Posted by Ross Hall on March 04, 1998 at 13:41:50:

In Reply to: No Proof? posted by Geoff Hamilton on March 01, 1998 at 09:26:30:

Geoff,

Been on a cyberfast while in Tunisia, so apologies for my delay in response...

IMHO the reason this question hasn't been answered is because we don't currently know what knowledge is, nor have we done for 2,500 years+!!!

My personal view is you cannot measure the value of knowledge directly. However, you can measure the impact of knowledge on the environment it is used in. With my philosophy of "keep it simple" here's some of the key indicators I suggest to clients and have used on some projects....

Share price / Earnings ratio. Provides an independent aribitrator!!
Can also be measured in industry segments as a measure of relative performance.

Profit per employee.

Profit per new product / service.

Profit / Fixed Asset ratio ( lower the better! )

Staff Turnover ( lower the better )

I recommend doing a pre and post review ( as in pre KM practice being introduced and post... ) While not certain ( and please tell me what is in this life - death, taxes and change excluded!! ) they are good indicators of the improvement in performance and thus certain parts can be claimed to KM practice.

The other neat thing is profit can be substituted with what matters to the company, whether it's pure turnover, market share or whatever.

Staff turnover is neat too as it can be used to measure disatisfaction amongst key groups of employees. e.g. physical vs information vs knowledge workers.

Comments?

Ross ;-))

• The Future is Knowledge

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Follow Ups:

• Re: No Proof? Jay Reay 11:45:47 3/11/98 (3)
  • Re: No Proof? Ross Hall 14:38:22 3/11/98 (2)
    • Re: No Proof? Jay Reay 13:47:37 3/17/98 (1)
      • Re: No Proof? Ross Hall 04:41:38 3/21/98 (0)

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