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Knowledge sharing + Networking = Product innovation (x 2… x 3… ∞). Fernando Salvetti It’s a formula which may appear complex but is actually easy to read and able to be applied to practically every industry: sharing knowledge and networking allows us to significantly increase levels of product innovation. Product innovation is indispensible for a company’s good health in both the long and short run, especially for those organizations dealing with international markets. And I am not just referring to “traditional brands” such as Xerox, 3M, Levi Strauss, HP and Häagen Dazs... but rather to the greater part of the corporations active in today’s global & local world. However, innovation is difficult: about 80% of new products fail after their introduction on the market and another 10% disappears completely within five years’ time. Nowadays in order to do business, many companies are learning how to develop new products and services more quickly than ever. But how? Ensuring that employees work together at the same time, simultaneously progressing towards a determined finished project rather than in time intervals. Companies within knowledge societies at the peak of their efficiency operate according to network models. Such organizations are able to anticipate change and new needs from the external environment with great amounts of creativity and flexibility. Our economy is by and large made up of the immaterial: it is focused on knowledge and information. Between organizational models we find instances which remind us of collages, patchworks and networks which reduce workplace hierarchy and work as forms of coordination and monitoring and help to instill a decentralized integration. As such, the network becomes the principal organizational driver. The probability for success in developing a new project is directly linked to an organization’s capabilities in efficiently carrying out activities regarding research,
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storage, distribution and use of products (above all through exchanges of information, or rather, knowledge sharing). Unfortunately, we know all too well that knowledge management technologies are not enough on their own. The most crucial element for full use of workplace knowledge and capabilities is an organizational culture aimed at supporting the sharing of competencies and ideas. In other words, learning to share! For example, in the past few years many companies have introduced rather significant campaigns and activities for sensibility training amongst their own ranks. Such projects make expert use of slogans like “knowledge is power only when it’s shared” (Nokia), while Texas Instruments gave birth to the corporate motto “I didn’t invent it, but I made it anyway” to encourage people to work together using their common knowledge. A knowledge based organization is a space (perhaps physical but most certainly cultural) where people‐ through networking and knowledge sharing‐ activate circles of experience in which all shared knowledge on an organizational level becomes the starting block for new applications and products. A knowledge driven working organization is considered a cognitive and social dimension characterized by processes of constant evolution. In such an organization, “knowing” does not mean “recognizing,” that is, it is less geared towards learning facts and knowledge “outside oneself” but rather towards experiencing different ways of worldmaking which can allow for the creation of not just new products, but also novel ways of thinking and acting.