(4) Use CKOs and other knowledge champions to facilitate knowledge sharing and the effective use of an organizational memory by identifying and satisfying the knowledge needs, wants, and expectations of organizational users and the organization in general.
According to the classic "marketing concept", an organization's success depends upon its ability to assess/identify and then satisfy customer needs. From the perspective of internal organizational customers, the same principle applies here. Unless the knowledge needs of organizational users are understood, they cannot be adequately met. Thus, another major role of the knowledge champion is to constantly monitor and identify user needs in terms of recent, relevant data, information and knowledge. Communicating with opinion leaders and users allows knowledge champions to constantly monitor the changing information needs of the users. The knowledge champions can then transfer this knowledge to the innovators who can more effectively seek relevant knowledge. Finally, by communicating with users and opinion leaders within their specific knowledge center domains, knowledge champions can facilitate the transfer of valuable knowledge from individual contributors within their social network. Figure 2 summarizes these suggestions.