KM SURVEY 2010 - Sample of answers to the question:

If you have a definition of knowledge management - what is it?

KM is a strutural business approach that are embedded to business process and aligned to
business direction in order to achieve the tranfer of knowledge and experiences from
people to people either directly or via the use of technology that will encourage people to
1 learn from the past to avoid repeated mistake or repeat the suceess.
Getting the right information to the right people at the right time - and ensuring that they
2 know what to do with it?
3 Creation of a knowledge culture intent on innovation and driven by passion
One of my favourite definitions is“Knowledge management starts with business objectives,
and a recognition of the need to share information, and is nothing more than getting the
4 right information to the right people, at the right time.
It is not an IT Programme”. - Bill Gates.
The collective processes & technologies that help people at all organizational levels create,
capture, store, organize, protect, share & use the right knowledge, at the right time by the
right persons to innovate new knowledge, create more value, achieve strategic business
5 objectives & measurably improve performance
Making structured and unstructured information available for those who need it.
Understanding what "needs that information" means. Filling in the important parts of a
6 patchwork. Understanding what "important" means.

No, getting a shared understanding of what KM is (and isn't) without alienating anyone is a
7 mini-project in itself. Unfortunately the term 'km' has baggage, it's time for a re-brand!
8 KM is
> systematically introducing rigour along all the steps of the Knowledge Lifecycle
> and install at Group scale a collaboration culture rewarding collective endeavours and
best practice sharing
‘the process through which organisations generate value from their intellectual and
9 knowledge-based assets’.
Strategic approach and systematic process to capture, create, use, reuse and share
10 knowledge across the enterprise to improve individual and organization performance.
11 Systematic approaches to enhance information and knowledge flows:
- To the right people
- At the right time
So they can draw on our collective knowledge, to innovate, influence and perform more
effectively and efficiently.
12 Preservation of institutional memory
Knowledge Management is about how we communicate, interact, share, & re-use our
intellectual property, and that of our colleagues, in order to deliver excellence to our
13 customers, and to ourselves through accelerated learning.
The aggregation of corporate information, culture, and philosophy into a format that is
14 readily accessible.
Enabling better functioning of the organisation through enhanced knolwedge retention and
15 exchange.
16 Knowing what we know and using it to best effect to achieve strategic objectives.

“Knowledge Management is a business philosophy. It is an emerging set of principles,

processes, organisational structures, and technology applications that help people share
17 and leverage their knowledge to meet their business objectives.” David Gurteen
Taking the implicit and making it explicit. Taking the explicit and trying to codify and share it
18 formally with others.
 “Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to
identify,create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such
insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded
19 in organisational processes or practice.”
20 connecting people to the knowledge they need to do their jobs

System or framework (best) for managing the organisational processes that create, store
21 and distribute knowledge. This is defined by the collective data information type e.t.c.

A system for generating, storing and retrieving information and resources used by the firm
22 to generate revenue and to administer client and back-office components of the business.
Managing the Knowledge resources within your company to connect people, share
23 experience, and optomise information repositories.
24 knowledge at your fingertips!
25 Not important.
The process of systematically and actively managing and leveraging the stores of
knowledge in an organisation is called knowledge management. It is the process of
26 transforming information and intellectual assets into enduring value.
KM provides an organisation with the opportunity to use its knowledge and information
27 resources to greatest effect to carry out high quality work.
28 Removing the dependence upon individuals.
The ability to share information across the company and thereby perpetuate the corporate
29 memory.
My definition is the efficient collection and dissemination of information across the
30 organisation and between the organisation and its customers.
KM is the process and enabling technologies to allow someone who has been with the
company for 6 months to have access to the same knowledge as someone who has been
there 6 years. This is done by capturing tacit knowledge, making it explicit and everyone
31 knowing how they can access this tacit knowledge immediately.

