RENUKA Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management An Insight
A PROJECT REPORT ON
CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AN INSIGHT
SUBMITTED BY MERAJ AHMED FOR THE DEGREE OF
TY.BMS
THE BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MRS VAISHALI SINGH
DNYANSADHANA COLLEGE THANE ( W ) , MUMBAI 400604 ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-2013
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DECLARATION
I, MERAJ AHMED OF THE DNYANSADHANA COLLEGE THANE ( W) , HEREBY DECLARE THAT I HAVE COMPLETED THE PROJECT ENTITLED CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AN INSIGHT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE THIRD YEAR OF THE BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES COURSE FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-2013 I FURTHER DECLARE THAT INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY ME IS TRUE AND ORIGINAL TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.
DATED:
MERAJ AHMED Name of the student
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ACKNOWLEDEGEMENT
I EXPRESS MY SINCERE THANKS TO PROF VAISHALI SINGH FOR HER VALUABLE GUIDANCE IN DOING THIS PROJECT. I WISH TO TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS MY DEEP SENCE OF GRATITUDE TO PRINCIPAL N.S SANE and PROF. (Mrs.) VAISHALI SINGH FOR THEIR INVALUABLE GUIDANCE AND SUPPORT IN THIS ENDEAVOUR. THEY HAVE BEEN A CONSTANT SOURCE OF INSPIRATION. FINALLY IT IS THE FOREMOST DUTY TO THANK ALL MY RESPONDENTS, FAMILY & FRIENDS WHO HAVE HELPED ME DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN COMPLETING MY FIELD WORK, WITHOUT WHICH THIS PROJECT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL.
MERAJ AHMED Name of the student
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sr. No 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MGMT? SUDDEN INTERST IN KM KM-A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE RPG KM-THAT CREATES VALUE THE ROADBLOCKS COMPANIES IMPLEMENTING KM TECHNOLOGY ROLE IN KM KM & TRAINING PROFESSIONAL KM & HRM RECOMMENDATION & FINDINGS ICICI Page no
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice. An
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Knowledge Management An Insight established discipline since 1995, KM includes courses taught in the fields of business administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences. More recently, other fields, to include those focused on information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy, also have started contributing to KM research. Many large companies and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their 'Business Strategy', 'Information Technology', or 'Human Resource Management' departments. Several consulting companies also exist that provide strategy and advice regarding KM to these organizations. KM efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement. KM efforts overlap, and may be distinguished from by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the exchange of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organizational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organization, and to adapt to changing environments and markets. Through this report I have tried to explain the concept of knowledge management and tried to gain an insight of the same.
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Knowledge
It is widely acknowledged that knowledge is one of the most important assets of organizations. Especially companies in industrialized countries with high wages can only compete on the global market when offering products that are based on
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Knowledge Management An Insight advanced technology or when trading the technology itself, thus having an advantage over companies in countries with low salaries. These companies depend on highly educated and skilled employees as well as on short innovation cycles, high flexibility and creativity. One of the prerequisites to achieving this is a systematic management of the key success factor "knowledge".
"Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody, either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action." - Peter F. Drucker in The New Realities The major issue about knowledge is that it is: Vital to the continued operation and development of organizations and their plans; Expensive to acquire and valuable once you have acquired it; But intractable: difficult to understand, assess, obtain, retain, share and protect: difficult to manage.
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Kinds of Knowledge
There are two kinds of knowledge: Explicit - Included are assets such as patents, trademarks, business plans, marketing research and customer lists. As a general rule of thumb, explicit knowledge consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified, often with the help of IT. Tacit - Much harder to grasp is the concept of tacit knowledge, or the knowhow contained in people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it. While IT in the form of e-mail, groupware, instant messaging and related technologies can help facilitate the dissemination of tacit knowledge; identifying tacit knowledge in the first place is a major hurdle for most organizations. Explicit knowledge can be articulated in formal language and transmitted among individuals, and tacit knowledge, is the personal knowledge embedded in individual experience and involving such intangible factors as personal belief, perspective, and values. The interaction between these two forms of knowledge is the key dynamics of knowledge creation in the business administration.
Knowledge is created through four different modes:

Socialization, which involves conversion from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge, Externalization, which involves conversion from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, Combination, which involves conversion from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge, and Internalization, which involves conversion from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge.
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Knowledge Management An Insight The dominant model of inquiring systems is limited in its ability to foster shared experience necessary for relating to others' thinking processes thus limiting its utility in socialization. It may, by virtue of its ability to convert tacit knowledge into explicit forms such as metaphors, analogies and models, have some utility in externalization. This utility is however restricted by its ability to support dialogue or collective reflection. The current model of inquiring systems, apparently, may have greater role in combination, which involves combining different bodies of explicit knowledge, and internalization, which involves knowledge transfer through verbalizing or diagramming into documents, manuals and stories. A more explicit recognition of tacit knowledge and related human aspects, such as ideals, values, or emotions, is necessary for developing a richer conceptualization of knowledge management. The close connection between this viewpoint and the interpretation of knowledge as action is clear. Another way to think of it is that tacit knowledge implies a period of "apprenticeship." Tacit knowledge, must be recorded, made formal, in order to become an organizational resource and not just individual proficiency. What is internal must be articulated and made explicit.
Enterprises are realizing how important it is to "know what they know" and be able to make maximum use of the knowledge. This knowledge resides in many different places such as: Databases, Knowledge bases, Filing cabinets and Peoples heads And are distributed right across the enterprise. All too often one part of an enterprise repeats work of another part simply because it is impossible to keep track of, and make use of, knowledge in other parts. Enterprises need to know:
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What their knowledge assets are and How to manage and make use of these assets to get maximum return. Most traditional company policies and controls focus on the tangible assets of the company and leave unmanaged their important knowledge assets.
Knowledge assets
Not all information is valuable. Therefore, it's up to individual companies to determine what information qualifies as intellectual and knowledge-based assets Knowledge assets are the knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organizations, that a business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes to generate profits, add value, etc. Knowledge management is not only about managing these knowledge assets but also managing the processes that act upon the assets. These processes include: developing knowledge; preserving knowledge; using knowledge, and sharing knowledge. There are several types of knowledge - 'knowing' a fact is little different from Unlike information, knowledge is less tangible depends on human cognition and awareness. and
'information', but 'knowing' a skill, or 'knowing' that something might affect market conditions is something, that despite attempts of knowledge engineers to codify such knowledge, has an important human dimension. It is some combination of context sensing, personal memory and cognitive processes. Measuring the knowledge asset, therefore, means putting a value on people, both as individuals and more importantly on their collective capability, and other factors such as the embedded intelligence in an organizations computer systems.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Therefore, Knowledge management involves the identification and analysis of available and required knowledge assets and knowledge asset related processes, and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop both the assets and the processes so as to fulfill organizational objectives. Success in an increasingly competitive marketplace depends critically on the quality of knowledge, which organizations apply to their key business processes. For example the supply chain depends on knowledge of diverse areas including raw materials, planning, manufacturing and distribution. Likewise product development requires knowledge of consumer requirements, new science, new technology, marketing etc. The challenge of deploying the knowledge assets of an organization to create competitive advantage becomes more crucial as: The marketplace is increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising, so that knowledge must evolve and be assimilated at an ever-faster rate. Corporations are organizing their businesses to be focused on creating customer value. Staff functions are being reduced, as are management structures. There is a need to replace the informal knowledge management of the staff function with formal methods in customer aligned business processes. Competitive pressures are reducing the size of the workforce, which holds this knowledge. Knowledge takes time to experience and acquire. Employees have less and less time for this. There are trends for employees to retire earlier and for increasing mobility, leading to loss of knowledge. There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies a re trans-national sourcing operations. A change in strategic direction may result in the
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Knowledge Management An Insight loss of knowledge in a specific area. A subsequent reversal in policy may then lead to a renewed requirement for this knowledge, but the employees with that knowledge may no longer be there.
Chapter 2
What is Knowledge Management?

There are essentially two perspectives on Knowledge Management. The first views knowledge as an object that can be captured and transferred. The second views knowledge as a process that is unique to each individual. Each perspective contributes to the possibilities. The first led to the development of systems that encourage the efficient collection
and dissemination of knowledge. The second led to the creation of "communities of practice," or groups of individuals who communicate because they share work practices, a profession or other interests.
What is important to remember about KM is that it's not just one initiative; it's the integration of many initiatives working together to ensure that knowledge is created and shared throughout organizations. How exactly this is done is unique to each organization. Unfortunately, there's no universal definition of KM, just as there's no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. For this reason, it's best to think of KM in the broadest context. Succinctly put, KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices. It's important to note that
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Knowledge Management An Insight the definition says nothing about technology; while KM is often facilitated by IT, technology by itself is not KM. Think of a golf caddie as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. Good caddies do more than carry clubs and track down wayward balls. When asked, a good caddie will give advice to golfers, such as, "The wind makes the ninth hole play 15 yards longer." Accurate advice may lead to a bigger tip at the end of the day. On the flip side, the golfer having derived a benefit from the caddie's advice may be more likely to play that course again. If a good caddie is willing to share what he knows with other caddies, then they all may eventually earn bigger tips. How would KM work to make this happen? The caddie master may decide to reward caddies for sharing their tips by offering them credits for pro shop merchandise. Once the best advice is collected, the course manager would publish the information in notebooks (or make it available on PDAs), and distribute them to all the caddies. The end result of a well-designed KM program is that everyone wins. In this case, caddies get bigger tips and deals on merchandise, golfers play better because they benefit from the collective experience of caddies, and the course owners win because better scores lead to more repeat business. The trade publications, often driven by a technology-centric focus, often confuse the topic of Knowledge Management with Information Management and Data Management. These are related but different topics! Unless the fundamental problems related to assumptions and paradigms underlying the disciplines and practices of Information Management and Data Management are not systematically addressed, these would continue to hobble substantive research and practice contributions critical for sustained growth and competence of individual, organizational, institutional and governmental systems for managing knowledge.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Human beings are capable of locating and accessing large amounts of data in the service of the organization. But what of the data if the people are not capable of translating it into useful products or services? We rely on technology to solve problems without acknowledging the necessity of human and technological resources working in concert to this end.
Chapter 3
Sudden interest in knowledge and KM

