Company Know-How
The body of practical knowledge and procedures that lets an organization run and make decisions.
What it means
Company know-how includes the technical, process, and operational knowledge built up inside an organization. Some of it is written down; most exists only as the experience of specific people.
Why it matters
Company know-how is a source of both competitive advantage and operational stability. Losing it shows up with a delay — and it tends to be costly.
A real-world example
A production recipe fine-tuned over years of adjustments exists in no system at all. It lives only in the experience of two people.
Practical knowledge of how to actually get something done under real conditions.
Knowledge of how an organization actually operates across roles and departments.
The part of an organization's knowledge whose loss would directly threaten safety, quality, or continuity.
Turning specific people's knowledge into a structured, usable form.
An organization's ability to retain and reuse knowledge gained in the past.