Knowledge Economy

Organisations are not doing enough to ensure Baby Boomers pass on their hard-won knowledge and experience to the next generation before heading off into retirement.

The fear may be all too real, but Western workers who assume their jobs are threatened by impossibly low-wage competition from India and the Far East are often simply wrong.

Britain is becoming a global leader of the "knowledge economy", a business world created, staffed and led by highly-educated, technologically-savvy managers.

With business increasingly knowledge-based and 24/7, creativity and communication will be the key skills for the future. Shame no one told the U.S. education system.

We all know that employers face a skills shortage as Baby Boomers leave the workforce. So why do so few organizations ensure that they can pass on the vital knowledge these employees possess?

While Germany may still be known for its cars and Japan its micro-electronics, a new report claims that Britain is building a global reputation on the back of the export of knowledge.

Watch out America. Within eight years London will be rivalling New York, Silicon Valley and Hollywood as the world's hub for, respectively, finance, internet-based start-ups and digital special effects.

Many managers are unable to get their jobs done properly because they find it easier to get hold of information about their competitors than they do information about their own organisations.

Even as we are all being asked to trust a growing army of companies and official bodies with sensitive personal details, a new survey has found that a third of senior executives wouldn't trust their own companies with sensitive data.

The majority of information workers admit to having made bad business decisions because of flawed or incomplete data, leading to lost productivity and increased on-the-job stress.

Britain needs a government minister for intellectual property if it truly wants to promote, protect and nurture enterprise, captains of industry have said.

A three-year, £1.5m research programme into the knowledge economy – believed to be the biggest of its kind in the world – is being launched by a leading UK think-tank.

Most organisations view knowledge acquired 'on the job' as belonging to the them rather than the individual – and certainly something that should be shared. But many employees don't see it that way.

A third of corporate deals are either abandoned or have to be re-negotiated because background checks throw up significant problems with one of the parties involved, a study has found.

The notion that organisations are full of shy managers simply bursting with money-spinning ideas if only they were asked is a myth, research has suggested.

Most knowledge management systems end up as archives of documents that are more or less ignored in real day-to-day practice. The good stuff is personal, social in nature. What we really need access to is not information – it's experience, expertise and assurance.

Most knowledge management systems end up as archives of documents that are more or less ignored in real day-to-day practice. The good stuff is personal, social in nature. What we really need access to is not information – it's experience, expertise and assurance.

Japanese firms have clearly grasped the key role older workers play in maintaining 'institutional knowledge' - something that a number of recent reports suggest is still evading employers in the US or Europe.

American companies risk an exodus of organisational knowledge and experience because they are failing to put in place formal employee development programmes to compensate for the retirement of millions of working Baby Boomers.

America's ageing workforce is threatening to trigger a damaging exodus of institutional knowledge as employers fail to capture critical knowledge and experience from employees approaching retirement or transfer it to newer staff.

As many as one in three UK workers claim they are kept in the dark and never consulted when a major change occurs in their organisation

If you want to spot tomorrow’s captains of industry you could do worse than heading down to your local school, a survey has suggested.

Lack of skills is set to be a continuing headache for employers in 2005, two separate surveys have suggested.

They may often seem trivial, irrelevant or downright silly, but ideas generated by staff can be worth hundreds and thousands of pounds, a study has suggested.