new economy mindset

The theme “resetting the enterprise” is an appropriate one for 2009, a year in which our entire economy is being reset, and upset. The knowledge economy is ending almost before it began, and we’re moving to the next economy: the steady-state economy, one without booms and busts, without waste and the squandering of precious resources, without contributing to climate change. In short, it is a sustainable economy, where companies grow better, not bigger. Almost assuredly, most will fail to make the transition, following the auto, mass manufacturing, financial and war industries into oblivion.

It’s time we reset KM, and our minds as well, to address the issues and challenges of a sustainable, steady-state economy, instead of the issues of the bankrupt and unsustainable industrial economy. This will require some completely new thinking, working with enterprise partners, customers and community members. It will require us to educate business leaders that the strategies that they have pursued for the last two centuries are now obsolete and dysfunctional, and about how to think strategically about a future of staggering uncertainty, volatility and complexity. We will have to become organizational thought leaders, not just back-office workers. We will have to champion and lead organizational transformation, not just provide content and infrastructure to support yesterday’s processes, yesterday’s objectives, yesterday’s strategies.

Are we, humble KM ‘information professionals’, up for this job? My answer is that we have to be: there is a terrible leadership void, imaginative poverty and intransigence to be overcome. This is our opportunity, our moment, our chance to be true change agents. This is Do or Die time for KM practitioners.

More soon.

Its a pleasure to be invited to blog here in preparation for KM World. I think I have the all time record for keynoting at this conference, more or less every year for ten years but this time we are adding something unique. A half day learning experience using some radical innovation techniques. I’ll be posting about this over the next month or so and inviting participation from interested parties. We’ll be looking for some intractable problems to solve!

Keeps your eyes open for upcoming blog posts from leading KM thinkers, practitioners, writers, speakers, and observers.  Our KMWorldBlog should be quite active from now until the conference November 17-19 in San Jose and then extremely active during the conference as we have live blogging.  Be part of our community and send your comments and thoughts.  Thanks.

With the economic earthquake around the globe, our enterprises have to be smarter, creative and innovative. Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, says that the only way for us to survive the world economic reset in a knowledge age is to capitalize on our human capital, put our creativity to work, stoke our innovative furnace. There are many ways to fuel the creative fires—from management techniques, to team-building, and effectively leveraging existing and emerging technological investments. KMWorld 2009 is where the latest strategies and solutions will be explored.

The KMWorld 2009 conference theme is Resetting the Enterprise: Focusing on People, Talent & Knowledge. At KMWorld 2009,  experienced knowledge, content, search, and intranet experts not only provide practical, hands-on information, case studies, and instruction that allow attendees to maximize the value of technological investments but also share creative ideas for making the most of knowledge, intellect, talent and human capital in open diverse, transparent organizations.

KMWorld 2009 provides attendees with all the essential pieces of the information engine that powers today’s effective enterprise—including knowledge creation, publishing, sharing, finding, mining, reuse and more. Well implemented and managed, these work together to enable business problem-solving, innovation, and achievement.  And check out our list of areas we will be discussing for retooing the enterprise.

We are starting to plan for our fall KMWorld 2009 conference in San Jose. And yes, we are repositioning the conference slightly.  You will note that Intranets is no longer in the conference logo.  However intranets and portals are still strong themes, as are enterprise 2.0, knowledge sharing, innovation, and streamlining knowledge flows in organizations for maximum effectiveness and performance.  The conference continues to include strong conferences on enterprise search and taxonomies with Enterprise Search Summit West and Taxonomy Boot Camp.

The KM World website is now live and we are looking for speakers.  Please let all your colleagues know about our call for speakers and encourage them to come and speak.  Feel free to post a note to any KM lists to which you belong.  Thanks!