Knowledge Intermediation

KNOWLEDGE INTERMEDIATION
as a business proposition or
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or
Individual Social Responsibility or
as a Philanthropic Act

I have often been asked by many persons, when I was in TI-FAC, or CII earlier and now when I am in CII, to give directions of industries, or institutions (often they try to get free of cost though a number of institutions are ready to sell at a nominal cost!).

What do they want from the Director? 'Sir I want people from Institutions or Industry to participate in the excellent "Programme XYZ" they have conceptualised'. This participation is not just attending meetings but to invest money and have long term commitment. It looks like that most people think it is enough to have a directory and send e-mails and partnerships will follow.

There are very good directions available in India than what it was say a decade ago. In TIFAC in 1988 when we started, we have to struggle to get names, addresses and telephone numbers / fax numbers right e-mails was very limited except through ernet for some academic institutions. Now things are lot better. Paper directions, CD's, online search directions etc are available at a nominal cost.

But is that enough to create partnerships for even attending a Workshop or a Seminar (lowest level of involvement) or for deeper commitments and long term involvement. For transient involvements like workshop participation, such a mechanical routine of sending e-mails and calling may help. But for deeper interactions (which alone can ensure profitable business) much deeper Knowledge Intermediation is required. (For those of you who want to know more about it see the Chapter on Technology Intermediation in the book 'Global Business, Technology and Knowledge Sharing' by N S Siddharthan and Y S Rajan - MacMillan).

I have also heard Banking and Funding Agencies who announce that they want to support activities which help poor or want to help certain sectors of geographical areas. Often success rate is poor because they expect good proposals to flow by themselves. For any reasonable tasks there are several features required :

  • Who are the users (i.e. markets)
  • How much they can pay or how much income they expect in case of grants or loans to self-help groups, farmers, artisans etc. (If the earnings after the project intervention is over, is low people will not be interested).
  • What are the technical uncertainties. How they can be resolved ? What are the technological options that can be utilised.
  • Are there other infrastructural constraints like access by roads, electric power, availability of water etc.

There are no universal answers or solutions for these questions. No national level answers too nor even State or District level. The details for a particular place or a particular cluster of places ought to be studied. Any such study requires time and effort, or right type of experts. This is really called 'Knowledge Intermediation' or 'Technology Intermediation'.

Many Government grants (corruption apart, even in honest situations) or philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibility type expenditure do not yield good results or fail because such 'KI' or 'TI' efforts do not precede. This is really the planning. Not that one should keep on with studies, reports; as it happens in a number of places. There is a balance.

With the freeing of our economy, with the general aspirations going up due to visible signs of progress, there are aspirations to grow even at village, panchayat levels. There are some sincere CSR efforts too.

It is time some bold and adventurous young groups of professionals start 'KI' or 'TI' services on a payment basis to persons in Panchayats, to Govt. to CSR bodies of companies and importantly for serious investors. These services will enhance chances of success. Also these band of professionals (not necessarily all youth, having some retired persons with specific experience will also help) can make a good profession too with reasonable earnings.

Who knows, if many such successes take place, they can band together as Partners and make big consultant companies like Deloitte, Accenture etc in the West.

Want to try ? Start ----------