Many years back a retiring executive of Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunication company which held substantial shareholding in the Malaysian telecommunication company Digi, made this interesting observation about how businesses were conducted in Malaysia. He said that many business people were keenly aware that to do business in Malaysia, you first need the 'know-who' to win the business, and then followed by 'know-how' to get the work done.
This executive had just returned from Malaysia after his posting at Digi. He concluded, through his observation, that the Malaysian way of conducting business did not follow closely the 'know-who' to 'know-how' sequence as people would like to believe. It was more like a 'know-who' then followed by 'now-how'.
So what is the difference between 'know-how' and 'now-how'? For a start, 'know-how' suggests that the company getting the business from 'know-who' would still know how to go about getting the work done. As for 'now-how', the company that just won the business from 'know-who' would probably be praying for some divine guidance on how to get the work completed.
Go figure the difference.
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