Chapter 1: What is a Knowledge- Driven Corporation?

The 21st century has ushered in the knowledge era of discontinuous context changes that are shaking our sense of corporate stability. At the multinational level, new opponents emerge in established markets, such as Lego, Mattel, and Hasbro, are now faced with competition such as Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts, and Merck, Norvartis, and Pfizer are now competing with biotechnology companies. Moreover, the increasing turbulence in mergers and acquisitions and workforce characteristics call for a new way to integrate diverse talent. Sensing these opportunities and threats Procter and Gamble committed to finding 50% of its new products from outside of the corporation. Clearly, knowledge has become the new driver of corporate action. Corporations that were “stars” yesterday may be “cash cows” today and “dogs” tomorrow. Questions now asked by top management teams are how to adapt to discontinuous changes and how to integrate needed new talent. We need more open designs to anticipate and more flexible organizational designs to help capitalize on the many new opportunities and avoid the new threats of creative destruction. Without a doubt, top management teams need outside assistance to remain competitive throughout this knowledge era. Being in the eye of the storm, NASA and others have established chief knowledge officers.