June 22, 2012
Knowledge management is an interesting phrase, the name given to a discipline with some impressive thinking behind it. Knowledge management (KM) is also known as business intelligence (BI). Does that mean that KM and CI (competitive intelligence) are the same, or at least similar?
No. From my point of view, there are fundamental differences in their core concepts and methodologies. That makes them two very different disciplines, each with its proper role, but with almost nothing in common, as this table shows:
| CI | KM |
| Externally focused | Internally focused |
| Focuses on existing competitors, potential competitors, and developing technology | Focuses on processes, existing customers, and supply chains |
| Most valuable when answering the question “What will happen next?” | Most often valuable when answering the question “How do we do better tomorrow what we did yesterday?” |
| Seeks out data that its analysts or the enterprise do not yet have to respond to questions posed by themselves or others | Manages and expands existing knowledge base(s) |
| Tends to be focused on the qualitative: What is happening/why? | Focuses on the quantitative: How much? |
| Can be heavily involved in enterprise-wide efforts to protect competitively sensitive information | Typically has no involvement with the protection of knowledge assets |
