BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS A PREREQUISITE FOR A STRONGER POSITION IN THE MARKET

Companies are realizing how important it is to "know what they know" and to be able to use their knowledge to the maximum. This knowledge is encountered in many countries such as databases, knowledge bases, data cabinets and people's heads, and they are distributed throughout the companies. It also happens that a part of company repeats the other company's work, simply because it is impossible to pursue and utilize knowledge in other parts. Companies should know:  Which are their means of knowledge;  How to manage and use these tools to achieve the maximum return (profit). The company's most traditional policies and controls focus on its most available tools by letting unmanaged the most important tools, the knowledge ones. Success in markets where competition tends to grow depends on the quality of knowledge used by organizations in key business processes. For example, the bidding partdepends on the knowledge in various fields, including raw material, planning, production and distribution. Product development also requires knowledge about consumer requirements, new scientific developments, new technology developments, marketing, and so on. The issue of organizing the means of knowledge of an organization to create competitive advantage becomes more important when: Markets are increasingly competitive and innovation rates are increasing so that knowledge has to develop and adopt at a very rapid growth rate. Corporations organize their businesses to be focused on creating customer values. Staff functions have been reduced in line with management structures. There is a need in changing the informal management of staff function knowledge with formal methods in customer directed business processes. Competition is reducing the size of the workforce that holds this knowledge. Knowledge takes time for experience and development. Employees have less and less time to do so. There is a tendency for employees to retire earlier and increase mobility, which leads to loss of knowledge. There is a need for managing complexity as small business operators and transnational resource operations. The change in strategic direction can result in loss of knowledge in a particular field. A future change in politics may lead to a renovated request for this knowledge, but employees with this knowledge may not be there.