How do you put a price on an idea? And anyway who’s idea was it? What does an idea look like? And how can I buy one? These questions are but just a drop in the bucket of the new Knowledge Economy.

Where we once made a living selling wheat, cars, fuels and steel there is a new kid on the block……..ideas.

This new economy sells and buys, ideas. We now produce knowledge, bundle it up and sell it as an idea.

Bill Gates doesn’t sell tangible goods he owns knowledge and lots of it!

Alistair Rylatt a member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development supports this statement, ’We only need to spend ten minutes on the web to understand that we have entered a totally new time zone of human evolution. Advances in technology and the better use of knowledge based systems has meant a fundamental change in how discovery occurs.’

This puts an automatic expiry date on knowledge, it forces each one of us to see knowledge transfer as each persons responsibility rather then a right. It means we can no longer hang on to our tertiary qualifications like a prized possession that gets placed behind glass and kept in pristine condition, rather it is one cobble stone on the road to a life of learning. When we stop learning, stop acquiring new knowledge we stop earning money. So where to from here?

The key to success in this new and fast paced economy is the continual building and constant rejuvenation of these resources.

It’s time people to put our thinking caps on!