Knowledge is Power

A long time ago, Lord Bacon stated that "Knowledge is power." He also implied that such knowledge can be fully productive only if shared. John Stuart Mills very strongly concurred with this concept as the following quotation indicates:

Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their proper importance in the minds even of their inventors, until aptly selected words or phrases, as it were, nailed them down and held them fast.

Communication is still essentially a human affair. Computers and word processors can take tremendous masses of data and bring order out of them in seconds or less. However, the information fed into the computer comes from materials received from the activity of the human mind that has worked over endless reports. What impact any computer data will have requires the services of the writer to use it in relevant and pertinent proposals, reports, memoranda, letters, and the like. Thus, the computer needs human services for both its input and use of its output—and both ends depend upon the accuracy and completeness of written researched material.

The commodities of industry are products and reports. The importance of written communication in putting a product on the market is evident in the simple cycle represented in Figure 1. As it shows, reports are essential for the original development and manufacture of a product, for marketing it, for improving it, for marketing the improved product, for replacing or changing its style or function, and for marketing the emerging new product.

The cycle is also relevant to business and professional services. Any new business venture or professional activity or program must begin with an idea and progress through related stages of development-from research to first proposal, to improvement, to expansion, to adaptation, perhaps to acceptance. Each stage results from a written report based on further study, research, or evaluation; each stage requires the persuasion of the involved groups to support or accept the procedure or program. Thus, communication not only precedes any innovation, change, or promotion but also precipitates the action. The larger the business or the more important the professional commitment, the more crucial is the communication.

Writing is the principal means of transmitting scientific, technical, professional, and business information. New ideas, proposals, suggestions, or procedures, appearing in writing are available for critical study at another time and place or by other experts. It is the written word that ensures the protection for the individual, organization, supplier, labor group, competitor, stockholder, or anyone dependent on such information.

Writing is time consuming and often a lonely activity. There are no magic formulas or three easy steps for achieving good writing. To believe such means exist leads only to disillusionment. Fortunately, in any professional or executive capacity, writers are always working from strength. They write about familiar things or ideas learned through formal education, experience, or research.

Thus, since such writers already have access to the essential knowledge and data, they are in a better position to concentrate on how to say it—that is provide organized, accurate, easy-to-read and understandable messages for the intended audience. Furthermore, writing stimulates thinking and often serves to bring ideas into clearer focus.

Management implies control and control means communication. The lowest levels of work may require little writing. A good knowledge of technical procedures is often adequate. But as the professional rises to the supervisory and managerial levels and in salary, the amount of writing increases accordingly. The top level responsibility is virtually all communication and thinking.

Executives providing good suggestions at some high level conference are likely to be asked to put their thoughts in a memorandum or proposal for distribution in order to facilitate a more leisurely study and consideration of them. Individuals receiving this responsibility cannot request someone else to do this writing. The person who signs this type of report will receive the credit for the idea and possibly the promotion that might follow because of its importance to the company. A first position may result from an individual's technical knowledge; however, a next position may be more dependent on the level of his or her communication skills. The following statement of Peter F. Drucker makes this point very clear:

"As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or written word."

Thus, good writing is the channel for personal advancement as well as for company or corporate change and expansion.