Why the sudden emphasis on knowledge?
Three reasons stand out. First, the nation's economy is shifting away from the production of tangible products, such as steel, cars and soap, toward such intangibles as services and software. Companies that find knowledge and use it to their advantage compete better in the marketplace. "If you look at the Standard and Poor Index, you'll find that 70 percent of companies' value is in intangible assets, such as knowledge and intellectual property," said Jane Patterson, North Carolina's senior adviser to the governor for science and technology. "That's how you create wealth today." Second, the workers who help create that wealth are no longer the loyal employees of yesterday. They switch jobs more frequently than their parents ever "During the past 10 years, the private sector has found it can no longer count on people staying for 25 years," said Mark Tucker, senior analyst with Delphi Group, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass. did. "There's a lot of turmoil and turnover. Companies can no longer rely on their intellectual resources to stay." As a result, companies are turning to knowledge management to capture worker knowledge.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Third, there's been a growing realization that investments in information technology haven't paid off in performance. What's absent is worker creativity and innovation fueled by knowledge. "There's been too much emphasis on treating people as passive recipients of technology," he said, "and not enough emphasis on individual enterprise." To reverse this syndrome and to keep pace with the rapid change in the world today, organizations are moving from the command-driven approach used by information systems to a more knowledge-based approach of finding, compiling and distributing information.
Why is there so much interest in knowledge management suddenly?

With most business being connected to the World Wide Web, theres an information overload that needs software-based knowledge management solutions. Companies are being to realize the need to leverage that knowledge for competitive advantage in their area of business. According to a recent IDC report, knowledge management services will become an $8 billion market in 2003, growing from $1.3 billion in 1999.
In fact, a recent KPMG study states that 81 per cent of surveyed executives already have or were considering a knowledge management programme. The IDC report too gives credence to the view that knowledge management isnt a passing fancy.
The knowledge management software market alone is estimated to grow from $1.4 billion in 1999 to a substantial $5.4 billion in 2004. It has been predicted that enterprises lacking a KM programme will be way by as much as 30 to 40 per cent compared to those who have a programme in place. RPG, Piramal Enterprises, Ranbaxy Laboratories, AFL, Madura Garments are a just few of the companies trying to bring some method to the knowledge madness. They join an exclusive global club comprising, among others, BP Amoco, Kodak, Dell
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Knowledge Management An Insight Computers, Microsoft, Andersen Consulting, McKinsey which are trying to create what Bill Gates called "a digital nervous system". KM is merely a fancy name for putting in place a formal system for capturing what your organization, people and systems have learnt over the years - even simple tools like putting all the visiting cards, names and addresses of people everyone knows all in one place -- to share crucial business insights and data across functions and processes. Didn't everybody keep knowledge somewhere and access it whenever needed? So why indulge in formal KM? There are two reasons One: "Knowledge tends to reside in pockets, you need to link them," emphasises Vasant Kumar, director (strategic planning) and chief information officer at Ranbaxy. Project Diamond at Ranbaxy aims to create a ubiquitous digital backbone. Two, as technology and capital are available to almost everybody at the same price; they are no longer barriers to entry. But knowledge, and more importantly, experience, is. By harnessing the knowledge of experience, BP Amoco shaved about $300 million off costs through its own version of KM. Also, employees spend fewer years in each job, and thus often leave companies with knowledge in their heads, which the business dearly requires but can't access.
How is KM different from what has been done before?

New technologies have changed the way organizations view and use knowledge. Information can now be collected, analyzed and distributed in ways not previously possible.
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Database programs help collect, filter and make sense of this information. Groupware allows communities of practice to grow beyond the limits of time and place. Intranets and the Internet make it possible to disseminate information to millions simultaneously. Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) can be used to support cognitive skills and provide technical expertise. But it's not just technology that is driving the excitement around Knowledge Management. KM is exciting because it makes sense to executives. They know that there are rich resources nestled in the minds and hearts of their organizations. They want access to those resources and to hold onto them as the organization and its personnel change. Geography and management are also fueling the interest in KM. Employees are everywhere and often on their own because they are mobile or the only person in a remote location. Organizations are leaner and there are fewer middle managers to coordinate the flow of information. KM helps people and ideas reach each other. At the same time, the bulk of the work that needs to get done falls under the umbrella of "knowledge work." Leading businesses, like Microsoft, Intel, or Yahoo! are less about selling products or services and more about providing services, knowledge and innovation.
Information can now be collected, analyzed and distributed in ways not previously possible. What's different is that while people have always needed knowledge to do their work, now knowledge (using, sharing and creating) has become the work.
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Chapter 4
Knowledge Management A Strategic Perspective

"In the emerging economy, a firm's only advantage is its ability to leverage and utilize its knowledge."
We are living in an economy of kaleidoscopic change where the only element, which is constant, is change. The industry environment is being influenced by unexpected, multiple changes reducing the period for which organizations can hold on to a competitive advantage. Every sector of industry in every corner of the globe has been affected by this change.
Strategy concepts and frameworks

Strategy is a method/plan adopted by a firm to balance its external environment (opportunities and threats) and the internal capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) Various management consultants and thinkers have defined the process of strategy in various ways. Porters model focused on defining a firms strategy in terms of its product/ market positioning. Building on Porters notion of competitive advantage, the resource based view of strategy argues that the resources and capabilities of an organization can be a source of competitive advantage if they possess certain characteristics of being rare, durable and difficult to imitate and flexible and durable. If firms have resources with these characteristics, they can position themselves strategically on the basis of these resources and capabilities. Most of the tangible resources may not have these characteristics and hence organizations have to focus on intangible assets to be a source of competitive advantage. Many authors have stressed on the strategic importance of intangible assets for firms to achieve competitive advantage
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Knowledge Management An Insight They define the term dynamic capabilities as follows: The term dynamic refers to the shifting character of the environment; certain strategic responses are required when time-to-market and timing is critical, the pace of innovation is accelerating and the nature of future competition and markets is difficult to determine. The term capabilities emphasizes the key role of strategic management in appropriately adapting, integrating, and re-configuring internal and external organizational skills, resources and functional competencies toward changing environment". The emphasis, from this definition, is on adapting to the changing environment, through organizational learning and innovation, for which knowledge is the base. This knowledge based view of strategy, which emphasizes building, and sustaining competitive advantage on the basis of the knowledge resources and capabilities of a firm has gained currency due to the following reasons Market is in a state of flux and going through a string of realignments Resources and capabilities are easily replicable The unprecedented growth of information superhighway has accelerated the spread of explicit knowledge and consequently the speed of replicability Tacit knowledge gained through years of experience is not easily replicable. And hence any strategy based on market and product mix or resources and capabilities may not provide the firm with a sustainable competitive advantage. The importance of integration of knowledge available in the organization is also stressed upon by authors like Huff, who, argue that managers look upon collective
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Knowledge Management An Insight knowledge and experience in constructing mental models of strategic issues and terms this as strategic frames
AProcess of knowledge creation and dissemination

There are many ways in which knowledge can be created and disseminated across organization. Any organization that aims to create a knowledge management system should have to follow these general knowledge management initiatives. Creation of knowledge teams Sharing of best practices Development of knowledge databases Creation of knowledge centers Selection and use of collaborative technologies Creation of Intellectual capital teams Specifically, organizations could create knowledge portal in the organizational intranet, establish communities of practice and harness the knowledge gained by persons in an organization, through years of experience, through the processes of debriefing and mentoring.
Creativity, Innovation and knowledge strategy

