Should Knowledge Management be Mandatory?

Question

Should Knowledge Management be Mandatory?
in my opinion yes!, and that is not because I am a so-called Knowledge Management Consultant or Practitioner, but more because I can see what KM has to offer and at the simplest level it is ‘Good Business Practice’ (I don’t like the term ‘Best Practice’ because it conjures up ideas that it is best and there is no room for improvement!  So why should organizations adopt Knowledge Management?
I have been saying for the last 4 – 5 years that Knowledge Management should be mandatory. I worked for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) for 23 Years, and been involved in Procurement and Project Management on Defence Equipment for about 11 years, and involved with ‘Knowledge Management’ for about 8 years; and sharing Knowledge for a lot longer, and have experienced the impact of not utilising Knowledge Management.
Purely based on my experience with the MOD, I believe that KM should be mandatory not only within the MOD Procurement Function, but also a contractual requirement on any contractor that wants to supply goods and services to the MOD. You may well ask why?, but if we look at Defence Contractors supplying to the MOD; as the Head of Procurement surely you would ask yourself this question; “Would I place a large Multi-Million (possibly Multi-Billion) contract with a company that wasn't protecting the key Knowledge associated with that contract?”
It sounds stupid doesn't it?,...but it is happening everywhere, and the consequences are disastrous and very costly; look at the US Government - and here I will return to my favourite scare story (sorry but this is just the greatest reason to implement KM); how the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) "lostknowledge" and it cost them $69 million -http://www.heraldscotland.com/how-the-us-forgot-how-to-make-trident-missiles-1.826976).
See the full Script at Scribd; http://www.scribd.com/doc/36348146/Knowledge-Management-Should-It-Be-Mandatory.

Taxonomy