By Shawn Cunningham, presented at the 19th TCI Global Conference, Eindhoven, 2016. S. Cunningham on LinkedIn: https://za.linkedin.com/in/shawncunningham

1. Titel presentatie
[Naam, organisatienaam]
Working Day - Track: Managing learning networks
Leveraging knowledge for firms and clusters
Shawn Cunningham
Leveraging knowledge
for firms and clusters

2. Leveraging knowledge for
firms and clusters
Dr. Shawn Cunningham
sc@mesopartner.com
www.mesopartner.com

3. www.mesopartner.com 3
Creative Commons License
You are free:
 to copy, distribute, display, and present this presentation
 to make derivative works
 to make commercial use of the work
under the following conditions:
 Attribution. You must attribute the work to Mesopartner.
 Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may
distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
 For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license
terms of this work.
 Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from
Mesopartner.
Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
The complete legal code is available at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode

4. www.mesopartner.com 4
“Innovation”
What does it mean in your cluster?
What does your cluster do to leverage
knowledge to enable innovation?

5. www.mesopartner.com 5
There are differences between
 Product & service innovation
 Process innovation
 Business model innovation

6. www.mesopartner.com 6
Myth busting innovation
 Most organisations innovate because:
– They have to
– Customers demand more and …
– New technology
– Competitors innovated
– Serendipity
 Most organisations innovate mainly
incrementally driven by imitation
– – not in the DNA of many
 Often about learning & adjustment &
recombination
– Not ONLY about design

7. www.mesopartner.com 7
Knowledge < information < data
 Data is measured or observed
numbers, words, etc
 Information is data arranged in
meaningful patterns
 Knowledge is beliefs,
commitment, perspectives and
action of individuals, teams
and organisations
– It is how we make sense of
information so that we can
use it
“Any fool can know. The point is to
understand.” - Einstein

8. www.mesopartner.com 8
Codified Knowledge
 Codified or explicit knowledge
– Captured in routines, stories,
official documents, guidelines…
– Copied, translated and adapted
– Flows between organisations &
societies
– The dynamics in a cluster can
be measured by how codified
knowledge flows

9. www.mesopartner.com 9
Tacit Knowledge
 Tacit knowledge
– Harder to explain or capture
– Harder to detect, individuals might not even know they
have it
– Transmitted or shared based on trust
– Combination of natural talent, past experience, prior
codified knowledge shaped in the environment

10. www.mesopartner.com 10
Knowledge creation by tinkering &
experimentation

11. www.mesopartner.com 11
Knowledge creation by deductive
reasoning (thinking, reading, research)
To Do 21/10/2016:
 Read the manual
 Think through simulation
 Can we try this in a lab?

12. www.mesopartner.com 12
Gaining knowledge through
purposeful interaction with others

13. www.mesopartner.com 13
Knowledge creation by tinkering &
experimentation
Which factors
promote this form of
knowledge creation in
your unit?
Which factors inhibit
this form of knowledge
creation in your unit?Tinkering and
experimentation
Deductive reasoning,
research
Collaborating,
engaging with others

14. www.mesopartner.com 14
Three conclusions about
knowledge and innovation

15. www.mesopartner.com 15
Conclusion: Knowledge
Tacit knowledge creation starts at the level of
individuals, and then gets taken up by the
environment.
Codified knowledge often exists in environment,
and then works its way back to individuals

16. www.mesopartner.com 16
Conclusion: Innovation
Purposefully expanding, increasing,
(re)combining knowledge is central to innovation.
This is can be done by tinkering, deduction and
collaborating with others that have different
knowledge

17. www.mesopartner.com 17
Conclusion: Environment
Individuals and teams can turn knowledge into
innovation when the environment enables it.
Improving this environment is an ongoing
process which in itself requires innovation!

18. www.mesopartner.com 18
Thank you
 For more information contact:
Dr Shawn Cunningham
sc@mesopartner.com
+27 82 902 4200
http://www.mesopartner.com
http://www.cunningham.org.za