Transforming Knowledge

1
Transforming Knowledge

• Dominique Foray, Chair
• Transforming Enterprise
• Department of Commerce
• Washington DC
• January 27th and 28th, 2003

2
The international knowledge management survey - A
project initiated by OECD/CERI and Statistics
Canada

• Three objectives 
• to build systematic data bases on KM practices
• to use the unique opportunity of  official 
  surveys at national level to link data on the
  diffusion of KM practices with economic data
  (innovation, productivity)
• indirect effect  to contribute to the
  stabilisation of meanings and standardisation of
  terminology of KM strategies
• Countries involved  Australia, Canada, Denmark,
  France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands,
  Sweden
• First results are now available (OECD/StatCan,
  2003, forthcoming)

3

• Main findings 
• i) KM practices diffuse massively across the
  economy, like technology diffusion
• ii) Clusters of practices (codification versus
  personalisation) are clearly identified
• iii) Knowledge management matters for innovation
  and productivity performances (Kremp and
  Mairesse, French Survey)

4

• Whatever a company s size, industry or RD
  efforts, firms innovate more extensively and file
  more patents if they set up knowledge management
  policies
• Knowledge management also has a positive effect
  on labour productivity. For instance and all
  things being equal, value added per employee was
  higher by roughly 6 in companies that adopted at
  least one knowledge management policy compared to
  the companies that did not adopt any.

5

• Andrew Carnegie wrote in the late 1890s how the
  first RD engineer he hired greatly contributed
  to the improvement of productivity and
  innovation. He said
•  What fools we had been not to have hired this
  person earlier ! But then there was this
  consolation  we were not as great fools as our
  competitors..years after we had taken chemistry
  to guide us, they said they could not afford to
  employ a chemist. Had they known the truth then,
  they would have known they could not afford to be
  without one. 
• Should CEO say the same thing today about
  knowledge officer  What fools we had been
• Should he say  I cannot afford to employ one KM
  officeror..I cannot afford to be without one