6.3.3.3.

Knowledge management adapted, transferred and identified models,

methods and tehniques

The new science and practice of knowledge management are asocieted with the
organization based on knowledge, wich are continue growing. As we said in chapter 6.1., in
the European Union, the construction of an economy based on knowledge was the primary
objective of the Strategy of Lisabon 2000-2010, and for the current and future period
represents the essence of the EU Strategy 2020. The science and practice of knowledge
management, wich is in a growing process, incorporates already o valuable set of knowledge
management tools.
In the table nr. 5 we present a selection of the most used and known models, methods
and techniques that are specific to knowledge management identified in a writing of one of
the authors of this volume in 2011
1
.

Nr. Tools category Name of model, method or technique
1 Models
1.1 The knowledge spiral model
1.2 The Moon Kim model
1.3 The grow of knowledge in business model
1.4 The Wiig model of growing and using of knowledge
1.5 Boisots information space model
1.6 The model of growing de capacity of the maturity of the
staff , P-CMM
1.7 ICAS model
2 Metode
2.1 The method of knowledge audit
2.2 Method of amplification efficiency of knowledge flows
within the organization
2.3 Method of analysis the social network

1
Nicolescu O., Nicolescu C., Organizaia i managementul bazate pe cunotine, Editura Prouniversitaria,
Bucureti, 2011.

Nr. Tools category Name of model, method or technique
2.4 Knowledge matrix method
2.5 Project management method
2.6 Method of best practises
2.7 Benchmarking
3 Tehnici
3.1 Expert seeker technique
3.2 Knowledge collection technique
3.3 The appraisal interview
3.4 Technique of white pages
3.5 Analysis following action technique
3.6 Transduserul
3.7 K profile
3.8 Team mates asistance
3.9 Know-net technique
3.10 Megaconversation technique
3.11 Narrative technique
3.12 Talent Management System
3.13 Interviews of leaving employees
3.14 Knowledge Center

6.3.3.4. Implementation of innovative firms networks
An organizational-management approach that is not used in Romania, but with big
competitive advantages, that makes it indispensable to develop the economy and the industry,
is the business network. In essence, the business network is a form of strategyc alliance
between a large number of companies, situated in different geographic areas, that can work
together for a common goal. The business networks represents a third potential form of
organization in the economy, localized between la market and the convential company, that
has a quick growth in the developed countryes. The business network has the goal to produce
and/or market in common a performant product, usually of high value and complexity. The
main caracteristics of the business networks are:
Represents a group of independent companies that have some common major
interests;
They develope collaboration relationships between them;
They favorise intense and performant innovational proceses;
Sharing between firms components important part of knowledge and other resources
held
Acquires substantial global capacity for production and marketing of performance
products
Generates competitive advantage for the companies that take part.
Depending on the objectives and functionality, the business networks divide in classic
business networks and innovative networks. The first category is characterized by focus on
manufacture and/or marketing of competitive products, using some innovational elements.
The second category, the innovative business networks, represents the mos efficient type of
business network, its specific feature is focusing on creating and marketing new products,
carrying large amounts of value-add and competitive on high competition markets.
For the Romanian economy it is recommended the using on a large scale both the classic
business network, and in specially the innovation business network, in all their forms:
complex innovational networks, marketing centered networks, networks dominated by
the supplier od equipments
23
etc. This may incorporate a significant part from the almost
60.000 companies from industry, as well as universities, research centers, consulting
companies, market companies, distribution, services, IT etc. The main criterions that are
necessary to be aware are: strategyc compatibility and cultural compatibility.

