Importance of Knowledge to a Growing BusinessImportance of Knowledge to a Growing Business
Every business has access to a pool of knowledge. It can be an understanding of the customer’s needs and the general business environment or experience and skills of staff. How a business shares, gathers and uses knowledge can be vital for it to thrive. This is not the case with the large multinational firms. The truth is that knowledge management can help a business grow at a high rate.
What is Knowledge in Business?
Utilizing knowledge in business does not necessarily involve thinking about new services and products, or coming up with ingenious ways of selling them. Instead, it is much more straightforward. Important and useful knowledge is already in your business. For instance, it can be found in the experience of your staff, designs of your goods, files of documents, and future plans. The primary challenge is how to harness knowledge productively and coherently.
Basics Sources of Knowledge
Customer Knowledge
As a business owner, you need to know the needs of your customers, what they want, and what they think about your business. You can develop mutually beneficial knowledge by talking to customers and discussing your products with them or services to ensure you meet their needs.
Supplier and Employee Relationships
It is advisable to seek opinions of the employees and suppliers. They can have their impressions on how they perform. In this case, you can use formal surveys to gather knowledge and informally ask for their opinions.
Market Knowledge
You need to keep watching what is happening in your industry. What are your competitors doing? How much do they charge? Are there new players in the market?
Business Environment
You should note that your business is likely to be affected by external factors. These are things you do not have control over. Some of the things include development in politics, technology, society, and the economy. The fact that these things will affect your business, you need to stay informed at all times.
Organizational Memory
It is vital to protect the experience and skills your business has built up over time. You should come up with formal ways of sharing knowledge among employees and how to do things. For instance, you may have to create procedural guidance based on the employees’ best practice.
Product Research and Development
Technical research and scientific data can be a great source of business knowledge. You can use the information to come up with new products or improve the existing ones.…