Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 - (Page 38)

tactics Leveraging Intellectual Capital for Organizational Gain Mike Prokopeak As an increasing number of organizations strive to leverage their intellectual capital to drive innovation and adapt to rapid change, CLOs have the opportunity to be the fulcrum that pivots the knowledge of the workforce for organizational profit. More and more, businesses are realizing the role that the knowledge residing in their intellectual capital plays in creating economic power and value. Knowledge is power. So said English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon in 1597. The scientific method Bacon developed to collect knowledge through observation led, in part, to quantum leaps in our understanding of the world. As knowledge is collected and shared, it grows exponentially, setting off a chain reaction of new insights and innovations. “The cumulative codified information base of the world is, within the next three years, scheduled to double every 11 hours,” said Nick Bontis, associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Canada, and associate editor of the Journal of Intellectual Capital. “That’s a fantastic statistic.” Given that exponential growth in information, Bacon’s idea that knowledge is power has taken on a new dynamic in the 21st-century economy. More and more, businesses are realizing the role that the knowledge residing in their intellectual capital plays in creating economic power and value. Learning executives, because they sit at the intersection between the organization’s strategic goals and the capabilities of its workforce, find themselves as the fulcrum that can leverage intellectual capital to drive growth, spur innovation and ultimately create value. But that role requires an expanded perspective on learning and a robust set of technical and social skills. Turning Intangibles Into Tangible Results From an economic perspective, value traditionally resides in the tangible assets — such as financial capital and real estate — that show up on a standard corporate balance sheet. But in a business environment driven by innovation, economists are focusing increasingly on intangibles, such as knowledge and relationships, as key creators of value. “Ideas have always and everywhere been more valuable than the physical act of carrying them out,” said Ron Baker, founder of VeraSage Institute and author of Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital Is the Chief Source of Wealth. “Economies that create more ideas and test more ideas and turn those ideas into knowledge create a higher standard of living. “It’s why architects make more than steel workers. And yet a lot of people confuse the physical act of carrying something out as being more important than generating the idea. And that’s simply not true if you study the economics of it.” March 2008 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 38 http://www.clomedia.com

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Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Learning Solutions The Treasury Board of Saskatchewan: Training the Trainers With Experiential Learning Clo Profile Environment Xerox: Creating a Learning Masterpiece Tactics Capturing the Knowledge of the Workforce Productivity Succession Planning Tips from the U.S. GAO Human Capital Influencing Competency Management Case Study Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - March 2008

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