The initiative to promote industrial company networks is recommended to belong to
the following organizations and organisms:
Highly inovative companies which are usually smaller and do not posses enough ies to
novative capacities, knowledge and other resources to produce and sell performant
products in large quantities
Universities, research centers and/or research and development companies that have
invented or have the capacity to create a new and competitive product with high
complexity and market values

2
Nicolescu O., Nicolescu C., Modaliti moderne de dezvoltare a activitilor intreprenoriale, n Nicolescu O.,
Plumb I., Pricop M., Vasilescu I., Verboncu I., Abordri moderne n managementul organizaiei, Editura
Economic, Vol. 1, Bucureti, 2003.
3
Popa I., Reele de firme i clustere n Nicolescu O. (coord.), Sistemul organizatoric al firmei, Editura
Economic, Bucureti, 2003
Employers , SME associations and other professional organizations which have
companies with complementary resources and converging interests as members and
which can be valued best by integrating them in a company network

To the promotion of this strategic economic development method between 2011-2013
a considerable contribution can be brought by the resort ministeries and agencies managing
structural funds which, based on the analisys and projections they ify oportunities and perfom,
can identify oportunities and potential partners for such networks industries and sectors of
great importance for Romania .
Studies made show that there are favorable premises for innovative company
network in areas such as: furniture industry, textile industry, apparel industry, leather and
footwear industry, metallic constructions and products, machinery and electric equipment
industry, organic agriculture, IT services etc.


6.3.3.5 Production and/or export cluster development


The strategic option of company cluster develpoment is practically an evolved solutin of
the previous option which presents some important specific trates. Synthetic, the cluster can
be defined as an ensemble of independent companies located in the same geographical area
which intertwine their activities in order to act as an integrated system, cumulating the
advantages of both diversity and complexity of the companies and of the intense
collaboration between these activities, similar to a large company. So the main differences
between a company cluster and a network are:
The cluster includes only companies that work in the sqme geographical area-
locality or group of localities, rarely exceeding 500-600 square kilometers
Integration in a cluster is stronger compared to a network and the activities of
its components often overlap
Clusters mostly bring together small companies coming from the same sphere
of activity textiles, furniture, glassware, plastic masses- which are integrated in
the cluster to have acces to resources, activities, knowledge, markets etc. In
order to benefit from the advantaged of scale economy.

The economy of Romania recommends the usage of production, export and mixed
clusters. The mixed cluster which includes both export and production, has the highest
performance.
The advanteges which plead for large scale cluster usage in economy are mostly the
following:
Company cooperation at low costs
More innovation possibilities for companies and their specialists
Reduction and division of costs and risks for research and development activities
Decrease in production time
Decrease in product trading time
Reduced unit costs due to economies of scale in the cluster
Enhancement of market entry and maintenance capacity
Competitive benefit generation for components

In Romania the initiative of building networks is recommended to be possesed by the
following organisations and organisms:
County and municipal councils which perform analysis of the specified area, makes
strategies and approves local developmnent plans, being able to indentify the necessity
and possibility of clustering, elaborate and partially finance projects that contribute to
their formation;
Regional development agencies which based on the existing analisys and strategies
are able to easily identify the opportunity of cluster formation
Employers regional and local organizations or local branches of industry employers
who have as members companies in the same area and complementary branches
having interests that can be satisfied by taking part in a cluster

