Knowledge Management

Knowledge management .

Under the conditions of globalization of economies, development of the environment of information spread, knowledge management (KM) acquires ever more importance in business processes of enterprises. Existing classic marketing strategies now, unlike before, do not bring long-term competitive advantages. High rates of information spread, staff rotation at the labour markets bring to the situation when accompany, only yesterday outstanding among others by its remarkable competitive advantage, today becomes an equal among equals. And tomorrow, low profit norm in the occupied market segment makes it seek for the new points for business efforts application.

It becomes obvious that significant advantage is gained by the enterprises able to turn their intellectual resources into non-material assets, that is, the enterprises, possessing technology of generalization, accumulation and spread of the professional experience. Such enterprises economize on significant resources due to absence of need to Ð'«invent a bicycleÐ'», quicker, and thus, more successfully, introduce new employees in the course of business, in more efficient way use the work of teams in projects, through ensuring operative access to all the necessary information, to the experience of successful colleagues, gained in resolving analogous problems.

The technology of knowledge management proper is based upon two large whales:

вЂ" knowledge management as organizational function, regulating the order of movement, accumulation, navigation and use of inter-corporative information;

вЂ" the system of knowledge management technical basis, ensuring the processes of the organizational function.

The most prospective theoretical elaborations in the recent years are connected with the decisive importance of knowledge for development of organisations, whose activity increasingly depends on accumulation and analysis of information, staff training and innovations acquisition. Numerous studies of various scale of enterprises show that material assets only form visible, relatively small part of enterprises property, their market price.” For example, total market capitalization of 500 companies, whose indices are used for calculation the collective index Standard and Poor's 500, late in 2005 was estimated at US$4,6 trillion, though their material assets only weighted US$1,2 trillion. In the same period correlation between the balance cost of all the companies by which Dow Jones index is calculated made 5,3. With many high-technology companies it even exceeded 10”.

Ð'«IntangibleÐ'» property of the enterprises is intellectual assets able to bring and bringing real dividends to companies. These are patents and copyrights, knowledge and professional skills of employees, trade marks, clientele, network of reliable suppliers and partners, culture of innovations introduction, memory and databases, quality of operational processes, etc.

Under the conditions of accelerated change in technology and economy of production, competition, information technologies and methods of management it is necessary to have understanding of mechanisms of knowledge acquisition, use of intellectual, non-material assets. It is the staff knowledge and competence that lie in the basis of organizations development and allow finding solutions for technical, economic and administrative problems, both current and prospective. Knowledge management becomes an important instrument of an organization activity. Besides, administrative decisions are taken quicker and more justified; cooperation is strengthened with the help of self-regulating (Community of practice). "Successful training of an organization depends on presence of interconnected active communities in it, due to which the organization has knowledge and in general is of value as an organization ."

Knowledge about the consumer increases the level of success in relations with them, while the knowledge obtained jointly with the consumer open the way for innovations, new goods and services of higher quality introduction. Learning organizations become an active formula of constant changes management. This is the mentioned conditions that give new impetus to development of scientific research and technical elaborations, marketing and long-term strategy of companies forming.

Certainly, organizations in their work have always been based upon the knowledge what and how to do but have often taken it for granted. The economic significance of knowledge and their crucial role for corporate survival grow. Peter Druker introduced the term Ð'«worker by knowledgeÐ'» and characterized knowledge as Ð'«single sustainable competitive advantage Ð'».

Despite the fact that it is impossible to calculate precise monetary equivalent of knowledge cost in organisations, there are certain criteria of their economic significance measuring. The difference between the market price of a company and the cost of its material assets is one of the indices of non-material assets cost; most of those are organizational knowledge. Only 6 to 30% of the company price falls on the assets mentioned in traditional balance statements, the rest is non-material assets. Due to this 50% of industrial company’s investments fall on non-material spheres, such as scientific studies and elaborations, training, etc. Many major companies spend for salaries more than on other spending issues and pay certain employees much more than to the rest. What does the company gain through such high expenses? Professional experience and knowledge developing empiric rules, forming assumptions and guiding the search for models and meaningful solutions.

Knowledge management has two main tasks. The first вЂ" efficiency increase, use of knowledge for productivity growth through increase in performance or cutting of costs. The second вЂ" putting forward innovations, creation of new goods and services, new enterprises and business-processes. The first task has got the name Ð'«do correctlyÐ'» or Ð'«knowledge for useÐ'», the second вЂ" Ð'«invent yourselfÐ'» or Ð'«knowledge for researchÐ'».

The task Ð'«do correctlyÐ'» mostly stresses the fact that knowledge should be systematized and transferred. It stipulates creation of technological infrastructure for certain knowledge transfer. Here they take into account such processes and problems as development of methods of knowledge obtaining and grouping, provision of possibility and encouragement of knowledge exchange, work with other cultural and organizational factors which may affect