Intellectual Capital

Intellectual Capital is one of the hottest topics talked about in today's Knowledge Management field. In fact, FastCompany magazine proclaims it one of management's fastest growing trends. But just what does Knowledge Management mean? How can you and your company can capitalize on what your employees already know?

First, you need an appropriate environment, one in which people are free to dialogue and experiment. Second, employees must be supported by the appropriate technology. Tom Stewart, on page 114 of Intellectual Capital, suggests three areas that justify investing in the construction of knowledge databases. They are:

Corporate yellow pages that track where the knowledge within a company resides

A best practices system that captures lessons learned

Competitive intelligence

Check Out These Additional Resources

Be sure to read the forward of Thomas Stewart's book.

Assess how your company is managing its Intellectual Capital.

Touraj Nasseri suggests that Intellectual Capital is a company's most important strategic resource for competing and winning. He gives a practical definition and discusses some ways to apply it.

Balance sheets unfortunately do not account for Intellectual Capital. This Fortune article offers an excellent primer on the topic.

The Learning Organization Dialogue often covers topics related to Intellectual Capital. It's a great place to chat with experts on this subject.

What Is Knowledge Management?--Brint provides an excellent overview of Knowledge Management and contains an enormous repository of articles on the topic. Though slightly technical, it's a good introduction. Plus, it lists some excellent resources at the end.

"Keeping the Motor Humming with Data"--This PC Week article portrays one company's success with Knowledge Management.