3. Know-how: a little-used business intelligence tool

Also known as "know how", know-how encompasses all the professional skills, mastery and knowledge acquired by working personnel. Frequently assimilated to a means of accomplishing a task, it cannot however be reduced to this simple definition. There are, in fact, many different types of know-how: business methods or financial strategies applied within a company, general procedures concerning the working environment (e.g. equipping personnel when they enter a sterile area), or advanced technical methodologies (such as the forced degradation of chemical molecules), all constitute different types of know-how within the same company. Taking the case of an analysis laboratory, beyond the set of dosing techniques performed on a bench by a laboratory technician, applied as is, there is local know-how, the identification of which enables us to deepen our knowledge of the subject. Staff often develop...