Dave Snowden is Director of IBM's Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity, which focuses on the application of complexity theory to organisational issues. A native of Wales, he was formerly a Director in the Institute for Knowledge Management where he led programmes on complexity and narrative. He pioneered the use of narrative as a means of knowledge disclosure and cross-cultural understanding. Subsequently he has worked on the integration of learning and knowledge using models derived from complexity science. This has resulted in pragmatic techniques the simulation of social networks, Just-in Time Knowledge management, oral history as an alternative to Intellectual Capital Management Systems and the integration of complexity and narrative models into advanced decision support tools for strategy formation, scenario planning, innovation, branding and cultural change/integration. He is a leading keynote speaker at major conferences around the world and is known for his iconoclastic style, pragmatic cynicism and extensive use of stories to communicate what would otherwise be difficult concepts. Tom Stewart, the new editor of Harvard Business Review in his latest book states in the context of tacit knowledge "Dave Snowden, the best thinker I've found on the subject ..." although by way of counter he also comments "he is Welsh and a bit mad".
With others, he is currently working on a major research programme under DARPA funding, looking at both policy formation and operational strategy for asymmetric threat as part of a general programme on anti-terrorism. One of the outputs of this work is a radical new approach to strategy in organisations which is now being adopted commercially. The Cynefin model which lies at the heart of the approach has been recognised by several commentators as one of the first practical application of complexity theory to management science and builds on earlier pioneering work in Knowledge Management.
Dave Snowden has an MBA from Middlesex University and a BA in Philosophy from Lancaster University. He is adjunct Professor of Knowledge Management at the University of Canberra, an honorary fellow in knowledge management at the University of Warwick and MiNE Fellow at the Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore. He teaches on various university programmes throughout the world. He regularly consults at the board level with some of the world's largest companies as well as to government and NGOs. In addition he sits on a number of advisory and other bodies including the British Standards Institute committee on standards for Knowledge Management.