Individual tacit knowledge
What is Individual tacit knowledge?
Practical skill resides in a person.
How Individual tacit knowledge works
Compare the organization’s performance with and without the skilled employee. If customers and results follow the person, the firm’s durable asset may be much smaller than the individual’s contribution.
The question to ask of a company
Does exceptional performance depend on named individuals, and who captures its value when their employment terms change?
Examples
- Illustrative scenario: One technician diagnoses unusual failures reliably; the firm has yet to teach that skill to another team.
Who names it
| Author | What they call it / where it appears |
|---|---|
| Neumann | A Taxonomy of Moats — Individual tacit knowledge |
Note. The diagnostic and scenario are Strategy Canon’s analytical application. Test the firm’s benefit and exclusion mechanism separately; this category alone does not establish Power.