Keeping in touch by Sheila Moorcroft (Gurteen Knowledge)

Indicator of Change

Keeping in touch with ex colleagues for personal reasons or for career reasons is common. Corporate websites to assist the process are growing in number. Bain the consultancy group keeps track of 70% of its staff alumni. Selectminds is setting up a service to helps others do the same and so keep track of intellectual assets, find new staff, create new links..

Potential Significance

Obvious on one level, but rarely done formally.

In a knowledge based economy, knowing where the right knowledge is within and outside the organisation becomes ever more critical to success. Finding new ways to formalise and keep track of the experience and knowledge of previous employees may be an increasingly ciritcal part of that knowledge base, providing the potential for future alliances, formal and informal co-operation etc.

New technology such as email systems which can identify patterns of communication and thereby ‘identify experts’ within an organisation may also have a role to play in augmenting the networks which people traditionally develop at conferences etc..

Author		Source	Economist
Scanner	Sheila Moorcroft, BFN UK	Date	Dec 1 2001
Keywords Links	Staff; networks; friendship economy; mobile assets; knowledge capital;	Ref No.	99