and the DJ team for giving us a such a great topic to discuss.

- Ken