"KM is a trans-disciplinary approach to improving organisational outcomes and learning

trhought maximising the use of knowledge. It involves tge design, implmentation and reveiw
of social and technological activities and processes to improve the creating, sahring and
applying or using of knowledge.KM is about connecting people with people and connecting
people with knowledge, through the use of the most appropriate processes, media and
technologies, Its purpose is to create an environment where it is the habit to routinely
capture, hsare and use information in support of all clinical, clinical support and corporate
32 activitiesso that is becomes part of our daily work"
applying the Australian Standards definition with a key focus on: People, Process, Content
33 and Technology
sharing and re-using knowledge, information and experiences to improve our individual,
34 team and organisational performance
Storing accumulated knowledge and experience in a way that is efficiently accessible by
35 other staff.
Organisation, sharing and easy retrieval of useful information and 'how-to' in a way that is
practical, concise and practical in order to be more productive, efficient and effective at
36 work.
I view knowledge management akin to know how. The stuff in peoples heads which allows
37 them to get things done. Unlike information it cannot be digitised.
Application of formalised information with experiental learning to initiate an action leading to
38 a result.
KM is a sustainable behavioral change embracing good practices, capitalizing existing
resources to creatively achieve an optimum business result that lead to escalated profit or
39 gain with reduction cost impact
 Knowledge management is a conscious strategy for moving the right knowledge to the right
people at the right time to assist sharing and enabling the information to be translated into
40 action to improve the organizational performance
41 Leveraging individiual knowledge to improve organisational performance
Knowledge Management is about sharing and re-using knowledge, information and
42 experiences to improve our individual, team and organisational performance.
Knowledge Management involves:
Identifying and sharing the knowledge we have;
Applying knowledge, ideas and experiences;
Having systems in place to ensure new knowledge is shared immediately with all areas of
the organisation who could use it to improve their performance;
Capturing new knowledge as we continue to learn; and
Organising, storing and making information available for others to re-use.
KM is a systematic process by which organisation deploys knowledge to support knowlege
43 work and workers.
A single repository for the storage of policy, procedures and job role infomration that will
assist employees perform their job in lne with customer requirements and business
44 outcomes.
45 We don't have one.
The way to share important knowledge unique to a company that comes from both internal
46 and external sources.
47 KM is an integrated process to convert informations into applied knowledge.
KM is the systematic capture of information on all business data and processes that aids
48 the development of business strategy within a business.

A sharing of knowledge that takes maximum advantage of what any single person in the
49 organisation has learned not from published material but from personal experience.
50 KM yet to be defined from an organisational perspective
To systematically managed the knowledge within the organization so that all individual
51 knowledge becomes the organizational knowledge
A managerial routine practice that enable knowledge sharing and new knowledge creation,
52 aim to support the organizational vision and business objectives and values

Knowledge Management is a field of endeavour targeted at developing the intellectual

capability of members of an organisation via human network design, learning programs and
53 the implementation, development an maintenance of supportive information systems.
KM is a conscious, systematic, and continuous organisation and leadership process,
through which all knowledge carriers accessible in principle for the organisation as well as
the organisa-tion‘s underlying knowledge processes are influenced in a direct and indirect
way by means of approriate actions - for the benefit of all parties concerned (!). (c)
54 jaegerWM
Knowledge Managment is a helpful tool with markable information about our business and
other business. It is very useful and maximize our own resources to bring a prompt and
55 effective service, for internal and external customers
56 We have three definitions, one for execs, practitioners and K Workers
Knowledge Management is a business improvement tool that provides a coherent
57 framework for the integrated development and application of capability in
• business strategy and planning,
• records and information management,
• business systems and procedures,
• performance management and reporting,
• learning and personal development
• organisational development, and
• inter-personal communications.
 It is one of three resources (ie people, money, know-how) used to create goods and
services, and social and economic benefits.
we don't use "knowledge management" per se rather we talk about knowledge as a
58 business component - on cultural and political grounds in order to gain traction
Using the ideas, intelligence, knowledge and experience of employees, customers and
59 suppliers to improve an organisation’s performance

The purpose of knowledge management is to provide support for improved decision making
and innovation throughout the organization. This is achieved through the effective
management of human intuition and experience augmented by the provision of information,
60 processes and technology together with training and mentoring programmes.
The following guiding principles will be applied:
• All projects will be clearly linked to operational and strategic goals
• As far as possible the approach adopted will be to stimulate local activity rather than
impose central solutions
• Co-ordination and distribution of learning will focus on allowing adaptation of good practice
to the local context
• Management of the KM function will be based on a small centralized core, with a wider
distributed network

(thanks to David Snowden)

Creation of knowledge repository, sharing and leveraging it for business innovation and
61 customer delightment
62 Capturing what is on your mind, to something on paper.

