Knowledge Conversion and Innovation

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Innovation is reliant on human creativity, which is often held to be both scarce and unpredictable. 

However, an alternative view that the creativity necessary for innovation can be produced through appropriate organisational structures, is now gaining acceptance. In this view, creativity is abundant - most organisations will have employees who regularly come up with ideas or possibilities.

The mechanisms are seldom in place for actively seeking out new ideas, examining them and then collectively developing them to the point where they become:

• projects
• then prototypes
• then marketable products or accepted procedures

An important part of the innovation process involves the transformation of knowledge between tacit and explicit knowledge, which is then shared and improved on in some way. Thus conversion that results in innovation, (for example: projects, prototypes, products and procedures) is encouraged when knowledge flows between people, is stored in easily accessed and interpretable forms and is then used and restructured.

As recognised by John Browne: “I think you can install processes that generate breakthrough thinking. We have had great success in fostering the personal interactions you need to mine implicit knowledge. Our challenge has been getting people to systematically capture the information the company needs in order to be able to use both explicit and implicit knowledge repeatedly”.

The methods by which innovation can be induced are shown in Figure 26 of the BP case study:

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Reference(s)
	Book		Botha, A., Kourie, D. & Snyman, R. (2008) Coping with Continuous Change in the Business Environment: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Technology. Chandos Publishing: United Kingdom (UK), England, Oxfordshire, Oxford. [ISBN: 9781780632056]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3zg6Clk].
	Editorial		Prokesch, S. E. (1997) Unleashing the power of learning: An interview with British petroleum's John Browne. Harvard Business Review, Volume: 75, Issue: 5, Page(s): 146-&. [Available on: HBR: https://hbr.org/1997/09/unleasing-the-power-of-learning-an-interview-with-british-petroleums-john-browne].

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Reference (or cite) Article
	Kahlon, R. S. (2013) Knowledge Conversion & Innovation [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom, England, London. [Published on: 2013-01-26]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000082]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi - https://ravi.dkode.co/2013/01/knowledge-conversion-innovation.html].

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