Creativity and innovation play a very important role in designing and driving the business strategy of any present day organization. In the present industry scenario, an organization does not enjoy sustainable competitive advantage, merely by possessing resources and capabilities. They should be able to combine these resources in new and different ways or develop new capabilities to gain sustainable competitive advantage. This is possible through creative thinking and innovation.
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Experience &
New ways of combining existing resources Develop new capabilities
Creativit y&
Competiti ve advantage
Illustraton 1 Some of the innovations brought out by organizations are a result of application of new knowledge and the others are a result of working with and recasting existing knowledge, termed as architectural innovation and combinative capabilities Approach to competitive advantage Organizations pursue different strategies to align their KM strategies with the business strategies. Some of these strategies are
Strategy Codification strategy Personalization strategy Strategic Enterprise strategy management Intellectual capital
Focus Automation and application of IT Building a learning strategy of Building, managing, and exploiting knowledge-related assets in the best interest of the firm. Illustraton 2
effectiveness Applying all the available knowledge
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Conclusion
In the current industry scenario of flux and uncertainty, organizations cannot achieve sustainable competitive advantage, by pursuing just a product-market based strategy or a resource based strategy. They need to appreciate the importance of the knowledge existing in the organization and harness the knowledge through appropriate knowledge management strategies and align this strategy with the business strategy. Moreover, they also need to create new knowledge through creative methods and build new capabilities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
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Example 1
RPG
Imagine you are RPG Enterprises. You gross $1.6 billion in sales from scores of companies across industries like power, telecom, music, cables, retailing, tyres, tea, rubber and so on. Now you want to capture the knowledge that each business has, to save costs, propel its growth and fertilize cross learning. What will you do? That is a question V.S. Krishnan, president of group strategic planning at RPG Enterprises, is grappling with as he tries to put in place a 'formal' knowledge management (KM) system at RPG Enterprises. For starters, he's put together Knowledge Integration Process Systems (KIPs). In the beginning of the year, half a dozen key issues, like infotech, Y2K, supply chain management (SCM), are decided on. At a typical KIPs session, the CEOs and functional heads of all the businesses move to an off-site location. From 8 am to 6 pm, they sit around and exchange notes. As a result of exchanging best practices at KIPs session, the tea and rubber businesses have already saved over a crore of rupees. In the cable business, RPG is working towards shaving Rs 5 crore off supply chain costs, thanks to the session on SCM. And the list goes on. KIPs are just one part of the KM programme; among others are the intranet and a host of other initiatives. RPG has an intranet in place, which will capture historical facts and processes. "But for us to leverage our multi-industry presence, it was very important to create fora for horizontal dissemination of information," points out Krishnan. KIPs represent roughly what the top end of a good KM system should look like. Except for consultancies -- where capturing very rich, intangible insights and data could make the difference between keeping and losing a client -- processes to capture, share and organically grow from the knowledge collected are not in place in most industries.
Chapter 5
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THAT CREATE VALUE
STRATEGIES
There is no one-size-fits-all way to effectively tap a firm's intellectual capital. To create value, companies must focus on how knowledge is used to build critical capabilities.
A firm that had invested millions of dollars in a state-of-the-art intranet intended to improve knowledge sharing got some bad news: Employees were using it most often to retrieve the daily menu from the company cafeteria. The system was barely used in day-to-day business activities. Few executives would argue with the premise that knowledge management is critical but few know precisely what to do about it. There are numerous examples of knowledge-management programs intended to improve innovation, responsiveness and adaptability that fell short of expectations. Researchers at the Andersen Consulting Institute for Strategic Change have been exploring the roots of the problem and have developed a method to help executives make effective knowledge management a reality in their organizations. Much of the problem with knowledge management today lies in the way the subject has been approached by vendors and the press. Knowledge management is still a relatively young field, with new concepts emerging constantly. Often, it is portrayed simplistically; discussions typically revolve around blanket principles that are intended to work across the organization. For example, companies are urged to emulate knowledge-management leaders such as British Petroleum and Skandia. And most knowledge-management initiatives have focused almost entirely on changes in tools and technologies, such as intranets and Lotus Notes.
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Knowledge Management An Insight These approaches have little relevance for executives contending with the day-to-day reality of running a company. Knowledge management is complex and multifaceted; it encompasses everything the organization does to make knowledge available to the business, such as embedding key information in systems and processes, applying incentives to motivate employees and forging alliances to infuse the business with new knowledge. Effective knowledge management requires a combination of many organizational elementstechnology, human resource practices, organizational structure and culturein order to ensure that the right knowledge is brought to bear at the right time. Many companies have implemented sophisticated intranets; common repositories and other systems, largely ignoring the complex cultural issues that influence the way people behave around knowledge. By and large, those companies have seen little improvement in their ability to manage knowledge. Too often, companies implement state-of-the-art technology and then discover that culture and behavior are slow to change. In short, simplistic solutions and "one- size-fits-all" approaches leave executives with little in the way of practical advice about how to transform the entire knowledgemanagement system. What's more, this fuzziness makes it difficult for executives to see a clear link between their knowledge-management investments and business value. To help executives, a framework has been developed that associates specific knowledge-management strategies with specific challenges that companies face. Identifying what knowledge assets a company possesses
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Knowledge Management An Insight Where is the knowledge asset? What does it contain? What is its use? What form is it in? How accessible is it? Analyzing how the knowledge can add value What are the opportunities for using the knowledge asset? What would be the effect of its use? What are the current obstacles to its use? What would be its increased value to the company? Specifying what actions are necessary to achieve better usability & added value How to plan the actions to use the knowledge asset? How to enact actions? How to monitor actions? Reviewing the use of the knowledge to ensure added value Did the use of it produce the desired added value? How can the knowledge asset be maintained for this use? Did the use create new opportunities? This Knowledge Management Framework is based on the premise that the focus should be placed on the way knowledge is used to build the critical capabilities a company needs in order to succeedon the core processes and activities that enable it to compete.
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Knowledge Management An Insight For example; Enhancing a bank's know-how in evaluating credit risk, should result in reduced loan losses; improving a consumer products company's understanding of customer preferences should increase its percentage of successful new products. The framework begins by assessing and categorizing the way work is done in the core process.
Work can be evaluated along two dimensions.

First is the level of interdependence involvedthat is, the degree to which individuals and organizations need to collaborate and interact. Second is the complexity of work involvedthe degree to which employees need to apply their judgment and interpret a variety of information. Using these two factors, the Institute has identified four distinct categories of work, or "work models": Transaction model, in which there is a low degree of both interdependence and complexity. Work is typically routine, highly reliant on formal rules, procedures and training, and depends on a workforce that exercises little discretion. Integration model, in which there is a high degree of interdependence and a low degree of complexity. Work is systematic and repeatable, relies on formal processes, methodologies and standards, and depends on tight integration across functional boundaries. Expert model, in which there is low interdependence and high complexity. Work requires judgment and is dependent on "star performers." Collaboration model, in which there is a high degree of both interdependence and complexity. Work involves improvisation and learning by doing, and relies on deep expertise across functions and the use of flexible teams.
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The characteristics of the type of work will help determine which model works best Collaborativ e group Integration model
Systematic repeatable work Highly reliant on formal processes, methodologies and standards Dependant on tight integration across functional boundaries
Level of interdependence
Knowledge Management Framework: Work Models

Collaboration model
Improvisational work Highly reliant on deep expertise across multiple functions Dependant on fluid deployment of flexible teams
Transactional model
Routine work Highly reliant on formal rules, procedures and training Dependant on lowdiscretion workforce or automation
Expert model
Judgment-oriented work Highly reliant on individual expertise and experience Dependant on star performers
Individual actors Routine
Complexity of work
Interpreta tion/ judgment
Illustraton 3 In general, a given core process can be mapped to one of these four categories. For example, supply-chain management and procurement tend to fit into the integration model; the work in these processes is often routine, and activities generally span multiple functions and organizations. In comparison, marketing and financial management tend to be expert model work, requiring individuals in one functional area to apply their judgment to solve unanticipated problems. However, it is important to note that there are no hard-and-fast connections between a certain core process and a work model, because the same process can be performed in different ways. Sales, for example, can refer to individuals covering their respective territories (expert model) or to a supplier's multifunctional team working closely with a customer to maintain retail inventories (integration model). So the key
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Knowledge Management An Insight is to understand how work is performed; it is the nature of the work that determines the appropriate knowledge-management approach.
Importance of knowing the work model

Knowing the work model that's associated with the core process is important because each model presents its own distinct set of knowledge-management challenges. In the collaboration model, for example, a key challenge is the achievement of breakthrough innovation. To drive such innovation, a company needs to encourage risk-taking and bring together a variety of knowledge domains, such as research, product development, marketing and manufacturing, in order to solve complex problems. At one biotech company, the Institute found that increasingly complicated projects and the need for a growing number of scientific disciplines was making it harder to integrate activities into a coherent whole. Every point in the chain needs to know not just what the links above and below are, but also needs to have some idea of what the whole continuum is. In the expert model, on the other hand, the organization usually needs to focus on getting results from its star performers. To do so, companies must contend with issues such as attracting and motivating talented individuals and overcoming "silos" of information. For example, at one expert model company studied by the Institute, individuals had a tremendous amount of knowledge about products, but each person rarely knew what the others were doing. In one product area, managers discovered seven redundant research projects. In essence, the framework allows executives to gain a better understanding of their current knowledge-management practiceswhich in most companies have evolved
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Knowledge Management An Insight in an ad hoc, unconscious mannerand to identify the knowledge-management challenges associated with their core processes. From that specific diagnosis, it is a short step to prescribing specific remedies, because each set of challenges points to a handful of potential knowledge-management strategies. For example, the challenges in the transaction model are centered on the need to codify knowledge and ensure consistent performance.
Each work process can be aligned with a specific model Collaborative group Supply chain
management
Knowledge Management Framework: process mapping
Sourcing/ procurement Customer service / call center
Design and engineering
R&D
Exploratio n
Level of Interdependence
IM
dependence
New Product Developmen t Account Planning Marketing /advertisi ng Brand/produ ction management Supply chain management
Retail Operation s
Telemarketing
TM
Routine
Fabrication / Assembly
Individual actors
EM
Complexity of work
Interpreta tion/ judgment
Illustraton 4
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Knowledge Management An Insight Possible knowledge-management strategies would therefore include "automation" that embeds knowledge in systems, or perhaps "routinization," in which knowledge is built into policies and procedures, and training is aimed at standardizing workers' behavior. In the integration model, where the challenge is to orchestrate activity across various parts of the organization, executives might consider the adoption of standard processes or methodologies that integrate performance across functions. Or they might use softer measures that focus on the use of cross-functional teams, shared goals and feedback systems. In the expert model, knowledgeable individuals are key. Here, executives may recruit star performers away from other companies, or may choose to focus on programs that develop stars internally through long-term career-progression programs, apprenticeships, mentoring and training. And in the collaboration model, where the challenges revolve around creating breakthrough innovations, the choices may include "action-learning" strategies that encourage discovery through "skunkworks" and pilots, or "knowledge-linking" strategies that focus on learning through consortia and alliances. The framework also makes it possible to address all elements of the knowledgemanagement system as a wholetechnology, human resource practices, organization and culturebecause it focuses executives' attention on the capabilities their organizations need rather than on component solutions. Also, attention is shifted from broad, vague issues to a well-defined set of challenges that are specific to their business. They have a manageable number of targeted options, from which to choose, which makes it easier to formulate an integrated approach to changing organizational structure, technology, human resources and the work culture.
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Knowledge Management Framework: challenges

