Knowledge Isn’t Power

The IT industry claims to be a ‘knowledge based’ industry. Is that true? Or if that is true does it mean other industries are not knowledge based? I refrain from answering these questions now.

Every society places a premium on knowledge. Or that is what we were told. In our society lot of us place ‘Saraswati’ (Goddess of knowledge) on a higher pedestal than ‘Lakshmi’ (Goddess of wealth) though much of our adult life is a constant chase for Lakshmi. For long we all believed in the dictum ‘knowledge is power’. That seems to be losing heft.

Bulk of our education was focused on imparting knowledge. Sure, that in itself was a noble thing; and pursuing knowledge was a noble thing too, particularly in an era when the mediums of knowledge were too personal, localized and slow. In ancient India the one who knew Sanskrit was treated as ‘pandit’ and in Europe the one who knew Latin was part of the aristocracy.

Knowing is not same as learning. Few schools taught students how to learn. Learning was optional while knowing got rewarded as examinations aimed at knowledge reproduction on paper. Much of the training too remained knowledge based for long. This is probably one reason why bulk of our Engineering graduates remains unemployable. Bulk of what we consider knowledge today is mere information or data. Long before the ‘Information Age’ Albert Einstein said that ‘information is not knowledge.’

When access to knowledge becomes near universal and almost instant having knowledge is no more power. There is growing realization today on the need to progress from knowledge to learning and from learning to application. Those who are capable of focusing on critical aspects of knowledge, those who learn what is useful and convert that into practical application become successful faster. There is no wonder the ‘app- making’ geek who doesn’t care about English grammar made his millions while his English grammar teacher struggles for livelihood.

This is not to say that knowledge lost all its value. It is probably the opposite. Knowledge needs to be treated much more carefully than casually. Curate knowledge to create value. This is a difficult task in the age of information deluge. When you get 700 WhatsApp messages a day there is no time to think and pick the useful ones. Or when you have 30000 Google links on a subject who will go past the first 20? And what guarantee that the best is among the first 20? One is at the mercy of lady luck. If Ravan had 10 heads, the modern day ‘Saraswati’ has a million heads. Which one to smile at? Herbert Spencer said, ‘When a man’s knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.’ That appears a reasonable prognosis of the ‘smart world’ we all live in today!

Now, let’s come back to the questions we started with. I would tend to think that most industries are based on application of knowledge and more importantly on the ignorance of potential customers and competition. And, what knowledge to apply depends on experience or imagination and often a combination of both.

What do you think?

‘To Be Honest With You’

A senior corporate leader told me that the values of his company are ‘fundamental’ to their existence and ‘lighthouse’ to their strategic direction. It sounded appealing. After a while doubts started crawling in my head. Are these stated values so fundamental or eternally relevant to these companies? Do they really mean what they say?

If the values were so fundamental then they must stay for long. However, I find that companies keep changing their values. May be values too lose their value in course of time. Companies justify such changes as reflection of the ‘new reality’ brought by a new generation of employees, customers and society. At times it could also be a re-articulation of the old values. In any case values change and at times become loose change!

A company stated ‘Human Values’ as one of its listed values among others including ‘Value for Money’.  In about five years the company found the values losing some shine and again went into social research and test marketing by a reputed branding organization just as it did in the previous round to find a new set of values. ‘Human Values’ and ‘Value for Money’ did not find place in the new list. It is not logical to think that this company has lost its character so much in a span of five years to take a significant deviation from its lighthouse. Quite contrary, it appeared. The company stayed a good corporate citizen, retained its character and thrived in the market.

There was a time when ‘integrity’ was a listed value for many companies much like someone tattooing on his chest ‘I am a saint’. You would have noticed some people starting every second sentence with ‘to be honest with you...’ Be sure, they have something to hide. An honest person need not say ‘I am honest’. For him being honest is more important than saying honest. 

Are there alternatives to this kind of value statements?

Yes. One option is not to do any such listing. Customers don’t care much about your value posters. I go to a footwear showroom, look at the shoes, try couple of them, ask for price and buy what fits my feet and my budget. End of story. During the process I may notice how I was treated by the sales person and the lady at the cash counter. That experience may also influence my next visit to the same shop. How am I concerned about the value statements written on the website or at some corner of the shop? 

A better value statement will be the behavior of the leaders in a company. That is every day noticed. Reward good behavior and discourage or punish unethical and illegal transactions. In my view, business entities need not agonize much about ethics if they follow the laws of the land. Prevailing laws of a nation reflect the ethics of the society. An honest business delivers lots of social good as well. 

Another way of showing value is to add much of the value into your product or service. There are brilliant examples of this, though not seen with majority of products and services. I buy an iPhone not after reading the value statement of Apple Inc. but feeling the value in the iPhone or an iMac. The reliability, aesthetics, simplicity and whatever one can touch and feel.  

There are too many value charades. Organisations need more value behaviors and value demonstrating products and services.