Knowledge Management Strategy

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Knowledge ManagementStrategy

• Arjan Raven
• BISM 8460
• Kennesaw State University
• Spring 2006

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Knowledge Management Strategy
Focus on People (Personalization)
Understand the value of knowledge
Develop KM Strategy
Focus on Systems (Codification)
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Strategic Views of Knowledge

• Codification
• Knowledge does not change rapidly
• Knowledge can be taken out of its context, is
  portable
• Knowledge can be recorded
• People to Documents
• Personalization
• Knowledge is dynamic, changes all the time
• Knowledge is in people and their relationships
• People to People

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Codification Example Ernst and Young Consulting

• People to documents
• Creation of knowledge objects (videos, Word
  files, etc.)
• EY partner had to bid on IT project
• Looked in repository, found presentations
• Previously developed solutions
• Value propositions
• Closed the sale in 2 months instead of 6 months
• Re-used knowledge for actual project
• Programming documents
• Technical specifications
• Training materials
• Change management documentation

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Personalization ExampleBain Consulting

• People to People
• Focus on dialogue between individuals
• Partner in London
• Difficult strategy problem
• Person knew several other partners with relevant
  knowledge
• Used People Finder database to locate others
• Had video conference and phone conferences
  traveled to meet with several people
• Brought expert from Asia on the team
• Used email, phone, and meetings to share and
  create knowledge

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Economic Model

• Codification
• Reuse Economics
• Invest once in knowledge module, use it many
  times
• Have many workers per partner
• Focus on generating large growth and revenue
  (relat
• Personalization
• Expert Economics
• Charge high fees for highly customized solutions
  to unique problems
• Have few workers per partner
• Focus on keeping high profit margins

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Strategy

• Codification
• Develop electronic document system that codifies,
  stores, disseminates (shares) and allows re-use
  of knowledge
• Personalization
• Develop networks for linking people so that deep
  knowledge can be shared

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Information Technology

• Codification
• Invest heavily in IT
• Connect people with re-usable codified knowledge
• Create knowledge modules
• Personalization
• Invest moderately in IT
• Facilitate finding of right people
• Facilitate exchange of knowledge
• Examples of technology?

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Human Resources

• Codification
• Hire new graduates
• Train people in groups and through distance
  learning
• Reward people for using and contributing to
  document system (Knowledge repository)
• Personalization
• Hire MBAs or other highly educated people who
  like problem solving, can tolerate uncertainty
• Train people through one-on-one mentoring
• Reward people for directly sharing knowledge

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Which Strategy to Use?

• Focus more on one, less on the other (e.g. 80
  and 20 of efforts/budget)
• Ask the following questions
• Do you offer standardized or customized products?
• Do you have mature or an innovative products?
• Do your people rely on simple knowledge or deep
  knowledge to solve problems?

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A Brief History of KM

• Knowledge management arrived because work became
  more knowledge-intensive, and technology became
  available (1990 1999)
• Lots of initial promise, not a whole lot of
  immediate results
• Initially too much IT-focused, not enough
  people-focused
• In many companies codification when
  personalization was more appropriate
• Some backlash negative publicity for KM,
  corporations gave different names to KM projects
  (1999 2003)
• Now revived interest in KM, and very successful
  projects (2004, 2005)
• Often linked to total quality improvement,
  organizational learning, training