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We are on the edge to something in the World Economy. But what? Can system science give another holistic understanding? What is the core of the new actuality?
Recently we have seen the problems and failures as signals of emerging new realities. Famous cases from the financial sector are Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers in the United States, UBS in Switzerland, Royal Bank of Scotland in UK, and many more.
There are also very prominent and interesting positive cases like Microsoft, Google, Skype, and IKEA. Is there a new type of value chain? Perhaps, as stated by late professor Richard Normann, this value chain can be reframed into a new Value Constellation (Normann, 2001) or an inverted value chain as suggested by research from among others E. Ossiansson, Gothenburg University, Sweden.
It is time to both observe the signals and tentative pattern. For this we need to phrase a kind of Quizzics that will help us to see and understand what is happening from several perspectives—a holistic intelligence for better Knowledge Navigation. Knowledge Navigation might be seen as a way to remove the barriers and obstacles in uncovering new opportunity spaces and the many doors around.
The problems we are facing are also calling for another ecological approach to economics, not just harvesting maximum. For the IC we need to go to the epistemological dimensions, meaning that IC stands for Derived Insights about the most important /Head Value for our Future. IC can then be differentiated to different types such as Intellectual Capability, Intellectual Capacity, Intellectual Competencies, etc. If knowledge is not just in our heads or an object, but seen as a relationship, we need to discover new ways for navigating into the unknown, especially related to the intangibles, to be able to develop a universe of not value chains but value stars, as stated by late R. Normann.
Will the Knowledge Era be replaced by some other era? Early signs indicate that we are moving into more and more intangible perspectives; therefore, the next era might be called the Mind Era, according to Professor Csaba Varga, at the Institute of Strategic Research in Budapest, Hungary (Varga & Ugrin, 2008).
Will there emerge on the national level some new dimensions of knowledge democracy? Emerging research and prototyping is already under way in Hungary, Croatia, UK and many other places. This could be another interesting space for Systems Science, and for societal innovations.
Knowledge Navigation is a complex and compounded challenging issue, especially when the global knowledge flow, like multiple waves at the sea is rolling in on the beach every 24 hour. At Lund University the late professor Stefan Dedijer inspired a starting point for the subject on Quizzics—the art and science of questioning. This is a fundamental dimension for both the navigation in the knowledge based economy as well as the future. A good question is triggering the brain to develop new connections or synapses. A good question might be more focused on whom than what, i.e. relationship rather than object.