Tacit vs. Explicit Knowledge

In his 1995 book *The Knowledge-Creating Company*, management scholar Ikujiro Nonaka divided knowledge into two types: **Tacit knowledge** exists within a person's intuition and physical experience—the "feel" of negotiating a price, the tone of voice used to soothe a client, or the intuition to judge a client's budget. **Explicit knowledge** has been written down into text, documents, or systems—price lists, SOPs, and QA databases.

Nonaka's core insight: **Organizational competitiveness comes from the continuous cycle of "Tacit to Explicit" conversion** (the SECI model). Organizations that rely solely on tacit knowledge face a "knowledge earthquake" every time an employee is hired or resigns. Only after tacit knowledge is externalized does it become an "organizational asset" rather than "someone's memory."

When a consultant leaves with the pricing logic for 300 clients, it isn't just betrayal; it is the inevitable fate of tacit knowledge—you never gave it the chance to become explicit.