Is Old Knowledge Supporting Old Assumptions?

One of the things I enjoy about my job is the opportunity to read local English language newspapers around the world. I enjoy the different perspective that the newspaper take on the same topic. One that I was reading recently was about how the super powers might take a different approach to building their capabilities. As I read it I was reminded of the story of the Miginot Line. I have actually visited the remains of the Miginot Line and would encourage you do so if you can. It was based on a fairly simple assumption – the enemy will come from the direction in which our guns are pointed because it is impossible to bring an army any other way. Now we know from history that the enemy literally went around the Miginot Line and left it impotent. The same story also applies to the British guns in Singapore during WW2, they assumed that the enemy could only come from the sea. Unfortunately for them, the enemy didn’t agree with that assumption. In both examples the guns were fixed and couldn't be moved to confront the enemy coming from the other direction. My reason for mentioning these examples is that sometimes businesses are based on assumptions. The knowledge that the company values, is that knowledge which they believe supports the assumptions. But sometimes things happen that change the environment and cause the previous assumptions to be no longer valid. Unless the knowledge updated the business will very quickly decline. As we enter into the new year, perhaps it would be appropriate to reflect on the assumptions that your business is based on and the key knowledge that you value. Perhaps that knowledge is out of date and your knowledge management plans need to be updated.
Knoco Ltd