Development of Knowledge Management (3)

The other important signpost identified by Carl Frappaolo (2002) are:

• Peters and Waterman identified corporate best practices in 1982 (Their book In Search of Excellence:Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies).
• Paul Strassmann pioneered the concept of information and knowledge assets in 1985 (His book Information Payoff).
• Hammer and Champy introduce the corporate world to the idea of reengineering in 1992 (Their book Reengineering the Corporation).

"By the mid 1990s, fueled by an increasing published body of works on the subject, management began to recognize knowledge as the key differentiating factor for organizations. Differentiators such as 'quality' and 'customer satisfaction' and 'innovations' were slowly being recognized as tangible, critical assets of the organization. Innovation as quickly turning into the core competitive mandate" (Frappaolo, 2002).In the mid through late 1990s several breakthrough events emerged.

In Sweden, Karl-Erik Sveiby, as the owner of one of the country's largest publishing companies, he had a vested interest in any practical methodology or management theory that would improve organisational processes. It was during the 1980s that Sveiby first began to consider the importance of intangible assets. After testing the accounting procedures that he had pioneered in his own company, he went on to publish his findings in a book, The Invisible Balance Sheet (1989), which eventually led to his approach being adopted by firms across the country and ultimately being recommended as an industry standard by the Swedish Council of Service Industries, the first such standard in its field (Lelic, 2002, p.1).

In 1991, Leif Edvinsson was appointed as the first chief knowledge officer (CKO) in the world, at the Swedish-based insurance company Skandia. In 1994, Skandia became the first company in the world to publish a formal report on intellectual capital (lC), as a supplement to its annual report. Edvinsson emerged to become the world's leading expert on Intellectual Capital (IC). He demonstrated how assets such as intellectual capital, innovation and customer satisfaction could be included on a corporate balance sheet (Frappaolo, 2002).