KM is about using the organisation's knowledge assets (people, customer relationships,

63 methodologies and approaches) effectively to improve business performance.
64 KM is 80% cultural and people and 20% technology!
processes and tools that enable information sharing and collaboration between people for
65 collective benefit and continuos improvement.
66 Leveraging knowledge internally and externally to achieve our mission.
I like Nick Milton's definition: what KM is about is creating a system, a managed system that
routinely and systemically ensures that people have the knowledge they need, in any
67 circumstance, to make the correct decision.
68 Managing the intellectual capital and assets of the company.
We have been framing our approach as knowledge sharing, to allow everyone to feel
empowered to share their knowledge, and that by doing so we can all work more effectively
by finding what we need, when we need it. Management is the discipline, sharing is the
action, and the word management has negative connotations to it (this is just my opinion of
69 the reception we've had since embarking on this new initiative)
The harnessing, reuse and immediate availability of the collective knowledge of the
70 organisation.
Doing that which will ensure that an organisation maximises on employee's knowledge and
expertise so as to enhance and continue to improve on the ovaral performance of the
71 organisation
72 KM = good information management + [collaboration and learning]
The process of capturing and making easily available the collective expertise and
intelligence in an organisation, to aid decsision-making and foster innovation. Turning
73 knowledge into value.
74 Right information at the Right time to the Right people in the Right format...
Providing the necessary support and means to ensure anyone can access correct
75 knowledge at the right time.
76 Empowering people through improving knowledge capability
 KM is the set of activities that are carried out to enhance the quality and quantity of the
services we deliver to our clients; and enhance the intrinsic value of our professional and
77 non-professional staff that makes them more valuable/employable.
the practice of sharing information, experiences and expertise office-wide in an effective
way (i.e. which allows participation to be straightforward and not difficult), with the shared
78 benefit of a successful outcome for the organisation.
A system of harnessing learnings gained from previous initiatives/work/projects to be
79 leveraged for generating insights and ideas for new challenges.
Strategies to document systems, processes and knowledge of organisation and the
80 individuals therein.
81 The sharing and collating of intellectual knowledge for the benefit of the company.
As a tech, knowledge management for me is ensuring that we capture of success and
losses (could be from post engagement feedback, surveys, wiki comments, etc); learning
from them and ensuring that the practices that benifit the organisation are documented and
freely available e.g. Taking Tacit knowledge, and bedding it down into a tangiable process
82 or procedure.
What is important (knowledge) is retained and aslo shared with the right people at the right
83 time
84 We have The Information Management Policy, but not a specific KM
85 The term "knowledge management" is not defined within our organisation.
86 Everything we do to make knowledge available to the business
Facilitating and fostering the exchange of information between those that have it and those
that need it - whether or not either party is aware of the knowledge gap and the knowledge
87 available to fill the gap.