The barriers to success will vary with each model
Collaborativ e group
Integration model
Orchestrating across functions
Collaboration model Achieving

Learning through trial and error Knowledge linking across complex disciplines Sense making and decision making under uncertainty
Creating a common big picture Riving toward standard methods based on best practices Balancing functional objectives against the good of the whole
breakthrough innovations
Transactional model
Consistent low-cost performance
Expert model
Attracting and motivating stars Decreasing individual learning curves Reducing vulnerability to turnovers Overcoming expert tunnel Interpreta vision
Standardizing the inputs (people), outputs and processes Creating clear operating guidelines to control behaviors Overcoming low worker morale
Getting results from stars
Complexity of work
tion/ judgment
Illustraton 5 In addition to guiding improvements in today's core processes, the framework can also be used to help companies evolve and adapt to new conditions. Markets, customers, technology and competition are always changing. To thrive, companies must change over time as well, or their core capabilities may well become core rigidities that lead to obsolescence. As they strive to move in new directions, executives can use the framework to understand the knowledge-management systems that new capabilities will require. In the silicon-chip industry, for example, the design of new microchip manufacturing processes has always been considered something of an arta collaborative model type of effort involving a small cadre of experts, extensive experimentation and rapid learning to get it right. Now, however, with most personal computers selling for less than $1,000, chipmakers need to move to lower-cost approachesand to an
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Knowledge Management An Insight integration model of knowledge management, where the focus is on standardization, repeatable work and continuous improvement. The framework can help companies envision what their new knowledge-management approach should look like under their new strategy, and plot out a path that will take them there. At one highly successful financial services company, executives are using the framework to help identify today's knowledge-management challenges and constraints in the area of product development, and to help shape the company's approach to tomorrow's products. Currently, the company develops products under an expert model, with knowledgeable individuals driving the process. Although this model has been appropriate for incremental product developmentessentially, enhancements and extensions of existing offeringsit has rarely produced a real product innovation. The company believes that it may be falling behind in terms of bringing true breakthrough products to market, particularly in the area of e-Commerce. Executives want to build on traditional strengths to keep improving existing products, but they also recognize that they will need to take a different approach if the company is to maintain product leadership in its industry. So in the creation of electronic commerce products, the company is considering a move toward the collaboration model and the use of a skunkworks-style operation that relies on multidisciplinary teams and team incentives, rather than individual experts. Executives are also beginning to experiment with external alliances as a way to bring new knowledge into the company. Using the framework as a guide, the company has been able to gain a sophisticated understanding of how to improve its current knowledge-management systems and, at the same time, develop a sense of how it can manage knowledge to forge new capabilities for the long term.
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Collaborativ e group
Knowledge Management Framework: strategies

Each model suggests specific strategies to follow to help achieve success
Integration model
Integrated process Integrated teams Best practice benchmarking
Collaboration model
Strategic linking Knowledge linking Action learning
Transactional model
Expert model
Experienced hiring Apprenticeship /development Capability protection
That
Routinization Automation Productization
Illustraton 6
kind of evolutionary ability will

Complexity of work Interpreta tion/ judgment
become
increasingly
important in the coming years, as the demands of new markets and new competitors drive continuing shifts in corporate strategies. To support those strategies, companies will have to build new capabilities more and more rapidlyand so the ability to manage knowledge to support that change will be critical.
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Chapter 6
The roadblocks
Knowledge Management is a new concept and one, which is not easily defined. This makes its implementation and success a not so easy task. There are various problems and difficulties while dealing with the intangible asset knowledge and its management.
Problems with knowledge

Organizations suffer from specific characteristic problems associated with knowledge: Knowledge bottleneck: a particular skill or expertise is in short supply causing a bottleneck that restricts the operations that compete for that supply; Corporate amnesia: organizations fail to retain knowledge acquired and lessons learned in the past. The people who had the knowledge leave and no retrievable record remains; Sub-optimal decision-making: the best knowledge available fails to be applied correctly leading to sub-optimal decision-making; Wasted resources: since the organization does not really know what knowledge resources it has, it fails to capitalize on potential new initiatives. In business terms: Some knowledge resources are under-utilized or wasted completely; Some knowledge resources are over-stretched; The organization is exposed to many kinds of risk; The growth and development of the organization is restricted.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Despite the vital nature and value of knowledge, its apparent intractability has meant that it has not, in the past, received the direct attention of management that it deserves and needs. Knowledge has usually been only indirectly managed through human resources and information technology initiatives.
Why is Knowledge Management Difficult?

All these issues regarding knowledge and many problems associated with identifying these knowledge assets and being able to use them and manage them in an efficient and cost-effective manner make knowledge management difficult. Enterprises need: To have an enterprise-wide vocabulary to ensure that the knowledge is correctly understood; To be able to identify, model and explicitly represent their knowledge; To share and re-use their knowledge among differing applications for various types of users; this implies being able to share existing knowledge sources and also future ones; To create a culture that encourages knowledge sharing. Knowledge engineering methods and tools have come a long way towards addressing the use of a company's knowledge assets. They provide disciplined approaches to designing and building knowledge-based applications. There are tools to support the capture, modeling, validation, verification and maintenance of the knowledge in these applications. However these tools do not extend to supporting the processes for managing knowledge at all levels within the organization.
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Knowledge Management An Insight At the strategic level the organization needs to be able to analyze and plan its business in terms of the knowledge it currently has and the knowledge it needs for future business processes. At the tactical level the organization is concerned with identifying and formalizing existing knowledge, acquiring new knowledge for future use, archiving it in organizational memories and creating systems that enable effective and efficient application of the knowledge within the organization. At the operational level knowledge is used in everyday practice by professional personnel who need access to the right knowledge, at the right time, in the right location. The following are some of the challenges facing Knowledge Management
1. Getting Employees on Board

The major problems that occur in KM usually result because companies ignore the people and cultural issues. In an environment where an individual's knowledge is valued and rewarded, establishing a culture that recognizes tacit knowledge and encourages employees to share it is critical. The need to sell the KM concept to employees shouldn't be underestimated; after all, in many cases employees are being asked to surrender their knowledge and experience the very traits that make them valuable as individuals. One way companies motivate employees to participate in KM is by creating an incentive program. However, then there's the danger that employees will participate solely to earn incentives, without regard to the quality or relevance of the information they contribute.
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Knowledge Management An Insight The best KM efforts are as transparent to employees' workflow as possible. Ideally, participation in KM should be its own reward. If KM doesn't make life easier for employees, it will fail.
2. Allowing Technology to Dictate KM

KM is not a technology-based concept. Don't be duped by software vendors touting their all-inclusive KM solutions. Companies that implement a centralized database system, electronic message board, Web portal or any other collaborative tool in the hope that they've established a KM program are wasting both their time and money. While technology can support KM, it's not the starting point of a KM program. Make KM decisions based on who (people), what (knowledge) and why (business objectives). Save the how (technology) for last.
3. Not Having a Specific Business Goal

A KM program should not be divorced from a business goal. While sharing best practices is a commendable idea, there must be an underlying business reason to do so. Without a solid business case, KM is a futile exercise.
4. KM Is Not Static
As with many physical assets, the value of knowledge can erode over time. Since knowledge can get stale fast, the content in a KM program should be constantly updated, amended and deleted. What's more, the relevance of knowledge at any given time changes, as do the skills of employees. Therefore, there is no endpoint to a KM program. Like product development, marketing and R&D, KM is a constantly evolving business practice.
5. Not All Information Is Knowledge
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Knowledge Management An Insight Companies diligently need to be on the lookout for information overload. Quantity rarely equals quality, and KM is no exception. Indeed, the point of a KM program is to identify and disseminate knowledge gems from a sea of information.
6. Who should lead KM efforts?

Since KM is not a technology-based concept but a business practice, enterprise wide KM efforts should not be lead by the CIO. (The CIO is a suitable choice to lead KM efforts within the IT department, however.) Some companies have dedicated KM staff headed by a chief knowledge officer or other high-profile executive. Other companies rely on an executive sponsor in the functional area where KM is implemented.
7. What technologies can support KM?

KM tools run the gamut from standard, off-the-shelf e-mail packages to sophisticated collaboration tools designed specifically to support community building and identity. Generally, tools fall into one or more of the following categories: knowledge repositories, expertise access tools, e-learning applications, discussion and chat technologies, synchronous interaction tools, and search and data mining tools.
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Chapter 7
Companies implementing knowledge management

