denotes premium content | Jul 24 2008 Feature
posted 1 Jun 2000 in Volume 3 Issue 9
WEB ONLY ARTICLE: Finding your way with KM
In
the second article to appear in this column, Andrew Fellows offers a personal
opinion on how to best approach the task of implementing a knowledge management
programme in an organisation. Although technological issues should naturally be
addressed, any KM approach should take into account a company's business
strategy and objectives.
Most articles, publications and
studies recommending best practice in knowledge management inevitably start with
a discussion of database management, data warehousing, utilisation of
intelligence from within and without, and, ultimately, the creation of knowledge
management intranets. But these issues are only subsets of the greater question
of defining and implementing a knowledge management strategy within an
organisation, with the aim of increasing its sales and its effectiveness, and
strengthening the knowledge networks within the company.
Essentially, there are four areas of
activity which need to be addressed:
Defining a knowledge management strategy that fits to the business
strategy and objectives of the company
Defining a knowledge management
strategy cannot be undertaken in isolation from the remainder of the
organisation and its business strategy. Knowledge can be divided into various
areas, such as knowledge on customers (hitherto called customer data); knowledge
on markets (market intelligence); knowledge on competitors (competitive
intelligence); knowledge on the demographics of the customers you are attempting
to target; knowledge on the economic activity in the field in which the company
operates and on the political guidelines that determine how one is allowed to
operate; knowledge on infrastructures; knowledge on technologies in the given
field and knowledge on general socio-economic factors. This very accurately
resembles the DEPICTS model developed in the marketing faculty of Liverpool John
Moores University, to which I give full credit; I couldn't survive without this.
Additionally, gaining access to the knowledge of the people in the organisation is a
key factor. Their knowledge (learning, experience and documented intelligence is
my definition of this word) is something which is absolutely essential for
the organisation to obtain and make use of. It forms the backbone, or should,
of every decision taken by the board, on the company's future and on
each operational decision. What also must be made clear is that a mixture of
the tacit and explicit knowledge is necessary to create a 'knowledge picture', and
that the variation between these two types of knowledge will be constantly
shifting on a continuum, depending on the knowledge requirement. Being an
absolute realist, it is clear to me that the systems, information flows,
networks and correct people must be in place in order for such a knowledge
strategy to work and for it to be of real use to the company concerned. Quite
often, knowledge management and the associated intranet and IT systems are
implemented without reference to the strategy of the company but simply because
KM is a trend and we need to do it too! This is not only wrong, but a waste of
investment funds.
Defining KM intelligence requirements and the required
technology
Going on from the need to develop a KM strategy and then fitting this
to the company's objectives, it is important to set intelligence
gathering objectives. What type of KM do I need for what purposes, how do I go
about collecting, evaluating, sorting and transforming the collected intelligence
into knowledge by combining this with the companies and its workers' experiences
and to what use do I put this? How does knowledge fit into what I offer my
customer and how can I help him to improve/establish his knowledge management
practices so it adds value to his business and allows me to collect further
intelligence and serve him better? All of these questions are relevant, but also
extremely poignant is the question of knowledge relevance - how do I decide where to draw
the line and how to gather knowledge from intelligence, intelligence from data
and to sort the wheat from the chaff?
These issues bring us
very nicely to the technical solution. Quite often, systems such as Lotus
Notes or technical platforms for Internet use are taken without consideration of what
is required - my own company uses Lotus for certain purposes and it is excellent, but
it may not be suitable for all needs. What needs to be done is to rank needs
and, for the most important knowledge requirements, to draft out how that
information can be fed to the population that requires it to promote sales and
serve the customer. Only when the needs are clearly defined and ring-fenced, can
one start to design the hardware and software; 'the look and feel' of what is
required. It is no good to say: 'This is our IT system and this is what we will
use.' Knowledge management and the associated systems must be seen purely as a
means to an end - improving the internal organisation and teamwork, and serving the
customer to the optimal degree. This is the way to sustained streams of
revenue.
Empowering the people (the knowledge workers) and changing
culture
Knowledge is all about people. The organisation is operating in a
global, web-enabled economy where responding faster and more accurately to
customer and market needs, and offering products and services beyond the wildest
dreams of the consumer are the only routes to survival. The people in the
organisation, what they know and what they have experienced, are, therefore, at
the heart of what goes on. Even in Internet selling, it is clear that what makes
a site attractive and what makes people purchase online is not simply an
attractive site, but giving customers what they need, making them happy. Only by
having all of the knowledge mentioned in this article already, can one serve the
end consumer to an optimum level and ensure loyalty and future purchases. The
Internet, extranets and intranets serve to enable the exchange process between
seller and buyer, but the people in the organisation are those who define the
requirements, set up the customer offering, know the market, buy, sell, develop,
etc, etc., and their knowledge, or intellectual capital, is the most valuable
asset a company can have.
The only remaining question, then, is how to get this knowledge out of
their heads and put it to good use. In traditional, silo-driven organisations
(most companies), power politics, personal interests, payment and bonus systems
based purely on individual performance and sheer bloody-mindedness contribute to
diluting knowledge capturing, sharing, effective dissemination and usage to such
an extent that the systems and processes in place might as well be scrapped. A
change needs to be made, and this is possible in the age of the network economy,
where speed and customer service are critical, from being a functional
organisation to a process-based, customer-oriented service company. The only way
for the organisation to learn is through its people; the learning organisation
means the maximum use of intellectual capital to facilitate the optimum transfer
of explicit and tacit knowledge for the improvement of the individual and the
organisation.
A car company, for example, will be a provider of mobility packages to
consumers (transportation services and products, as well as other services) in the
future. Such a company must operate on the basis of processes and customer care, and
the time is past when production and marketing departments fight with
one-another over who is to blame for the late introduction of a new model; in my
view, someone will be responsible at a car company for the 'build-to-delivery' process
in a few years and the only goals will be profit and customer satisfaction and
retention. Cultural change is hard and needs top management support; indeed,
someone on the board should have responsibility for knowledge management
strategy. The people's development, pay and prospects at such a car company
would then depend on teamwork, leadership, results and sharing best practice,
and a combination of these will determine the leaders of the future. Indeed,
these people will become qualified, knowledge workers who, without really
thinking about it, disseminate, share, use and reshape knowledge as part of
their normal activities. Knowledge practices will become as normal as brushing
your teeth in the morning or taking the dog for a walk. Of course, systems for
rewarding these new practices must be put in place to replace the antiquated
ones.
This is not
a hypothesis, it is a question of survival in the knowledge-based network
economy. Cultural change must be forced through - get on the bus or stay in the
bus station!
Serving the end customer to the optimum level
The ultimately aim of a
business is to make money. If we want to do this better, more quickly, with
greater success and more profitably, then what better way than to have a
structured overview of the end customer, the entire playing field in which one
operates, the team with which one works (including suppliers and distributors),
the technology and methods one employs (Internet and outsourcing) and the
development of the company? Only people have this and the intellectual capital
within the firm, and not how many machines it owns, is priceless. Knowledge is,
put quite simply, the key to the door to doing things better and in a
customer-oriented, efficient way. What a pity that companies have not realised
the full potential of knowledge in the information society and the network
economy. Knowledge is the future; grasp it and exploit it. Let the organisation
learn from its people and the people learn from the organisation.
Andrew Fellows is a
senior consultant at Gemini Consulting. He can be contacted at:andrew.fellows@gemcon.com