88 Ensuring people have the right information at the right time to be able to do their job well.
89 Identify and recording tacit, implicit knowledge and making it explicit
90 central place to hold and access organisation information
91 know how that managed to build organizational capability to achieve our vision
92 data to information to knowledge
93 The collecting, desemination and archiving of organizational information.
A range of strategies used to identify, record and distribute either individuals experiences or
94 organizational processes or practice.
95 enabling the sharing of knowledge throughout the organisation
Making the link between optimising resources; people and materials as a means to facilitate
96 stated and required organisational goals.
The maximisation of the capacity to act. (recognising Karl-Eric Sveiby for the 'capacity to
97 act' definition of Knowledge)
An MIS system that can store and retrieve knowledge, information, and data for authorized
98 staff.
Bringing value to the stake holders therefore to the organization by focussing on
effectiveness and building capabilities. The value to be generated from internal intellectual
99 assests.
moving from data to information to knowledge and all the associated cultural and change
100 issues etc to enable this to occur
The practice of nurturing, collecting, managing, sharing, and updating the knowledge
resources of an organisation thru e-repositories to encourage exchange of knowledge; to
101 capture the organisational klnowledge and not lost with staff leaving.
102 Connecting people to the right people and connecting people to the right information
103 Collection, control and utilisation of information vital to the business!
Embedded structures and methods within an organisation that ensure that knowledge is
104 captured, shared, retained and discoverable
105 Using information to gain an understanding.
106 Managing knowledge transfer process beetwwen employees and then company
 Knowledge management is management of knowledge within an organisation such that
skills, competencies and know-how are made available for effective use and manipulation
107 to support organisational activities and business purpose.
Knowledge Management is about understanding the Value generating (or Destroying)
108 interactions and ensuring we strengthen behaviours to enhance those moments.
Providing, via fromal management, an environment where sharing know-how, learnings and
expertise can continuously take place in order to promote better day by day functioning and
109 hence productivity and profitability.
Knowledge management is about enabling organisations to work smarter. Broadly speaking
it refers to a collection of processes, practices and techniques relating to creating,
acquiring, using, storing, and sharing “knowledge” in such a way as to deliver value to the
110 organisation, its stakeholders and its employees.

Knowledge Management (KM) is a range of practices used in an organization to identify,

create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Collaboration,
Learning and Replication (CLR) is a recursive process where two or more people or
organizations work toward common goals ... by sharing knowledge, learning and building
consensus. The KM/CLR vision is a culture where collaboration, learning and replication
111 drive productivity, growth and program execution.
112 Ha Ha - everyone's definition is different!
113 to know what we know
114 No formal definition

115 information for people who need it to help them complete tasks associated to their roles
an initiative aimed at ensuring employees have access to information that is necessary to
116 undertake their day to day activities
117 it means staff engagement, be it at personal or professional level
118 From the QLD government website:

"Information management is the means by which an organisation plans, collects, organises,

governs, secures, uses, controls, disseminates, exchanges, maintains and disposes of its
information; as well as any means through which the organisation ensures that the value of
119 that information is identified and exploited to its fullest extent"
Developing and maintaining an environment in which knowledge creation, sharing and
120 transfer can occur without pain and with full and free participation by all employees.
121 So far we have not been able to agree on a definition
The abiity to share and manage experiences gained over time for the sustainability of the
122 business
Knowledge Management is the art of transforming information and intellectual assets into
123 enduring value for an organization’s clients and its people
124 I quite like the Wikipedia formal definition...
"Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an
organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and
experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in
125 individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice."
AS 5037(Int.)-2003 Knowledge management as ‘ a multi-disciplined approach to achieving
organisational objectives by making best use of knowledge. It involves the design , review
and implementation of both social and technological processes to improve the application of
knowledge, in the collective interest of stakeholders.’
It is a strategic management philosophy in the same way as risk and quality management
are and has evolved out of the realisation that information technology in itself is insufficient
to support a learning organisation.
Platforms established to which Business Information is widely shared across a company or
126 Organisation to improve efficiencies at work.
 We favour the Ward definition cited in Collison and Parcell's "Learning to fly" (2004: p.16):
"It's not about creating an encyclopedia that captures everything that anybody ever knew.
Rather, it's about keeping track of those who know the recipe, and nurturing the culture and
127 technology that will get them talking."
knowledge management is tools for knowledge sharing and learning organization
application in organization, also we can benefits from expert with knowledge sharing, and
128 transformed into young generation.
The capturing and sharing of critical corporate knowledge/information that is in people's
heads i.e. not captured in documentation to 'pass on' via reading and usual methods of
129 knowledge transfer
130 Knowledge is not information and it is not data. Knowledge is what is known.