We consider that the easiest and efficient clusters can be formed in the most industrially
developed areas- Bucharest, Ploieti, Timioara, Cluj, Oradeati, Bacu, Piteti- where
thousand of companies function and where there also is an industrial tradition and culture.
Looking at the manufacturing industries structure in |Romania and the successful approaches
in Italy, Spain, Great Britain etc., we think that it is recommended priority setting of clusters
for specific types of equipment and machinery, food products, clothing, computer, small
furniture and garden accessories etc.
During the next european programme and funding period 2014-2020, promoting
clusters must become a priority for Romania. Stronger involvement of the initiation bodies
listed, appealing to the Cluster Association in Romania, established a few years ago, may
contribute significantly to creating performant clusters in the domestic and international
market.
6.3.3.6 Establishment of spin-offs
In the transition to knowledge based economy the strategic option of spin-offs
becomes more and more efficient and more frequently used. Essentially, a spin-off consists in
forming a company in order to promote knowledge generated in universities and/or research
centers by teachers, researchers and students. The specificity of the new managerial-
organizational form consists in combining four types of activities- knowledge acquirement,
initiating entrepreneurial demarches to create a new company, industrial and agricultural
processes etc on one hand and commercial on the other hand, in an academic context.
The main premise in promoting this strategic action is given by the existence on
research-focused universities, especially technical, which have dedicated teachers,
researchers and students. It is also necessary that some of them have an entrepreneurial spirit
and possess managerial abilities in order to succeed in creating and sustaining a competitive
company. We recommend using spin-offs to develop the romanian industry, agriculture and
services based on the major advantages they generate:
operative identification of economic opportunities offered by the new skills aqcuired
in universities
operative promotion through entrepreneurial actions, pragmatic valences associated to
academic and scientifical knowledge and know-how
making of new products with highly original content which offers them both national
and international competitivity
Capitalization and development of scientific, entrepreneurial, managerial and
technical talents among teachers, researchers and students
Scientific-entrepreneurial sinergy obtainment as a result of combining scientific
activities with teaching, consulting and entrepreneurial activities
The initiative of spin-off establishment in Romania is recommended to belong to the
following organisations and organisms:
University and Faculty management teams, especially those of economic and
technical profile which through managerial, scientific and economic resources
boost spin-off founding
Teachers and researchers with creative capacities who generate scientific
knowledge and are willing to help create new companies that promote these
capacities
Students- especially MA and PhD students- involved in research and
development activities who produce new scientific skills with economic
applicability and who possess the necessary entrepreneurial and managerial
qualities to form and maintain a working and competitivie company
The period between 2012-2020 is best for establishing and developing in all the cities
and neighboring areas where there are technical universities of great research potential. With
no doubt Bucharest, Timioara, Cluj, iai, Galai, Craiova, Oradea and Ploieti are some of the
listed cities.
6.3.3.7 Developing business incubators
The experience and performances of numerous developed and developing countries-
China, India, Chile, Thailand, Malaesia etc.- demonstrate that creating business incubators is
beneficial for accelerating and optimizing company development, mostly industrial and
services. The business incubator is an new- formed or early stage company assistance
environment that guides them into succeeding. The incubator offers support for a succesful
company in three ways:
Entrepreuneurial formation environment
Direct access to consultants, trainers and investors
Market visibility
4

Using specialized incubators which only incubate companies with a specific profile-
industrial, services, communication etc.- is recommended in order to accelerate economic
growth in the next ten years. These can focus on geographical geophysical areas in which
Romania presents competitive potential and/ or advantages. Multifunctional incubators which
include companies from various work areas can also be used.
The benefits it determines plead for intesified incubator usage for economic progress
in Romania:
Fostering of entrepreneurial spirit
Amplification and acceleration of both inland and foreign greenfield investitions in
economy
Raise in new companies survival rate
Accelerated consolidation and evolution of new companies, reflected in investment,
work productivity, turnover and profitability growth
Industrial or services investment oportunity indentification
Occurence of new jobs and perfectioning of the human resources used
Commercial ease of new products due to the assistance given and the incubators
visibility


Even though the first business incubators in Romania were established in 1991 they
are rarely used and have modest performances. Considerable economic progress can be
obtained in the coming years using business incubators and involving the following:
Towns and counties managements that have an economic potential,
especially in de-industrialized areas that can create such incubators with
modest investments and community funds in order to attract foreign and inland
investors
Regional development agencies which are able to elaborate programmes and
projects based on business incubator establishment strategies through which
they can build modern incubators, with modern facilities, capable to give
birth to companies, especially services and industrial companies to provide
competitive products on the internal and external market
Large companies- public or private- which have large production spaces and
areas used only partially due to production restrainment and/or modernization.
These spaces can be used by creating business incubators while using
motivational mechanisms for their owners

4
Piturescu I., Incubatorul de afaceri, n Nicolescu O. (coord.), Sistemul organizatoric al firmei, Editura
Economic, Bucureti, 2003.

