Every single company lose it every day.

Most don’t know what to do about it.

And very few realise how much it costs them.

I’m talking about tribal knowledge.

What the Hell is Tribal Knowledge?

Tribal knowledge is that experience-based know-how that is invaluable in a company.

It’s the shortcuts, fixes, workarounds, client preferences, vendor quirks, and subtle “this is how we reallydo it here” knowledge that makes an organisation tick.

It’s the senior engineer who knows which part fails most often, why and how to fix it.

The sales rep who has built unspoken trust with the client that has become not only loyal, but an advocate of the company.

The support rep who has answered the same question a hundred times, and knows exactly how to phrase it so that the customer says “thanks!” instead of getting frustrated.

In many ways, it’s what makes your company personable, efficient and profitable. Because repeated sales don’t happen by chance.

But here’s the catch: Tribal Knowledge is also a huge vulnerability.

The Fragile Nature of Tribal Knowledge

John, that veteran engineer that knew all the tricks of the trade retires. No more training of newbies to get them up to speed available.

Paul is a top performer project manager that felt abandoned by the lack of communication with other departments, so he accepts another offer somewhere else.

Caroline, an experienced support rep moves to a different team because the workload is killing her love for customer service.

These are real people, key people in your company that you are actively losing right now. And with them, their critical knowledge walks out the door. Or worse—it never even got shared in the first place.

But when people go, it’s too late, because that critical knowledge go with them.

Mayhem that Lasted for Months

I experienced first hand what it means to have a key performing colleague leaving in one day.

Because my colleague’s know-how was somewhere in private chats, in email threads, stored in their memory, it took me and another colleague nearly 8 months to deal not only with their additional workload, but also the additional time (we did not have) to work out where to find the information we needed. And of course, some situations did slip down the cracks.

What a frustrating and embarrassing situation that was, for everyone involved..!

Because, make no mistake, both the organisation and the people in the company pay the price of that loss of knowledge.

The funny part? Many companies don’t even realise knowledge loss is a problem.

It’s not just “an HR Problem”

We often treat the management of knowledge as an afterthought, or an IT tool to check off the list. But loss of tribal knowledge is actually a strategic risk.

It slows normal daily work.

It increases turnover.

It drives up costs. (Rehiring and retraining, anyone?)

It weakens customer trust. It makes companies dependent on a few key people and don’t foster collaboration.

And especially in industries with high complexity (manufacturing, automotive, engineering, professional services) this problem gets even more expensive.

It’ not an isolated HR issue that nobody knows (but them) about…! We are all affected by it. HR is just the top of the iceberg.

What if we flipped the script?

Imagine if all that hard-won experience didn’t vanish, but it travelled naturally across people, teams, and departments.

If capturing knowledge wasn’t a chore, but part of how work gets done

And what if your top performers had a simple way to get visibility and recognition as the expert in the company for sharing their know-how?

Companies that make tribal knowledge visible and shareable see real gains in speed, efficiency, employee satisfaction, and yes…revenue!

I’m not talking about just another “knowledge management’’ tool. It’s about having a system that supports your organisation to work dynamically.

This is the space we’re exploring at Phlow.

We don’t believe in creating another static repository that no one uses.

A company’s real knowledge isn’t just in data—it’s in people.

That’s why we built Phlow as a system where AI agents support people instead of replacing them.  Our AI-powered system turns individual expertise into collective intelligence ensuring company knowledge isn’t lost, but shared, grown, and always accessible.

Phlow bridges the gap between what’s documented and what’s known without any additional work.

If you are actively thinking about how to stop the loss of knowledge in your company,

Let’s connect. We can help.