Knowledge management, not just another fad, can help global companies realise the value of their mobile employees.

Sharing knowledge can be therapeutic: just make the system 'inviting'

An expat who spent two years working for Company X in Singapore returned to headquarters in Europe, but left Company X within six months of returning. Sounds like an all-too common story so far: the employee leaves, taking valuable knowledge about the marketplace and culture with them.

However, in this case Company X has a system in place for capturing much of that expat's knowledge during and immediately after the assignment.

When another Company X employee travels to Singapore for a business meeting, she will already know how to negotiate with a particular client and will understand the client's importance in opening doors to new clients in the region. Plus, she knows which types of cultural behaviour this client finds most offensive.

With this knowledge, Company X has a higher probability of expanding its business – and eventually its profits â€“ in Singapore.

Essentially, this is the value knowledge management (KM) can bring to a company's international operations.

In the 21st century, where information rules, many business leaders believe that physical assets -  factories, land, even money – do not provide the same value as the brainpower (also called intellectual capital) of a company's employees.

In an article called "The ABCs of knowledge management", CIO magazine offers this definition: "KM is the process through which organisations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices. It's important to note that the definition says nothing about technology; while KM is often facilitated by IT, technology by itself is not KM.

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