Business incubators can take into account companies in any branch or sub-branch of
the economy in which entrepreneurs of adequate potential are found.
Normally the national interest is that of setting up and specializing incubators for the
branches and sub-branches identified as having greater competitive potential and advantages
in for the years to come and that are suitable for translocation to other sites: manufacturing of
pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and natural products, machinery and household
appliances, radio transmitters and TVs, telegraphic and telephonic devices, medical
equipment and apparatus, screening, IT services and so on.
Business incubators represent irreplaceable strategic methods with a huge ability to
enhance the economy, especially manufacturing industries in poor and underdeveloped
regions and to reintroduce the areas that have been de-industrialized in the last 20 years in the
performant industrial circuit.
6.3.4. Strategic directions of perfecting the public administration management
Strenghtening governance by institutional capacity and by efficient public
administration represent an important element in performing the structural reforms. At this
moment, beside the government program, there is no other official document that includes in
a coherent conception the new directions of reforming the public administration. After a
functional analysis made at the central public administration level in Romania it is shown the
necessity of adopting a set of measures that must support the continuation of the structural
reform of the public administration, in wich they included five strategic directions:
6.3.4.1. Integration of the public policies in the pulic administration management
It is necessary to establish a set of priorities on medium-term, so that the resources are
allocated properly. At the stage of setting priorities, there is no formal process that can ensure
that the public priorities contribute at the orientation of the decisions in allocating resources,
or the excistence of structured deliberations on the policys judgement in determining the
bugets levels. Current regulations forecast that the Romanian strategic planning system must
introduce a methodology of establishing priorities, but there is no critical stage realized for
this process, and the decisional forum- The Strategic Planning Council, coordinated by the
Prime Minister- never met. Even if there are strategic documents on multi-annual planning
horizon-e.g. Strategy Europe 2020-, there is no formal methodology that can determine that
this strategy is budgeted on medium term.
6.3.4.2. Improvement of the public policy elaboration
In the decision adopting process, the deciders need high quality policy documents. In
the legislation, Romania created a modern system of the legislation process and the
institutional network responsible for formulating public policies, both central and ministerial
levels. Though, the public policies process did not improve enough and continues to erode.
The quality of the notes for the strategic-tactical is yet at a low level, being considered non-
vital documents. As a result, the most used public policy instrument is the elaboration of
projects of lows. Lows doesnt represent in favor or against options, doesnt evalue the social-
econimical impact, doesnt establish the costs and doesnt offer an implementation plan. This
aspects are more complicated as Romania operates with different public policies, both
European and national.
6.3.4.3. Decreasement of the ad-hoc policies
Decreasing this type of practices involves planning, discipline in the process and quality
control from the central institutions. In the majority of the European governs the priorities and
the terms for development are planed six months ahead from the moment they need the
aprovement from the government. In Romania, the only similar planning instrument is the
legislative list that supports the guvernments program, but only a part of this regulations get
to be adopted. The weekly work meeting, coordinated by the the Government General
Secretariat, that takes place with two days before the governments meeting, has the potential
of becominga coordinating machinery, but in this context we can not talk about a substance in
the public policies. The use of the additional agenda and of the emergency ordinance must be
reduced, because a lot of ministerial proposals continue to be adopted in this way. A progress
in this way has been made by reducing this type of practices, but this instrument is still rather
used normally then exceptionally.
6.3.4.4. Amplification of the information concerning performance of the public
administration
An essential responsibility element is the transparent monitoring and reporting the results
compared with the planning. Such a monitoring does not exist in Romania, with the exception
of the legislation that supports the government program, the governments targets or when it
is imposed by the European Union. Even if in 2005 a rigorous monitoring system was
provided, it is not working systematic, in addition to offer information to the deciders(e.g.
quarterly reports of progress on priorities, annual reports on ministerial strategic plans).
6.3.4.5. Fortification of the interinstitutional cooperation mechanisms focused on the
resources optimization and administrative simplification
The fortification of the interinstitutional cooperation mechanisms targets the identification
of the horizontal relationships in an institutional perspective, by creating strong horizontal
links between organizations capable of generating width informational flows, fact that is of a
very highly importance in the process of establishing policies goals and in the supplying
strategies of the public services. This goal will be possible by applying the action plans
proposed during the functional analysis made by the public central management.
In addition of optimizing the resources it is necessary the expansion of the performance
audit, from the examination in the economical, efficiency and effectiveness perspective. The
economical audit focuses on the managing administrative activities of the public institutions,
according to the principles and practices of a performing management. The efficiency audit is
focused on the adequate use of the financial, human, or any other kinds of resources,
including the examination of the informational systems and the measurement and monitoring
regulations of the evolution of the performance indicators. The effectiveness audit focuses on
the fulfillment of the objectives by the audited entities, as well as the impact of the audit on
the entities activities schedule, compared with the projected impact.
Continuing the process of administrative simplification aims to introduce new
methods and tools which would help simplifying administrative procedures. Also, these
methods will help reduce customers costs, thus favouring the activity of economic agents.
The administrative simplification means the simplification of processes, procedures and
circuits, by discarding obsolete procedures. At the same time, another aim is to reduce the
number of public service administrative forms, as well as improving the organisation of
administrative structures. The premises if this are covered by the appearance of the
Administrative Code, as well as by initiatives to establish a set of standard central public
administrative costs.