Knowledge management has been dismissed by some as a fad, but there's plenty of evidence that companies, organizations and governments are taking it seriously.
U.S. businesses paid $1.5 billion for knowledge management advice in 1996 and will spend $5 billion annually by 2001, according to the Gartner Group, a research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn. What they are spending the money on is finding ways to share knowledge among workers. Many organizations don't realize how much time is spent trying to "know what they don't know". Lower-level workers may spend 10 percent of their time "Organizations want to shorten the seek time through knowledge management." searching for knowledge about their job. But that number rises to as high as 30 percent for some executives. One organization discovered that its workers spend a day per week searching for knowledge. They want to capture both explicit knowledge, which has been categorized and stored online in databases and electronic documents, and tacit knowledge, which is elusive and held in the minds of experienced workers. Some experts call this structured and unstructured knowledge. The trick is coming up with an effective way to capture the raw materials of knowledge -- data, information and experience -- transforming them into knowledge and passing it on to the workers who need it. Even trickier is devising a method of giving workers the incentive to share their knowledge with others, turning the process into a self-generating system that doesn't sputter out. If it works, knowledge can spawn creativity, innovation and improved performance within the workplace.
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Knowledge management has taken hold most strongly in several key industries: automobiles, petrochemicals, health care and consulting. While many firms in these industries sank major investments into knowledge management, it doesn't take a lot of money to get started, according to Delphi's Tucker. "We're not telling organizations to spend millions of dollars on systems they don't really need," he said. "We look for the problems and where the opportunities are in the organization. We try to leverage what they already have." Knowledge management is necessary for companies because what worked yesterday "It's important to remember that knowledge management is about culture and behavior. An organization is 95 percent people and 5 percent tools and technology." may or may not work tomorrow. Considering a simplistic example, companies that were manufacturing the best quality of buggy whips became obsolete regardless of the efficiency of their processes since their product definition didn't keep up with the changing needs of the market. The same holds for assumptions about the optimal organization structure, the control and coordination systems, the motivation and incentive schemes, and so forth. To remain aligned with the dynamically changing needs of the business environment, organizations need to continuously assess their internal theories of business for ongoing effectiveness. That is the only viable means for ensuring that today's 'core competencies' do not become 'core rigidities' of tomorrow.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Theres been a lot of talk about the need to tap the tacit knowledge, but are companies ready to invest in it? Many companies in India too realize that a lot of the knowledge, expertise and experiences that employees gather reside in their mind and the company stands to lose all that knowledge when the employee leaves. Companies are beginning to realize the need to unleash and leverage all that knowledge to meet business objectives. Many companies who have already used knowledge management tools to manage such enterprise-wide issues as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, human resources, are going in for a people-centric platform in their second stage of KM implementation. What benefits can companies expect from KM? Some benefits of KM correlate directly to bottom-line savings, while others are more difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most opportunities and ultimately derive the most value from intellectual rather than physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, KM practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for collaboration. Yet better collaboration is not an end in itself; without an overarching business context, KM is meaningless at best and harmful at worst. Consequently, an effective KM program should help a company do one or more of the following: Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas Improve customer service by streamlining response time Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster
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Knowledge Management An Insight Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and rewarding them for it Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes These are the most prevalent examples. A creative approach to KM can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any business function. What is the most important for the companies to do in knowledge management? The most important issue for companies is to ensure that they focus on the synergy of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of their human members. Advanced information technologies can increasingly accomplish 'programmable' tasks traditionally done by humans. If a procedure can be programmed, it can be delegated to information technology in one form or another. The information and control systems in organizations are intended to achieve the 'programming' for optimization and efficiency. However, checks and balances need to be built into the organizational processes to ensure that such 'programs' are continuously updated in alignment with the dynamically changing external environment. The human sensors that are interacting continuously on the front lines with the external environment have a rich understanding of the complexity of the phenomena and the changes that are occurring therein. Such sensors can help the organization synchronize its programmed routines ('best practices', etc.) with the external reality of the business environment. Hence, organizational processes need to implement 'loose tight' knowledge management systems. The tightening is in the reinforcing linkage between the archived organizational 'best practices' and the actions taken by organizational
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Knowledge Management An Insight members based on that information. The loosening is in the reverse unravelling linkage between actions taken by organizational members [and their consequences] that serve as a continuous check for renewing the archived 'best practices.' This is where human creativity and innovation comes into the picture. Communities of practice The focus on knowledge as a source of competitive advantage has necessitated organizations to embark on a change in structures, which would facilitate knowledge sharing and dissemination. Some of the organizational forms created for this purpose are cross-functional teams, work groups etc. The latest organizational form created for this purpose is the Communities of practice (Cop). Communities of practice are groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise. They can be formal or informal groups within an organization or across organizations, but it is important to focus on garnering the knowledge acquired through the discussions within this group. They are more effective than teams since members of these communities organize themselves and focus on value addition and hence the commitment towards this is higher. They help create a bank of best practices and thus help develop the critical capabilities, which are essential for organizational success and to sustain competitive advantage. The characteristics of knowledge creation which are focused on making tacit knowledge explicit are To express the inexpressible through metaphor and analogy
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Knowledge Management An Insight To disseminate knowledge converting individual knowledge to organizational knowledge Ambiguity and redundancy as factors in the process of knowledge creation How successful has the implementation of people-centric tools been and how long does it take before one can actually see results? Some companies have already reported tangible results within 60 days of implementation. A team from Max Ateev works with the companies concerned in key business areas to implement and customize our applications, which offers the entire span of knowledge management features and functionalities. Tracking and measurement tools enable organizations to reward those who are ready to share the knowledge they have acquired. These tools enable organizations to recognize positive behavior and also provide insights to help track and steer the knowledge management endeavor. While much academic discussion has focused on the fine distinctions between data, information, knowledge and wisdom, business leaders today generally acknowledge that the Internet Age has unleashed a torrent of content not just on the World Wide Web but on organizational Intranets as well.
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Instead of succumbing to prospects of data junkyards, smart CIOs are leveraging Web-based content, communication and collaboration technologies for turning some of this information into actionable knowledge. This field of knowledge management is now overlapping with other constituent fields like digital asset management; Sun has used its EIP not just for savings of an estimated $52 million over five years, but also to encourage practices of thought leadership among its employees, according to K.B. Png, CTO of Sun Microsystems, Asia South. content flow systems, document management, e learning, and groupware. It can also be difficult to measure financial benefits of such KM systems Then there is the danger of info-glut, or too much information and too little knowledge, especially when the requirements of supply chain optimization require gathering of data from multiple operational systems. A well-designed enterprise information portal can come to the rescue here, with drill-down capabilities, digital gauges, exception reporting, and decision-making support.
With steady increases in business velocity, KM initiatives must also be geared up to codify knowledge from contractors and consultants. Technology and leaders in KM Leadership and technology are two critical factors in the drive for organizational knowledge. Both factors are also considered somewhat controversial. Originally, knowledge officers were considered crucial to the cause of knowledge management. They were executives who could bring a top-down approach to knowledge sharing. As many as 800 firms worldwide have someone designated as a chief knowledge officer, according Stacie Capshaw, a senior analyst at the Delphi Group. But that kind of centralized control of organizational knowledge has not gone
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Knowledge Management An Insight over well. The chief knowledge officer has been perceived as a command-andcontrol answer to a diffuse problem. So organizations are turning to knowledge leaders, people at the business-unit level who represent the knowledge for that particular department. This approach to leadership is considered more organic and conducive to nurturing knowledge within an organization. These leaders fall into two categories: Brokers who connect people looking for knowledge to those who have the knowledge, and Analysts who set up knowledge systems and requirements for the system so knowledge can be captured and analyzed. S
Chapter 8
Technology's role in knowledge management

Technology's role in knowledge management is also complex. Technology in business and government has pacified workers and reduced their performance. As a result, technology, when misapplied, has stunted worker performance rather than advancing it. At the same time, however, organizations cannot compete in today's economy without technology. Knowledge experts emphasize technology as a tool or facilitator, capable of processing explicit and tacit knowledge and presenting them in a format that workers can effectively use. Unfortunately, software vendors have jumped on the knowledge management bandwagon by offering so-called knowledge management solutions in shrinkwrapped packages. The key is not the technology but what people make of it. In knowledge management, the burden is on the individuals and how they can use technology effectively. Some familiar and not-so-familiar software vendors have - 46 - software technology for taken the lead in providing knowledge management: Excalibur, Fulcrum, GrapeVine Technologies, Intraspect, KnowledgeX, Lotus, Microsoft and Verity.
Often, the best tool is the simplest. For example, an electronic yellow pages listing workers by job category or expertise, allows other workers to easily track down the person with the best knowledge in a particular subject. One technology has done much to make knowledge sharing more viable: the Internet. Workers who once struggled to find information now can access documents at the click of a mouse. Communications are more dynamic thanks to e-mail. As the Internet has rapidly matured, so have technologies supporting knowledge management: groupware, messaging, Web browsers, document management, search and retrieval, data mining, push technologies and intelligent agents. What technologies are used in KM systems? Many different technologies may be used for Knowledge Management. The following table contains some of the most popular technologies and their uses.
Allows teams to discuss ideas across the traditional boundaries of space and Groupware time. Allows groups to track ideas and build communities of practice.
Contact Management Software
Allows organizations and individuals to document relationships, commitments and interactions with customers and suppliers.
Allows organizations to store key documents, record "lessons learned" and best Intranets Databases / practices. Can provide an employee directory that includes contact information, special skills and current/previous projects.
Data Warehouse
Allows "data mining" to research market and customer trends.
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Systems that allow organizations to electronically store documents for future Document Management reference and share documents across multiple geographic locations.
Illustraton 7
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The following are some of the myths doing their rounds in corporate circles MYTH 1: Knowledge management technologies deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. This idea applies to an outdated business model. Information systems in the old industrial model mirror the notion that businesses will change incrementally in an inherently stable market, and executives can foresee change by examining the past. The basic premise is that you can predict - how and what you'll need to do and that IS can simplify this and do it efficiently. The new business model of the Information Age, however, is marked by fundamental, not incremental, change. Businesses can't plan long-term; instead, they must shift to a more flexible "anticipation-of-surprise" model. Thus, it's impossible to build a system that predicts who the right person at the right time even is, let alone what constitutes the right information. MYTH 2: Information technologies can store human intelligence and experience. Technologies such as databases and groupware applications store bits and pixels of data. But they can't store the rich schemas that people possess for making sense of data bits. Moreover, information is context-sensitive. The same assemblage of data can evoke different responses from different people. The reason this is important is that many information textbooks say that while people come and go their experience can be stored in databases. But unless you can scan a person's mind and store it directly into a database, you cannot put bits into a database and assume that somebody else can get back the experience of the first person. MYTH 3: Information technologies can distribute human intelligence.
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Again, this assumes that companies can predict the right information to distribute and the right people to distribute it to. And bypassing the distribution issue by compiling a central repository of data for people to access doesn't solve the problem either. The fact of information in a database doesn't ensure that people will see or use the information. Most of our knowledge management technology concentrates on efficiency and creating a consensus-oriented view. The data therein is rational, static and without context. And such systems, he adds, do not account for renewal of existing knowledge and creation of new knowledge. So when you next hear that KM is an IT-based activity, capitalize the I and lowercase the t.
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Chapter 9
Exploring the KM toolbox

