In the 21st century, we enter a new era where the traditional means of competitive advantage acquisition such as capital, land, raw materials and technology do not represent the only determinants of success for an enterprise or an organization. On the contrary, in the Knowledge Society, the future and success of companies is determined by their ability to turn their most precious resource, their Organisational Knowledge, to their advantage. The criteria for business success are changing rapidly, continuously altering the competitive environment and in parallel demanding the companies’ continuous flexibility and adaptability for the integration and implementation of new knowledge. Success criteria have now been replaced by creativity, innovation and knowledge. Therefore, the optimal exploitation of overall organizational knowledge appears as the new great challenge for all enterprises whatever their size and sector.
Although Knowledge Management is broadly accepted by the research community and has been used by leading consulting companies, there is a big gap in vocational training systems as well as in the methodologies available in Europe. This is exactly the overall aim of the TRAINMOR-KNOWMORE project: to develop an integrated training framework (both in terms of material and methodologies) for organisational Knowledge Management with the aim of helping European SMEs to understand what K.M is, what the specific methodologies supporting K.M are, what resources are required to implement it and best practice in the field.
Overall project aims include the following:
§ To provide target groups and potential users with training material in organisational Knowledge Management. The material will offer a practical framework to every business or public organisation planning to implement K.M policies
§ To provide European SMEs and Public organisations with relevant tools such as the K.M self-audit tool and methodology, as well as practical demonstrations, which will help them to develop their ability to better identify their specific knowledge gaps and related training needs
§ To increase the competitiveness and the innovation capacity of European SMEs and other interested organisations by providing them with the necessary K.M tools and practices.
§ To increase the awareness of the European business and vocational training community and to cultivate a common consciousness about Knowledge Management in order to create the necessary supporting culture for K.M in Europe.
§ To increase the adaptability of business culture as KM requires the complementarities of technology, organisational change management and many other business disciplines
§ To enlarge networking and synergies in Knowledge Management between European SMEs, the research community and vocational training organisations by creating a virtual space (K.M portal) and bringing together people from all of these communities.
Project Coordinator:
Management & Development Corporation S.A.-TTP/MDC S.A. (Greece)
Project Partners:
§ Westbic (Ireland)
§ Atlantis Consulting S.A. (Greece)
§ Athens Laboratory of Business Administration -ALBA (Greece)
§ LiNK MV (Germany)
§ Institut für Projektbegleitung und Kompetenzentwicklung - pro-kompetenz - e.V. (Germany)
§ BilSE (Germany)
§ Cyprus Institute of Technology (Cyprus)
§ Multidisciplinary European Research Institute Graz -MERIG (Austria)
§ Sofia University (Bulgaria)
§ National Council of Private SMEs in Romania (Romania)
For further information:
For Greece: Nikos Katsiadakis, Management & Development Corporation S.A.-TTP/MDC S.A., www.thestep.gr, Tel: + 30 2310 498201, E-mail: nicolas@thestep.gr
Project Promoter: Ultan Faherty, WESTBIC, www.westbic.ie, Tel: +353 74 9186770, Email: ufaherty@westbic.ie
Innovation
