Revelation

My story is a tale of fairy godmothers, magiks and heroic struggles; a tale of smiting, sorrow and triumph.

Long ago, in a kingdom far away called SITEL I led a contented life learning to wield Smartphone Magiks.

until Dark Economy became tanked…

grew Wicked…

and did smite the entire castle.

Yea, verily did this distress me mightily.

Thus began The Heroic Struggle....

I didn't think I was going to like HIT.

My inner Princess is the sort of free spirit whose heart speeds up for Champions like Anonymous, whose battle cry is "Knowledge wants to be free!"

but in HIT, indiscreet discussions have disastrous consequences.

My inner Princess loves creativity and innovation …HIT is all about rigid, inflexible rules.

I flunked out of the program in the second semester.

Miraculously, I was re-accepted,

thanks to my 3 "practically perfect in every way" fairy godmothers (Mary Poppins Stanley, Mary Poppins Conn, and Mary Poppins McKelvey) I pressed on in the pursuit of an HIT degree.

First, I was given the gift of a profound professional Purpose.

The Second gift was a Place where I fit in that profession.

And then, during this last semester, two Magikal things happened.

I discovered my professional Purpose during my clinicals at Winfield's Northwest Regional during the Breast Cancer Awareness pumpkin decorating contest.

The HIT department entry was Cinderella's coach, titled: "Everyone deserves a happily ever after...” and tears stung my eyes.

As I thought, “One more day of life to make a difference…one more day to love and be loved…one more day to create a happily ever after.”

While exploring AHIMA's career path planning tool, I found my Place; something that gave my inner Princess a sense of belonging.

My view of HIT changed dramatically when I saw a position called Chief Knowledge Officer.

While researching that title,I found an article by Nick Bontis: RISING STAR OF THE CHIEF KNOWLEDGE OFFICER

that had this to say about knowledge management :

"...[the] strategic impact [of the knowledge being developed in an organization] should never be in question. From the capture, codification and dissemination of information, to the acquisition of new competencies through training and development, to the re-engineering of business processes, one very important thing is apparent: Present and future success will be based less on the strategic allocation of physical and financial resources, and more on the strategic management of knowledge assets.

..."The capacity to manage knowledge is a critical skill, and perhaps the critical skill of this era....If there is one distinguishing feature of the knowledge economy, it is the ascendancy and primacy of intellectual capital."

Knowledge management contributes heavily to profitability *In 1962, economist Fritz Machlup concluded that 34.5 per cent of the gross national product of the United States was produced by the information sector. *A decade and a half later (1972), researcher Marc Porat raised that figure to more than 46 per cent. *In 1989, Charles Handy suggested that the intellectual assets of a corporation were usually worth three or four times its book value.

*From 1997-2000, the Ford Motor Company saved $914 million, mainly due to effective knowledge management programs; *Chevron has saved $650 million since 1991, *Texas Instruments has saved $1 billion since it launched KM programs in the mid-1990s;

"One of the purest examples of intellectual capital valuation exists in the consulting industry. McKinsey & Company, one of the industry leaders, does not employ traditional marketing methods; its clients come knocking on its door in their quest to find the best analytical knowledge available. McKinsey generally sells its intellectual capital in teams of five consultants, each led by a senior partner.

Remarkably, clients are willing to pay for the transfer of this knowledge at an average annual rate of $500,000 per consultant - or higher."

He goes on to say: "I have interviewed more than 25 CKOs from around the world and found that they had two principal functional backgrounds: 1) information systems personnel … and 2) professionals who were able to understand value alignment, incentive mechanisms and social networking behaviour, all of which encourage deliberate knowledge exchange. The CKOs claimed that in order to succeed in the future, they would need 1) more slack time for dreaming, thinking and talking, and 2) more high-level support from CEOs and board members."

My inner Princess is delighted and very proud to be an RHIT candidate from the Wallace State program.

Will you please stand and join me in heartfelt thanks to those who have worked harder than we did to make it possible?