TY - JOUR AB - While the term “knowledge management” is relatively new, many of the concepts have deep historical roots. Hewlett‐Packard’s strong culture and traditional business practices established an environment that encouraged innovation and the sharing of knowledge throughout the company. However, the reliance on local and informal approaches eventually became a weakness when the company had to deal with rapid growth and increased competitive pressures. The growing gap between the potential and actual value of HP’s collective intellectual assests was reflected in a widely quoted management complaint from the 1980s, “If only HP knew what HP knows.” However, the need for more explicit and deliberate strategies for managing knowledge has only recently become clear, as the disruptive technology of the Internet and the World Wide Web triggered an explosion in the availability of information and knowledge, but did nothing to expand our limited attention capacity. VL - 3 IS - 1 SN - 1367-3270 DO - 10.1108/13673279910259385 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/13673279910259385 AU - Sieloff Charles G. PY - 1999 Y1 - 1999/01/01 TI - “If only HP knew what HP knows”: the roots of knowledge management at Hewlett‐Packard T2 - Journal of Knowledge Management PB - MCB UP Ltd SP - 47 EP - 53 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -