This is an article I’ve been working on drawn from client experiences and recent research into the areas of knowledge management leading to workforce integration and connected business strategy. Written for business leaders who are strategizing ways to leverage company knowledge, mitigate the risks of a retiring or transient workforce and build a more agile workplace this article discusses some key concepts to help with their approach.

I’ll break the article down into a multi-part posting… and I welcome your feedback…….

First of all, what does connecting your business mean?

Put simply it means finding more efficient ways to tie employees together. The goal is to build a stronger, more resilient organization that, just like a hive of bees, is more powerful than the sum of the individuals because they are in alignment and working together to achieve a common goal. In some cases, this means using technology to bring employees together, in other cases it is the process or corporate environment – the culture - that induces the connection. Often it is the right combination of all three required to achieve this goal. Furthermore, connecting your business extends beyond traditional organizational boundaries; it also means making the right connections with people from other trading partners who contribute to your supply chain value.

The Connected Business relies upon the efficient communication of information and knowledge to bring them together. To this end, it is the sharing of information and knowledge that acts as the ‘glue’ between its divisions of labour and its systems. More specifically, it is the appropriateness of this sharing given whatever situation the organisation is operating – meaning the Connected Business can dynamically adapt to a constantly changing competitive environment.

This is the concept of a Connected Business – Connecting an organisation’s workers with its systems and partners which at an individual level are able to work together to form a higher level organisation that is superior to its competition.

Next: Part Two - Examples: Why do we need to connect our business?