Proponents of e-knowledge need to be hard-nosed, focusing on solid VOI and ROI. During economic downturns, e-knowledge can provide efficiencies, cost containment, and operational excellence that are highly useful in a tactical way.

Moreover, truly strategic initiatives can result from understanding how e-knowledge is key to co-creation of customer products, services, and experiences and other the vectors of competitive advantage. During a downturn, such initiatives can be used to position the enterprise to capture market share both during the downturn and when the economy improves.

Simultaneous Parallel Processes of Action and Reflection. Achieving success in the e-knowledge future requires an understanding of multifaceted change. Think of parallel actions operating on a range of fronts driving cascading cycles of reinvention, measurement and reflection. Crafting enterprise vision, mission, and knowledge strategy is intertwined with storytelling, conversation, and environmental scanning. This in turn is supported by the continuous development of infrastructures, applications, and enterprise-wide solutions in compliance with emergent standards. Such a knowledge strategy drives enterprise initiatives and business plans, guided by pilot projects and initiatives that change how knowledge is used in the co-creation of experiences and the forging of new relationships. A new round of refinement begins with storytelling about concrete examples, measurement of results, and forging of new relationships, which all the while enhance and reshape the capabilities of individuals and organizations in an atmosphere of confidence and trust. This ongoing process of transforming e-knowledge engenders wider communities of reflective practice. Such communities become the stewards of the processes, applications and tradecraft necessary for success in tomorrow’s Knowledge Economy.

Building the Reflective 21st Century Enterprise. This brings us full circle. Back to our core assumption that e-knowledge will usher in a new era of success and competitive advantage for those individuals and enterprises that learn how to enhance their knowledge sharing capacity by an order of magnitude. This is not wishful thinking, nor does it require Star Wars technology. Leading-edge enterprises and new innovators are already setting new benchmarks for leveraging knowledge. The signs are in plain view. Every enterprise aspiring to succeed in the 21st century global economy must make certain that it becomes both a reflective practitioner and an ardent student of e-knowledge.

Companies spent the 20th century creating and managing efficiencies. They must spend the 21st century creating and managing experiences.

C.K. Prahalad and V. Ramaswamy, 2002