With a plethora of KM tools and portals products on the market, it is increasingly necessary to define a framework to categorize, better appreciate the power of these tools and to relate them to common types of KM applications. By identifying the dominant fields of KM, it is possible to develop a broader perspective of the applicable technologies available for KM.
Knowledge Management Research

People have disparate interpretations of the term Knowledge Management. While there is still no one universally accepted definition for KM, the general consensus is that to tackle knowledge management well, contributions from, among others, diversified areas spanning management, human resources, decision science, marketing, artificial intelligence and knowledge modeling are needed. By tracking relevant academic publications in these fields, three dominant streams of research into Knowledge Management can be identified: The first stream focuses primarily on research into the theory of knowledge, the knowledge of the firm, organizational culture, measurement of intellectual capital and learning organizations. These researchers tackle the theoretical aspects of knowledge management; develop models for valuing intellectual capital. The second stream is represented by the work on corporate memories (aka organizational memory and organizational memory information systems) for enhanced decision-making. A corporate memory embraces all forms of institutional knowledge, whether formally encoded within the current information systems, or tacit (informal) knowledge used by individuals in professional
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Knowledge Management An Insight practice. This group has a strong focus on knowledge sharing and on practical applications of knowledge management in a corporate-wide perspective. The third stream, with a strong contribution from computer scientists and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers in particular, tackles the areas of intelligent agents, ontologies (taxonomies), data mining, knowledge modeling, and computer-mediated collaborations.
Categorization of KM tools
All the research in KM, especially so for the third stream, has spawned the development of tools for supporting various knowledge processes e.g. capturing, encoding, organizing, searching, distributing and measuring. The product of using these tools (and more) to develop an application is a (technical) KM system. In a wider sense, the objectives of developing and deploying a KM system are Generally speaking, a KM system is any computer system that integrates various knowledge processes in one or more organizations to solve specific business problems.
Capture, create and share knowledge assets Locate relevant information knowledge Provide an environment for knowledge exchange Connect people with relevant interest and/or skills Facilitate intelligent problem solving
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Knowledge Management An Insight The following categorization of KM tools, challenges and their respective trend are increasingly becoming evident in the market: 1. Intelligent Search - By far, the majority of tools offer search capabilities. Search can range from simple keyword match, attribute-based input to context-sensitive search (i.e. taking into consideration what the user's interest, role type, and the very activities he or she is conducting just prior to issuing the search). Some tools also make extensive use of a word taxonomy or an ontology (which can either be manually created or automatically discovered with user guidance) to navigate the search space so that results are contained and are highly aligned to the user's need(s). More sophisticated tools are emerging and these will, progressively, incorporate collaborative filtering techniques. That is, one can issue a goal statement (instead of keywords) to the search engine that translates the goal to a list of specific search probes. Collaborative filtering also allow search patterns, ideas and results to be shared (& reused) among a group of interested parties. One of the challenges in conducting searches is to properly synergise the result gathered from inside as well as external to an organisation. 2. Process Modelling & Mind Mapping - These tools provide a visual environment for ideas to be captured and shared. Business processes can also be defined and modelled. Such tools greatly the conceptualisation of procedural and factual knowledge. However, nearly all the tools in this category are stand-alone products. There are two key challenges to future tools in this category. Firstly, the ability to automate the conversion of the defined business processes to operable business objects for simulation allowing versatile questions to be posed. Secondly, set operations (e.g. join, expand, contract, superimpose, conflict resolution etc.) of concept maps need to be defined. For instance, there is no reason why email messages, which is mostly text in nature, cannot be replaced in future by concept or knowledge maps so that
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Knowledge Management An Insight knowledge workers can define and communicate visual information in synchronization with a pre-defined corporate framework. 3. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) - CBR is an AI technique that enables past cases (i.e. problems and solutions), with appropriate modifications, to be reused for unseen cases. Many CBR systems have been developed for the help desk, software development and CRM applications. With the increasing popularity of Customer Knowledge Management, CBR tools will remain a dominant AI technique in the KM arena. On the research side, the relationship and synergy between CBR and Organizational Memory are actively being studied. 4. Data & Text Mining - This category of tools, which enables meaningful patterns and associations of data (words & phrases) to be identified from one or more large databases, has been around for more than a decade. They form part of a KM solution as many developers and researchers consider data & text mining to be a type of "micro" knowledge strategies (as opposed to Knowledge Program Management as a suite of "macro" knowledge strategies) for an organization. Data & text mining systems are being used extensively in business intelligence, direct marketing and customer relationship management applications. As most organizations only have a small group of data miners, it is doubtful that data & text mining tools, though remain a strong technical component, will be accessed via an enterprise wide corporate portal. In the near future, such tools will be gradually aligned with other tools to support key tasks in the above types of applications (e.g. from data gathering to data mining, encoding of business rules, capturing of decision making criteria, matching of customer profiles to product services, campaign management and the incorporation of feedback).
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Knowledge Management An Insight 5. Web Crawler - These are Web-based tools that facilitate intelligent searching with extensive use of meta-data and indexing. Data is not limited to texts and numerals but often in multimedia i.e. voice, graphics, video etc. A common characteristics of Web crawler tools is the ability to place "hooks" on numerous locations on the Web, monitor the content and activities on these pages and notify the user once there is change of content at those locations. Among others applications, such tools are especially suited for performing research on the Web and gathering competitive intelligence. 6. Groupware - The two most dominant platforms are Intranet and Lotus Notes. Detail compare and contrast of these two platforms has been widely reported and is not the focus of this article. While the intranet concept is extremely popular, generally more economical and compatible with nearly all of the tools on the market, Raven, the latest entrant from Lotus, has a very unique feature. By tracking user interest (and expertise), Raven assists in the location of relevant information as well as connecting certain employees in an organization. Intelligent features like this and others will continue to be introduced by product vendors to gain differentiation and competitive advantage over their competitors. 7. Measurement & Reporting - Some organizations tackle KM with a strong human resources focus and device criteria to measure the benefits of their KM program. Tools are now available to measure, track and report on the value of intellectual capital (i.e. non-financial assets) in an organization. Most noticeably, these tools are based on the Balanced Scorecard method or the Intellectual Asset Monitor (ICM). Tools on tracking and reporting professional development, online self-paced learning, and performance reviews for employees are also available. The above categorization of tools is functional and techniques-based. Other categorizations also exist.
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Knowledge portal
Knowledge portal is a single point reference for knowledge storage, search and dissemination within an organization. This ideally works on the intranet and one of the major features by which tacit knowledge is captured and stored in through discussion forums from which knowledge can be mined and extracted. While KM tools have been around for years, it is the concept of an Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) that has gained immense popularity among business leaders in the last 12 months. Portals are seen as a one-stop entry point for staff, customers and partners to access and share information, to perform transaction(s), and to carry out specific work tasks. Portals are popular primarily because of the advance in e-Business models (e.g. cyber-stores, vertical integrators, net markets, volume procurement etc.) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (e.g. customer knowledge management, measurement of relationship capital and direct marketing). E-Business has also impacted KM by gradually transitioning it from an internal focus (i.e. a corporate program) to an external focus (i.e. addressing the flow of knowledge between/among suppliers and customers). As a result, many KM tool vendors have re-positioned their product offerings to align with portal market (e.g. commerce/trading, information, procurement, collaboration and learning portals). However, it is important to understand that the fundamental technologies underpinning the composition and hosting of portals remain predominantly the same.
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Chapter 11
KM and training professionals
The relationship between training professionals and KM can be studied from two angles. 1. 2. How can training professionals contribute to KM projects? Why do training professionals need Knowledge management?
How can training professionals contribute to KM projects?

Experienced human resources and training professionals have a number of skills that can be applied to KM initiatives, including: Finding, mapping, filtering, packaging and disseminating information. Converting individual knowledge into shared resources Conducting analyses that identify needs, specify resources and anticipate barriers to participation and performance. Facilitating the transfer of knowledge to on-the-job activities. Managing organizational change, including creating cultures and developing policies surrounding sharing, including the hard issues related to recognition and security. Finding people who know things and linking their knowledge to specific needs. Organizing information to have resonance for people at work. Developing self-directed learning programs. Designing and developing systems that transfer ideas to actions at work.
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Why do training professionals need KM?

Training Departments have been criticized for delivering content too soon or late to meet organizational needs. KM makes it easier for training professionals to situate learning and growth on the job where it's most effective. Just-in-time training may finally be realized through just-in-time KM, enhanced by opportunities to practice, receive coaching and participate in a longer term way. Formalized training assumes that best practices develop and retain their resonance K now led g e Manag ement is g ood new s for trainer s, b ecause it mak es their roles in org anizatio ns all the m ore essent ial. over time. In a world that is fast changing, this is not always the case. KM systems offer HR and training professionals viable, flexible alternatives to rigid experiences (classes, workbooks, videos or even the web) and support independent learning. Training used to be sold as "the way to the top" in an organization. Flatter, leaner organizations mean fewer opportunities to advance into management. Job satisfaction and rewards for knowledge workers must come from the ability to grow horizontally within a profession. Knowledge Management fosters this continuous access, learning and professional growth. KM also offers a career path for training professionals. If and when training buildings crumble, KM offers opportunities to direct skills to related and value-added activities.
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How does Knowledge Management change a trainer's role?

