There are only business strategies

I recently tripped over this blog post Adapting to Life in Perpetual Beta from Harold Jarche.

In his seven point list, the first two points are as follows:

1. There is no such thing as a social media strategy.
2. There are only business strategies that understand networks.

This jumped out at me, as it is the same the advice I give about KM. I wrote the following a little while back:

There are NO KM initiatives. There is no such thing as a KM project. You don't do KM. There is no such thing as a KM strategy. There are only business problems, challenges and opportunities; business strategies and business projects.

The problem with KM initiatives and strategies is that they conceptualize the problem and make it far too easy to take your eye off the business. It is, to my mind, one of the key reasons why so many KM projects fail.

It is rare that a project is purely a KM one. You usually need more than just KM tools and techniques to fully address a business problem or opportunity.

You use KM tools and methodologies to respond to business problems.

If you must have a KM strategy it should be in response to a clear business objective and tie in to the top level business objectives of the organization or organizational unit. The business purpose and outcomes should come first!

Credit: The Gurteen KM Framework

Adapting Harold's words "There are only business strategies that understand the nature and value of knowledge."