It may be stating the obvious, but BU is in the
knowledge business. From the deep understanding
and historical knowledge of its senior managers, to
the expertise of its faculty, to the process knowledge
of its employees: the University functions through,
and because of, its knowledge. Knowledge in all
its forms is the key to running the University. Not
surprising then that over the last 15 years or so, many
business organizations have began to realize that
one of their key strategic assets is the knowledge
they possess [1]. Not just a notional asset either, as
many of those same organizations have actually
quantified the value of their corporate knowledge
and declared it as a business asset in their accounting
process [2]. At the same time, it doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to work out that if you have a
business asset as valuable as your knowledge, then
you had better start to manage it like any of your
other business assets, such as hardware, property or
personnel.