Staying in the Know

A common thread runs through many recent corporate setbacks and scandals. In crises ranging from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill debacle to the Libor rate-fixing scandal in the City of London, the troubles simmered below the CEO's radar. By the time the problems were revealed, most of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MIT Sloan management review 2015-06, Vol.56 (4), p.57
Main Authors: Nicolini, Davide, Korica, Maja, Ruddle, Keith
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alliances
Competition
Competitive advantage
Data analysis
Employment
Information management
Information overload
Infrastructure
Knowledge
Management science
Meetings
Mental health
Reputation management
Scandals
Social research
Studies
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Summary:A common thread runs through many recent corporate setbacks and scandals. In crises ranging from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill debacle to the Libor rate-fixing scandal in the City of London, the troubles simmered below the CEO's radar. By the time the problems were revealed, most of the damage had arguably already been done. Despite indications that large companies are becoming increasingly complicated to manage, executives are still responsible for staying abreast of what's going in their organization. But how do you keep tabs on what your competitors and employees are doing? How do you spot the next big idea and make the best judgments? How do you distinguish usable information from distracting noise? And how do you maintain focus on what critical? Many management experts have assumed that better information systems and more data would solve the problem. Some have pushed for faster and more powerful information technologies. Others have put their faith in better dashboards, big data and social networking. But is better technology or more tools really the most promising way forward? We think not. In this article, we maintain that the capacity of senior executives to remain appropriately and effectively knowledgeable in order to perform their jobs is based on a personal and organizational capability to continually stay in the know by assembling and maintaining what we call a personal knowledge infrastructure. And while information technologies may be part of this personal knowledge infrastructure, they are really just one of the components.
ISSN:1532-9194