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The chief knowledge officer (CKO) has a critical role in an organization—they're the manager of a critical asset. But what makes a successful CKO and what defines them as successful? Here, Bill Kaplan outlines a CKO's required skills, including a concise ‘CKO attributes’ model, strategic necessities for success and three key messages to keep in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents six lessons learnt by president of Carter & Associates, Carla Carter, while capturing and transferring knowledge from retirees. Key knowkedge management (KM) tools such as knowledge mapping and communities of practice are manageable chunks that can be established through people. Both require harnessing the social network that surrounds the gurus in the organization. Since the KM "elephant" is too cumbersome to gather the organization's intellectual capital before it walks out the door, paying attention to the current culture is crucial. This means tying into policies, records and budgets that already exist.

The studies show the value of harvesting general knowledge, yet firms are now having to apply a specialized reactive approach to capture and transfer the wisdom of retiring baby boomers. KM professionals understand that much of the firm's intellectual capital is embedded in the people of the organization. This article will offer practical approaches to accelerate implementation of effective tools to capture knowledge from retirees. While there are studies showing the value of harvesting general knowledge, such as a recent study by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) that identified personal returns on investment in KM ranging from 150 to 200 percent, there's a lack of evidence of firms that focus on capturing and transferring the wisdom of retiring workforce.

Discusses the need to connect people's knowledge and experience into the organization through meaningful, everyday measures of human capital. Contribution of intellectual capital to future value; Effects of lack measurement; Need to tie measures to strategic objectives.

Examines the guises of knowledge management (KM). KM as collaborative working; Human capital benchmarking; Relationship between KM and business change.