To continue this structural reform in Romanias public administration, there needs to be an
official, formal agreement and efficient teamwork between politicians, public administration,
economics and society. This will, however, be more difficult to achieve in 2012, as political
elections take place.

6.3.5 Priorities and actions towards economic agents management
6.3.5.1 Priorities

In 2012, the evolution of economic agents management will be influenced by the national
and European context, heavily shaped by the evolution of the economic crisis and its effects.
Although Romania was aiming to switch to the Euro in 2015 and enter Schengen area in
2012, figures from the last 8 months show we are closer to recession.

An efficient and effective management is essential; therefore these are our suggestions to
develop economic agents on a national level:

A: The need of the Government to focus on establishing new firms and on helping them out in
their first few years of activity..Governmental programs supporting the founding and
development of micro-enterprises by young entrepreneurs, facilitating access to money, or
projects such as Mihail Kogalniceanu for small and medium enterprises are good examples.

B: Rethinking of state-owned enterprises management strategies, as a lot of them cause
financial loses, affecting national economics. Their management is stuck in the previous,
traditional patterns for institutions wholly financed by the state, without adjusting to their
supposedly developed status as economic operators. The Romanian Government has been
encouraging the restructuring of state-owned enterprises since 2011 and aim:
Reforming the governing of state-owned enterprises and the approval of respective
legislations


C: The modernisation of economic agents management to improve the competitiveness on
the Romanian market. The emphasis is put on vulnerable areas where the management of
companies or public institutions can experience a genuine amelioration:
The employee-employer relationships (rank 137)
The level of taxation (rank 135)
Clusters development level (rank 116)
Usage of newest technology (rank 115)
Level of business sophistication ????? wtf (rank 102)
Quality of institutions (rank 99)
Collaboration between universities and businesses within research (rank 115)
From this point of view, the following are necessary:
The promotion and usage of strategic management by creating and applying good
global and local strategies
Promotion of organisational changing models through reengineering for small and
medium enterprises, as well as other categories of economic agents
Promotion and usage of quality management systems and thus, bringing the
products/services to the European standards
Attracting European funds, international transfer of managerial, technical and
technological know-how on a large scale to narrow down the difference to the
average competitiveness level of countries in the EU
Promotion of professionalism in management, essential for the economic success
of Romanian companies

6.3.5.2 Ways to modernise economic agents management

In the previous edition of Starea de sanatate a managementului in Romania (2011) we
argued that 2011 will be a difficult year, economically and socially, and that the conditions
and developments of the economic medium will continue to influence managerial,
economical and comercial behaviour of Romanian firms in a negative way. Unfortunately, the
assumptions were right. 2012, which started with a change in Government, seems to be just as
difficult, not only for Romania and its organisations, but also for other countries in the EU,
regardless if they are using the Euro or not. Furthermore, in 2012, elections are taking place in
Romania.
Management is now the only remaining factor for economical and social progress and
it can provide many ways to attenuate or even eliminate the effects of the economic crisis and
to ameliorate the performance of economic agents.
As for the most important strategic recommendations for Romanian enterprises, we
will insist claiming that these are highly dependent on the level of managers implication in
the decision- making process.