Inflating the importance of tacit knowledge
The business news that matters
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
Today’s news has been dominated by inflation coverage but we’d like to focus on something slightly different: tacit knowledge. Philosopher Michael Polanyi defines this as the knowledge that we gain through experience and practice.
The reality of business life is that team members are required to do more than their official job role requires and so when that person moves on, they leave a mark. While bottling someone’s knowledge is something out of an 80s comedy skit, not passing this information on could have real consequences on a business’s bottom line.
“Not all learning fits neatly into a textbook. Embracing avenues that enable people to build professional relationships with experts fosters invaluable tacit knowledge essential for staying ahead in today’s dynamic landscape.”
Alison Dachner, associate professor of management, John Caroll University
How many times have you shared a process or way of work with a colleague over Teams, Slack or email? The reality is that this knowledge bottling normally occurs far too late.
National restaurant chain Itsu is an example of a company that has homed in on bottling this knowledge early… using AI.
“By ensuring everyone’s training experience is the same, Itsu can provide quality training at scale,” says Alba Trujillo Mora, the company’s international training manager. The impact data also reveals “where people need help and how we can support them in the best way.”
You can find out more about what the brand is doing to preserve tacit knowledge here
Podcast…
The new episode of our Business Leader podcast looks at one of the biggest airlines in Europe. Having taken its first flight in May 2004, today Wizz Air carries more than 60 million passengers every year and is valued at well over £2 billion after floating on the stock market in London.
József Váradi founded the company and has served as its chief executive since day dot and discusses how he founded and built the airline, the challenges he has faced and his fascinating views on what it is like running a UK-listed business…
You can listen to the episode on Substack here, Spotify here and Apple here
Other stories that matter…
1. Online fashion retailer Asos has released its half-year results and they don’t make pretty reading. The company’s losses widened to £120 million, with sales down 18 per cent. However, the firm stressed it is in the midst of a group-wide turnaround plan, including appointing former Sainsbury’s exec Dave Murray as CFO and bringing in former Next and Coca-Cola board member Christine Cross as a non-executive director. You can read more here
2. It’s not the just London Stock Exchange that is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, it’s smaller off-shoot Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is also facing some criticism. City AM reports that AIM-listed investing company Scirocco Energy is set to cancel its listing largely due to the £250,000 admin cost involved. You can read more here
3. ‘Czech Sphinx’ Daniel Křetínský has had a takeover bid for Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services (IDS) rejected. The Czech billionaire owns a 27 per cent stake in the company through his company Vesa Equity Investment and IDS’s share price saw an almost 20 per cent rise post-announcement. You can find out more here
4. Vinted has permeated the zeitgeist over the past few years and has taken its place alongside eBay when it comes to second-hand marketplaces. The company’s founder and now group chief executive Jennifer Sieg has spoken about managing the transition from start-up to scale-up and the challenges it has faced along the way. You can read the interview here
5. When looking to make a decision, are you asking the right questions? Many leaders think they do at least, but often you’re not getting the full picture. IMD Business School’s professor of strategy Arnaud Chevallier appears on the latest HBR IdeaCast podcast and explains how leaders can switch it up by asking five kinds of questions: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive and subjective. You can listen to it here
And finally…
Extreme weather has not only seen the nationwide insurance bill jump up 36 per cent, but it’s also posing a serious risk to the country’s food supply. Record rainfall has hampered British farmers from planting crops, but the problems extend further abroad too. Droughts in parts of Africa and similar wet conditions in Europe means there’s less food to import, which could lead to a hike in prices.
While the country waits with bated breath, we must celebrate UK businesses fighting the good sustainability fight. One of these is Talking Tables, which nabbed the Sustainable Scale-Up Business Of The Year at last year’s Scale-Up Awards.
The Business Leader-run awards celebrate high-growth companies and the entrepreneurs that run them. Certified B Corp Talking Tables wowed the judges with th its donstrated impact on sustainable and green ideas, along with commercial success and strong employee engagement.
If you’d like to celebrate the success of your business, entries for this year’s awards are open now. You can find out more here
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I have heard about the displeasure with the AIM admin fee before. I have heard it a few cited by the execs of Aquis-listed companies about why they chose Aquis as opposed to AIM