Knowledge Management changes and expands the traditional role of HR and training professionals in important ways. Trainers will still be responsible for improving human
performance, but will also be tasked with improving access to organizational knowledge. They will still improve individual skills, but will also improve work environments by making knowledge highly usable. Trainers who become Knowledge Management professionals will design, develop and manage databases in addition to training classes and materials. They will re-purpose training materials and organizational wisdom from database to the Training Department and vice versa. KM professionals will also manage organizational change and project plans, as well as training schedules and curriculum. Knowledge Management is good news for trainers, because it makes their roles in organizations all the more essential.
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Chapter 12
Knowledge Management and HRM
The changes in the present industrial scenario have necessitated changes in the structure and functioning of organizations. Organizations have been focusing on radical changes in the structure resulting in flatter and leaner organizations. This is corroborated by researchers in the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles who have conducted five surveys from 1987 to 1999 to determine changes in the management practices of Fortune 1000 corporations and have observed that large organizations have changed shape dramatically in that time, reducing layers of hierarchy, dispersing authority and decision making, and adopting a variety of practices associated with knowledge sharing, quality improvement and information technology. They have concluded that organizational change is the central route to competitive advantage. These changes with increased emphasis on knowledge management have resulted in significant shifts in the working environment and HR policies pursued by the organization. The primary focus of human resources management is to match the job profile with the skill set of the people, in order the achieve the organizations goals, whereas knowledge management at a primary level, aims at harnessing the existing knowledge in the organization, to create a competitive advantage and at a more advanced level focuses on increasing organizational learning. There is understandably, a considerable overlap between human resources and knowledge management since Knowledge creation is a human activity and managing humans is a HR activity.
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Knowledge Management An Insight Knowledge management is about management of intellectual capital and intangible assets and human resources management is about managing the sources of these assets. The human resources management function has assumed strategic importance in recent times as against a traditional functional outlook. The Resource based approach to strategic human resources (SHRM) described by Frank Muller recognizes the value of informal, incidental learning in the workplace and stresses on the activation of this reservoir of skills and accumulated knowledge for competitive advantage which the area of emphasis of the knowledge management discipline. Knowledge management and human resources management initiatives are focused on harnessing the available knowledge assets and to prevent knowledge from walking out of the door. Hence, there is a need for the integration between the knowledge management initiatives and the HR policies of the organization.
Knowledge management systems and HR

Human resources department in most organizations handles high volumes of data and this data and updation can be managed better using efficient knowledge management systems. E.g. The knowledge management system could be used to set up self-service human resources systems in the organization which would facilitate employees to modify routine data like changing of address etc. on their own instead of depending on HR department for all the updation. These knowledge management systems ensure proper sharing of data among individuals in the organization.
Recruitment
The recruitment function in organizations has changed from the focus on pure functional expertise to the focus on the extent to which the knowledge processed by a person is inline with central strategy of the organization. In this era of knowledge
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Knowledge Management An Insight economy, where knowledge transfer and sharing are critical for developing a competitive advantage, the function of the HR department is to select and recruit individuals who would subscribe to this culture of sharing information and knowledge dissemination.
Retention
Traditionally, organizations retain only those people who add value to the organization through their experience, expertise and knowledge. But, in the present scenario, it does not suffice if people possess knowledge, but need to share them with the others in the organization. This shared knowledge is stored in a central repository accessible to all in the organization. Organization, only encourage and retain those people who are willing to share knowledge and work towards the holistic improvement of the organization and just not solve problems localized around his personal expertise.
Reward system
Research studies have clearly established that people are not willing to share data unless they are rewarded for it. To maximize the value of knowledge sharing, employees must understand the following: The benefits that sharing knowledge and experience provide to them as individuals, The advantages that will be gained to the organization as a whole, Senior management recognizes the sharing of knowledge, Knowledge sharing has become an integral part of every employee s daily function, A compensation/reward system is in place to recognize and promote employees who adopt that new behavior.
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Knowledge Management An Insight The organization should consequently have appropriate reward and incentive system, which would recognize performance and adequately reward persons who share knowledge with the others in the organization.
Performance management systems

One of the most prominent shifts in performance measurement is that individuals are valued more for skills, competencies and performance than for loyalty, and these measures, rather than seniority, become the basis for rewards and incentives. The second-generation knowledge management initiatives, in addition to storing existing knowledge, also emphasize on training and learning. Organizations attach significance to learning and acquiring knowledge and this is reflected in the performance measures set for individuals.
KM and Organizational structure

The phenomenal growth of the Internet has resulted in radical changes in the structure of organizations from the more traditional bureaucratic and matrix type of organizational structure to a more radical virtual corporation and hypertext organization and knowledge base is an essential part of these organizational types. Virtual corporations are extensively outsourced organizations focusing on adding more value to a selected number of core competencies, which are centrally stored. While describing this type of organization there has been stress on the accumulation and leveraging of knowledge for the success of this type of organization. The hypertext organization structure, on the other hand consists of three layers, the central layer, project team layer and the knowledge base layer. In this knowledge base layer, the organizational know-how generated in the other two layers is categorized, rearranged and re-contextualised.
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KM and Organization culture

One of the main challenges in the implementation of knowledge management initiatives is to bring about a change in the attitude of people in the organization. Inspite of the management consultants advocating team management and the spread of collaboration tools, they are faced with traditional entrenched human traits of rugged individualism. While people talk of sharing knowledge and team management, they are also aware that knowledge is power and very few are willing to give up power. The culture of the organization needs to change from one of hoarding information to sharing of information. The various tools and techniques available to convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge may prove ineffective in the absence of a culture, which facilitates sharing, and individuals who are willing to share this information. Effective knowledge creation depends upon the way in which people relate to each other in the organization. Untrustworthy behavior, constant competition, thats not my job attitude are impediments to proper knowledge transfer and sharing. The activities of the human resources department should focus on creating an appropriate culture in the organization that facilitates sharing of information and motivating individuals to make their tacit knowledge, gained through years of experience and practice, explicit.
Training and organization learning

Knowledge management initiatives, in recent times have focused on secondgeneration schemes with emphasis on knowledge production in addition to the firstgeneration emphasis on knowledge codification and sharing. Knowledge creation is a
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Knowledge Management An Insight continuous and dynamic process and involves the process of capture and conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Hence, the training and development programs of initiated by the human resources department, should, in addition to enhancing the existing knowledge, result in learning and development and these learnings should be captured into the knowledge base of the organization.
Exit
The implementation of knowledge management initiatives is most crucial in this phase of human resources activity. The exit of a key person without proper documentation and codification of his/her knowledge would result in a loss for the organization, since this would require re-inventing the wheel and going through the process of knowledge creation all over again. But, the knowledge thus created, may in effect may not result in the most effective performance or result in the absence of the inputs based on the tacit knowledge of the person who has left.
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Chapter 13
Recommendations and findings
Some of the findings that have emerged from this study are: 1. The knowledge movement is pervasive.
Whether it is defined in terms of learning, intellectual capital, knowledge assets, intelligence, know-how, insight or wisdom, the conclusion is the same: manage it better or perish. Initiatives in industry, education and government are trying to tackle the same problems, issues and opportunities.
2. The immeasurable must be measured.

If it cannot be measured, it isn't considered of value. However, traditional financial accounting mechanisms fail to calculate/calibrate the most important resources of the firm - its intellectual capacity. Instead, current mechanisms treat people as liabilities or expenses instead of assets. The business case must be defined in order to justify necessary investment strategies in the human and social (i.e., interactive) capital of the firm.
3. A collaborative research base must be established

There is minimal research activity for service functions or the services industry of the economy. There is no equivalent to the Industrial Research Institute for the services industry - the fastest growing sector of the economy. There is minimal government funding and few consortia, which are non-industrial in mission. Enterprises are embarking upon individual R&D efforts when a collective degree of research - on a pre-competitive basis - is essential for establishing a solid foundation for the future of the industry.
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4. Initiatives must be designed as 'middle-up-down.'

Top down leadership continues to be essential for management because traditional hierarchical structures will not disappear overnight. Grass roots activities, which are networked, can have the insight for change validated by those closest to the point-ofsale. Oftentimes, those closest to service delivery are not the people empowered in an organization. Hubert Saint-Onge, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce describes the strategy as middle-up-down as a way to balance and integrate the best of both methods.
5. Insight is being gleaned rapidly.

For those who embrace change as reality, there is little time to be spent on barriers. The future is far more exciting to create. In each profession, those who were deemed philosophers and futurists are being sought for counsel on business operations. What was theory yesterday is fundamental to business survival tomorrow. There is a cumulative effect between and among disciplines as leaders seek to understand the principles and policies of one another. Indeed, the field has become sufficiently sophisticated to warrant the benchmarking of best practices for even further dissemination and leverage.
6. Implementation takes many forms.

The variety of new titles and program initiatives vary company-to-company due to the uniqueness of each corporate culture. New titles range from novel verbiage to relabeling of traditional functions. There are many ways to (re) configure the knowledge puzzle and leadership can come from any level, function or position in the company.
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7. Management architectures are useful, but should not be limiting.

A frame of reference is essential in order to scrutinize and interconnect the variables. However, exploration of the factors leads to identification of new variables and interconnections, which are fundamental to the business. The frame provides a way to organize the discussion and fuse the diverse values within the company culture. The process must be dynamic - not static - in order to capitalize upon new business opportunities coming from unserved markets and unarticulated needs.
8. The nature of 'the collective' must be understood and harnessed.

