This perspective on knowledge as one of the most significant assets for a company has changed the way business are built and structured. It has become fundamental for organizations to hire a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) who is in charge of managing knowledge as a precious and powerful resource.

1. THE
IMPORTANCE
OF HAVING A
CKO AND HOW
TO HIRE ONE
By Jason Hanold
Image courtesy
Of Vacon Sartirani at
Flickr.com

2. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
Knowledge is an unlimited resource, unlike most tangible things,
knowledge doubles or triples if you share it. Jason Hanold knows that
instead of losing knowledge when you give it away, you end up having
more of it since it usually returns to you from the one who you share it with
in first place. In other words, when you share a tangible asset, let’s say
you split a dollar, you end up with half of it, however, when you share
knowledge, you end up with more than the original total, and if you decide
to build something with somebody’ else’s help, you may even double what
you knew in first place about something.
At the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that knowledge
doubled every 30 years, this meant that every source of information (all
historical information in printed books and electronic files, etc.) would be
doubled within 30 years. By the 1970’s it was said that knowledge
doubled every 7 years and by the year 2010, it was known for a fact that
the world’s codified knowledge would double every 11 hours. Which

3. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
This perspective on knowledge as one of the most significant
assets for a company has changed the way business are built
and structured. It has become fundamental for organizations to
hire a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) who is in charge of
managing knowledge as a precious and powerful resource.
What is a CKO?
In simple words a CKO - also known as knowledge manager,
director of intellectual capital, director of knowledge transfer or
knowledge asset manager- is an organizational leader,
responsible for ensuring that the organization maximizes the
value it achieves through "knowledge". CKO is a corporate title
for the person who is in charge of overseeing knowledge
management within an organization.

4. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
CKO’s job is to guarantee that the company will profit from
the correct use of knowledge resources and will properly
exploit its intangible assets (know-how, patents, customer
relationships, etc.), being able in the long term to repeat
successes, share best practices, improve innovation, and
avoid knowledge loss after organizational restructuring. CKOs
know that investments in knowledge may include employees,
processes and intellectual property.
CKOs are the ones responsible for driving organizational
learning’s return on investment. They must be capable of
taking a critical approach to the training methodologies used
by the Human Resources (HR) staff and improve them by
asking the right questions and applying already tested

5. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
What to look for in a CKO?
Companies always look for the best in their C-level
executives. A good CKO personifies all that is good in
knowledge management. It should have skills across a wide
variety of areas and in most cases acts as an icon that other
individuals in the organization look up to for guidance. CKOs
must be good at understanding the big picture, advocacy
(articulation, promotion and justification of the knowledge
agenda), project and people management, communications,
leadership, team working, influencing, and social skills.

6. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
A CKO’s biggest responsibility is to enhance the intellectual
capital an organization develops in order to make it grow and
last in time. In order to do so a CKO must fulfill a list of
requirements that any company should keep in mind when hiring
it:
 It should promote stability in a turbulent business
environment, keep hostility away and an open mindset.
 Enable the speedy delivery of products or services repeating
cases of success and using an already existing know-how.
 Sharing resources and realizing synergies that create high
efficiency in the knowledge value chain.
 Enable the separation of work based on the company’s

7. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
 Implement reward plans and incentives that encourage individuals
to be innovative and have a motivated and fresh mindset.
 Determine what technology is needed for the knowledge
management effort and implement these technologies in order to
develop a knowledge infrastructure.
 Measure the impact of knowledge management on the business,
repeats successes and analyze and learn from failures.
 Collecting relevant data that is useful for the organization as
knowledge.
 Promoted the knowledge agenda within and beyond the company.
 Works as a facilitator for connections, coordination and
communications.
 Enables the maximum return on investment (ROI) in knowledge.
 Capitalizes on the benefits from intangible assets, such as branding

8. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
 Implement reward plans and incentives that encourage individuals
to be innovative and have a motivated and fresh mindset.
 Determine what technology is needed for the knowledge
management effort and implement these technologies in order to
develop a knowledge infrastructure.
 Measure the impact of knowledge management on the business,
repeats successes and analyze and learn from failures.
 Collecting relevant data that is useful for the organization as
knowledge.
 Promoted the knowledge agenda within and beyond the company.
 Works as a facilitator for connections, coordination and
communications.
 Enables the maximum return on investment (ROI) in knowledge.
 Capitalizes on the benefits from intangible assets, such as branding

9. The importance of having a CKO
and how to hire one
Besides all these requirements, CKOs should effectively
manage all stages of the knowledge lifecycle. They should
encourage individuals in every company to create,
disseminate, and use knowledge, constantly asking questions
and re-evaluating assumptions held by organizations. Every
new concept helps to create knowledge and generates
innovative ideas that may help companies produce innovative
products and business processes that will, in time, guarantee
their permanence in the market.
If you want to read more about the vital role CKOs have in
organizations, click here.