Intellectual Capital/Stewart 71-74

72 The lesson of the perennial best-seller What Color Is Your Parachute? is that people know more than they realize--that over the years they develop huge repertoires of skill, information, and ways of working that they have internalized to the point of obliviousness. Identify them, name them, package them, and these hitherto tacit capabilities can be the basis of a new career.

73 W. Edward Deming proved that the cost of poor quality--inspections, rework, returns, etc.--greatly exceeds the cost of excellence, no one listened.

Tacit knowledge tends to be local as well as stubborn, because it is not found in manuals, books, databases, or files.

74 First is separating knowledge from noise, which can be done only by means of strategy. Intellectual capital doesn't exist without a purpose and point of view: My knowledge assets are not necessarily useful to you, nor are my company's.
Second, much intellectual capital is tacit--and tacit knowledge cannot be sold no matter how many sous someone is willing to fork over.