Enterprises are now defined as including multiple stakeholders: suppliers, partners, alliances, customers and - in some cases - competitors. These infrastructures are a combination of evolving, ecological systems and carefully architected schemes for profitable growth. The combination is what is of most value. Attention must now focus upon the definition of the whole and the interconnections of the pieces.
9. Technology is integral to the successful functioning of the knowledge enterprise - but how?
Similar to the misconceptions of computer-based education, artificial intelligence and the early renditions of groupware, there is confusion as to the appropriate role for the supporting technology. The 'productivity paradox' explains why there has not been a commensurate economic return for the investment on technology investments (i.e., behavioral disconnects), but it does not provide a path forward for the ideal technical solutions. This will take some time and considerable trial-and-error.
10. The knowledge phenomenon must be managed and not left to serendipity.
As incomplete as the systems might be, some influence and control is better than none at all. Consider the kaleidoscope which when moved in small degrees changes the image; but there are the inevitable unexpected forces, which cause a major shift
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Knowledge Management An Insight in orientation. Management must be understood as both a science and an art in order to reap optimal advantage.
Conclusions
The interest generated over the past year is significant. Business schools have created interdisciplinary initiatives by necessity. Industrial investments have forged connections, which were not likely to occur otherwise. Government agencies are also, by necessity, forced to produce significantly more results to the consumer than can be provided with incremental improvements. Re-engineering and quality efforts along with massive restructuring - have produced what financial results are possible. Considerable alignments are now needed in order to fulfill expectations of stakeholders. The paradigm must shift. It is inevitable. This new focus upon knowledge as the foundation for a successful future has been embraced. Creativity is being reborn in ways to contribute to the bottom-line of an enterprise. As impure as this new science may be, it provides insights not easily discerned with traditional management methodologies. Experimentation is rampant and people seek to learn from their mistakes as well as the successes and failures of others. What began almost 10 years ago - Knowledge Innovation - has now reached the stage of a critical mass of insight. Dedicated expertise across all disciplines are exploring and defining new management practices fundamental to capitalizing upon the knowledge-based economy. Although there has been a plethora of articles and books on the topic, the seminal cook-book (if there ever be such a thing) is only 'work-in-process.' In the 1950's when Alfred Sloan divisionalized General Motors, it sent a clear, consistent, concise message of the techniques necessary for large-scale business management. However, today driven by the acceleration of
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Knowledge Management An Insight computer/communications technology and the value of collaborative networks, the real the competitive differentiator - human talent - provides the enterprise advantage. Today, there is an emerging 'community of practice, which transcends any function, sector, industry or geography. Participants include theorists and practitioners from education/learning systems, economics/finance, quality/benchmarking, human resources, information/internet technology and R&D/innovation strategy and more. The concurrent engineering, agile manufacturing and re-engineering initiatives are all coming to a common theme: transformation of the enterprise - profit or not-forprofit - through knowledge management. There is a realization that this is, indeed, a journey; and that no one has the answers. This is a movement born within industry - not the academic corridors or even the consulting firms. In fact, those parties are playing catch-up trying to determine their own role in this emerging economy. The knowledge movement is shaking the very foundation of how an organization is created, evolves and matures, dies or is reformed. These are fundamental shifts in the way we do business, how economies are developed and societies prosper.
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Example 2
KM at ICICI
ICICIs Knowledge Management Portal The NEED felt in ICICI Competitive advantage of companies is moving away from physical assets to intellectual assets. The majority of leading companies in the US and Europe have already put in place a Knowledge Management (KM) system. A KM portal puts knowledge at the heart of the organization, promotes the creation and acquisition of knowledge, generates the culture of knowledge sharing and ultimately enhances the competitive edge of the organization. Knowledge Management Coordination Group - The Beginning A coordination group was formed, with active support of senior management, to track and develop the Solution, sell the concept of KM to the employees. The Group consisted of Research Group (primary coordinator) HRD ICICI Infotech Library Staff
Project Time Line
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Concept initiated in April 2000 Dedicated team of software developers, developed using existing IT infrastructure First version made live on June 15th 2000 Second version made live on October 15th 2000 40000 hits in a week (November 2000) Knowledge Items on WiseGuy Discussions Queries Contributions Books (Library) Training Calendar Reports (External/Internal) Vendors Knowledge Leader Lecture Series Events WiseGuy Homepage-the look
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The home page has the following features Automatic Login for Registered Users New on WiseGuy: Keeps track of all new articles, contributions, etc. Live News-feed Search Links to external sites Basic Search Engine, which Searches through all the knowledge items in the portal for the given text Special words AND, OR & NOT recognized (e.g. Management OR Finance) Advanced Search Engine: Used to narrow down search criteria Limit search to a particular (set of) Knowledge Items (e.g. by books, articles, reports etc.) Quick Links to fire the search query on Internet Search Engines e.g. Lycos, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSeek etc. Option of saving frequent searches to users personalized page Knowledge Leader Lecture Series This is a good way to capture tacit knowledge unavailable in any documented form. The knowledge grounded in the experience of people within and outside the organization is recorded. The Knowledge Lectures are captured as audio files and are available for download linked to the presentations. Knowledge Champion Scheme Contest to encourage participants to contribute and learn from the portal
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Knowledge Management An Insight Knowledge-Cash (K-Cash): Points awarded for increasing the knowledge repository. This scheme has Fully parameterized set up procedures No human intervention required Administrator can view top ten winners list any time My Page Configurable page for every user Subscriptions to discussions, queries posted by user Shows the users points in the K-Cash contest Shows the users contacts, personal information etc. Saved searches and training schedule Discussion Board Users can discuss topics of interest Users can subscribe to their particular topics of discussion All message posts are moderated by an Administrator Once the discussion has reached a conclusion, it can be archived Queries A simple way for users to clear their doubts on various projects, procedures etc. Can be referred to by other users having similar queries All queries are moderated by an Administrator, and are fully searchable Contribution Users can contribute documents (presentations, project notes, reports) to a central repository Contribution Explorer allows sorting by title, author and contributor
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Knowledge Management An Insight Details of each contribution Users can post comments on the site about the contribution All contributions are moderated by an Administrator and are searchable Training Calendar An interface between the HR (Training Coordination Cell) and all employees Employees can directly enroll for courses offered Programs are searchable Extensive Feedback system to capture training feedback Extensive Reporting facility to capture training history Integrated with mailing system Library Searchable Catalogue of all books available in the library New categories can be added by administrator Abstract of each book is available Library Explorer allows sorting by Title, Author, ID no. and Publisher Users can post comments and reviews about the book Events A listing of forthcoming events like seminars, conferences, lectures etc. Keyed in by an Administrator Contact person for the registration of events Vendor List Searchable list of all vendors to the organization Employees can add vendors and their experiences in dealing with the same All vendor additions are moderated by an Administrator
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IJDB: ICICI Journal Abstracts and full texts of all articles in the journal for the last 2 years A downloadable copy of the journal for employees External Database Connection to web based corporate databases EBSCO ICRA Integrated Search Reports Internal Reports A systematic method to collect various reports generated by the different departments of the organization Classified according to source and topic External Reports Reports from External agencies Added by WiseGuy administrator Administrator Interface Moderate Discussions, Queries, Replies to queries, Contributions, etc. Add Books, Articles, Events, Lectures, Training Programs, Reports etc. Brows Archive/delete discussions and queries er Clients View K-Cash Contest winners WiseGuy Server
Brows er Clients
ICICI Intran et
Brows er Clients
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IIS IIS SQL SQLServer Server 7.0 7.0 MS MSSearch: Search: ASP, ASP,HTML, HTML, Java, Java, Javascript Javascript Third ThirdParty Party Components Components
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. R. Krishnamoorthy- Introduction to KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTHimalaya Publishing House, Mumbai (2008) 2. Romeo S. MascarenhasCORPORATE MANAGEMENT-Vipul Prakashan, Mumbai (sixth edition) 3. Johnson, Mascarenhas, Thatte, Chatterjee- Developmental Issues of CORPORATE MANAGEMENT-Manan Prakashan, Mumbai (2006) 4. K Ravichandran M Ravathi Bala-CORPORATE KNOWEDGE Abhijeet Publications, Delhi (2008) 5. K. Prabhakar Rajkumar- CORPORATE KNOWEDGE in India New Century Publications, New Delhi (2008)
WEBSITES:
1. www.nabard.org 2. www.rbi.org.in 3. www.sbi.com 4. www.google.com 5. www.yahoo.com
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Knowledge Management An Insight

CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AN INSIGHT

SUBMITTED BY MERAJ AHMED FOR THE DEGREE OF

DNYANSADHANA COLLEGE THANE ( W ) , MUMBAI 400604 ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-2013

Knowledge Management An Insight

MERAJ AHMED Name of the student

Knowledge Management An Insight

MERAJ AHMED Name of the student

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge is created through four different modes:

Knowledge Management An Insight

What is Knowledge Management?

Sudden interest in knowledge and KM

Why is there so much interest in knowledge management suddenly?

How is KM different from what has been done before?

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management A Strategic Perspective

Strategy concepts and frameworks

AProcess of knowledge creation and dissemination

Creativity, Innovation and knowledge strategy

Knowledge Management An Insight

New ways of combining existing resources Develop new capabilities

effectiveness Applying all the available knowledge

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management An Insight

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THAT CREATE VALUE

Work can be evaluated along two dimensions.

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management Framework: Work Models

Individual actors Routine

Interpreta tion/ judgment

Importance of knowing the work model

Knowledge Management Framework: process mapping

Sourcing/ procurement Customer service / call center

Design and engineering

Interpreta tion/ judgment

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management Framework: challenges

Collaboration model Achieving

Individual actors Routine

Getting results from stars

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management Framework: strategies

Routinization Automation Productization

kind of evolutionary ability will

Knowledge Management An Insight

Problems with knowledge

Why is Knowledge Management Difficult?

1. Getting Employees on Board

2. Allowing Technology to Dictate KM

3. Not Having a Specific Business Goal

5. Not All Information Is Knowledge

6. Who should lead KM efforts?

7. What technologies can support KM?

Knowledge Management An Insight

Companies implementing knowledge management

Knowledge Management An Insight

Knowledge Management An Insight

Technology's role in knowledge management

Knowledge Management An Insight