Editor's letter

KM: The equaliser in Latin America

Probably the most striking example of the economic disparities between countries of the world can be found in North and South America. Though North America is slipping, most countries in Latin America are still stuck in the agrarian and industrial eras. Poverty is rampant just south of one of the richest countries in the world and the tragic solution is to build a fence between Mexico and the US to keep people from escaping to the ‘promised land’.
But as the US lead in economic power sinks, Latin American countries are beginning to rise, one of them so rapidly that Goldman Sachs investment bank named it one of the ‘BRIC’ [Brazil, Russia, India and China] economies that will eclipse most of the current richest countries of the world including the US and the UK by the year 2050.
At the very time the world economy is in a slump, Brazil has grown at a four to six per cent rate. In May 2008, Sao Paulo’s stock exchange jumped almost 10 per cent just a couple of days after Standard & Poor’s raised Brazil to the level of investment grade. So, what’s behind all this? You guessed it: knowledge management.
From Mexico to Venezuela, Latin American countries are latching onto the knowledge advantage. This issue contains a quartet of articles on KM south of the US border, which includes an overview and two case studies. One is on Vale Mining, a former government-owned domestic producer which, through privatisation and world-wide acquisitions, is now amongst the 500 largest companies in the world by market cap. By contrast, the other report is about a consortium of fishing industries in Colombia.
In both case studies, knowledge management has gone from ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’. And so, this quartet of stories is not just for people interested in the economy in South America; it is also about the use of knowledge management as a primary strategy to equalise competitive advantage in a global economy.
However, the message of this special issue presents more than just a model for other undeveloped and underdeveloped countries of the world – though that message is clear. Embedded in these stories is a shock treatment for developed countries not yet fully engaged in knowledge management initiatives as a way of competing in not only a global world, but an equal opportunity world.
In Latin America, it won’t be just Brazil that prospers from the knowledge advantage. Either next-door neighbor Colombia follows the lead of Brazil or the new border between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ will be between Colombia and Brazil. Indeed, the wave of immigrants in Latin America will reverse itself and head south to Brazil, one of the richest countries in the world, according to Goldman Sachs.
The big story, then, is that the knowledge phenomenon isn’t just about a new management style; it’s the key to opportunity in a global world open for business – any business, anywhere.

Jerry Ash, Editor

Features

IK cover feature: Knowledge management and innovation in the Latin American region This article is for subscribers only
Latin American countries are aware that financial capital has been replaced by human capital and they have plenty of it. They are deliberately latching onto the knowledge advantage from Mexico to Venezuela. This report begins a series of reports in this issue of Inside Knowledge magazine.

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