We help our clients create space—space that enables them to focus on their core work, on innovation and improvement, and on achieving agility and compliance.
These days, there’s no longer any excuse for wasting knowledge. PNA was originally founded by Professor Sjir Nijssen to enable the genuine transfer of knowledge—whether between people or between people and machines—in a way that’s understandable and user-friendly. In doing so, he quickly identified the greatest common denominator as the fundamental ingredient—our own (natural) language—but with a well-thought-out underlying structure and approach.
Through a series of successive inventions (NIAM, ORM2, Information Science, Knowledge Science, cogNIAM®) and the establishment of international knowledge modeling standards (e.g., BPMN, DMN, and SBVR), every person and every organization is now able to sustainably preserve knowledge and apply it productively. It is no coincidence that one of PNA’s earlier slogans was: “Knowledge Science: the reading, arithmetic, and writing of the knowledge society.” Knowledge is, especially in the times we live in—and by definition in a modern knowledge economy—a valuable asset. We are able to bring knowledge to life, to “mobilize” knowledge!
At the same time, we continue to observe that knowledge is being squandered in all corners of our society and is not being put to good use. We fail to learn from mistakes, there is a lack of clarity regarding meaning, and knowledge is too heavily concentrated among a limited number of specific individuals because it is not adequately documented. At the very least, this leads to misunderstandings, but it can, of course, have far more dramatic consequences.
PNA positions itself as a “knowledge partner.” PNA remains, in the spirit of what Sjir once envisioned, a company that combats the waste of knowledge. It’s no coincidence that our mission is to prevent the waste of knowledge. We do this, as Paul Iske always puts it, to fight against “organized stupidity.” If you don’t have a complete overview and understanding, you’ll quickly end up working at cross-purposes or working against one another. The fight against organized stupidity is, of course, closely related to preventing knowledge waste and knowledge distortion. Many organizations still fail to preserve their knowledge in an accessible way—which leads to panic when employees with specific or rare knowledge leave. We help prevent that panic. We strive to help organizations (as well as society as a whole) benefit from brilliant failures—make mistakes, learn from them, and use that experience to improve. This is only possible if you make the knowledge gained “visible” and (re)utilize it.
Waste is, of course, always a shame. It costs a lot of time and money—time and money that go up in smoke and don’t contribute to an organization’s value. How wonderful would it be if the resources that are currently being wasted could be used for something more useful? That’s why our vision is: “We help our clients create space. Space that enables them to focus on their core work, on innovation and improvement, and on achieving agility and compliance. We do this by providing insight and genuine understanding. We dare to be different!”