denotes premium content | Jul 7 2008 Inside Knowledge Magazine /Knowledge Management Magazine Archive
Volume 9 Issue 2
Editor's letter
Welcome to the October edition of Inside Knowledge. In this month’s cover story, our
In addition, this issue includes a 40-page supplement on enterprise search. Over the past decade, enterprise-search technologies have experienced significant evolution, with myriad tools and complex algorithms now part of the corporate mainstream. This supplement analyses this rapidly changing marketplace and outlines the information-management strategies of leading organisations. Which applications do you feel are the most important components of an enterprise-search solution? What are the chief obstacles to developing an effective search and retrieval strategy? Do search technologies play an important role in supporting your business processes? It is answers to these questions, and more, that this supplement hopes to discover.
Elsewhere, Sandra Higgison finds out how Bruce Karney has created and delivered KM tools and processes to help staff across HP perform their jobs more effectively. Karney’s 24-year career at HP has stretched from industrial engineering to corporate education and knowledge consulting. His overriding objective in each of these roles has been to bring about improvements by helping the company ‘know what it knows’. Today, less than a month from retirement, Karney has reflected on his lessons learnt and shares his carefully considered KM conclusions.
On page 32, our focus shifts to Patti Anklam’s final masterclass, detailing the practical implementation of social-network analysis in an organisational context.
I hope you enjoy this month’s issue. As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at jschofield@ark-group.com.
Jason Schofield
Managing editor
Features
Masterclass: Social-network analysis
“So now what?” is the big question following a network analysis. You’ve done the planning, got the stakeholders engaged, decided what questions to ask, completed the survey and the analysis and you have some interesting results to review. In and of itself, you’ve just completed a great deal of work, but in the overall scheme of things you’ve just started a process that is intended to move an organisation – or set of organisations – from a current state of connectedness to a state of improved connectivity and awareness of the importance of being connected.
Book review: In Search of Innovation
Debra M. Amidon is a well-known authority and evangelist in the area of knowledge and innovation management. The focus of attention of the E100 Entovation network of global practitioners, it comes as no surprise that she once again inspires with her new book, In search of innovation: A book for children and leadership executive.
Case study: Ford
Use of 6-Sigma and other quality-improvement programmes are very prevalent. What is rare is a robust business process to replicate quality-improvement practices across all business units of an enterprise.
To tackle this challenge, what is needed is a proven process to capture, share, and fully leverage any and all quality improvements that occur in remote corners of an enterprise.
Case study: Caunton
In the late 1990s, construction and engineering firm Caunton was part of a pan-industry strategy forum facilitated by Warwick Manufacturing Group, called ‘Steel Industry Managers in the 21st Century’. While at the forum, company representatives found themselves tabling some home truths when pressed by a number of industry consultants.
Cover story: Knowledge in action
A major international science and technology company is currently engaged in a change-management process that will transform the company. Kent Greenes, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer (CKO) at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), was originally hired by SAIC as a rainmaker in the KM consulting market, but now is the lead change-management strategist under the company’s first new CEO since the organisation was founded in 1969.
The knowledge: Bruce Karney
When Lew Platt, former CEO at HP said, “If only HP knew what HP knows” he succinctly described the aspirations of many organisations taking their first steps in knowledge management. Recognising that the company’s continued success relied on its employees’ knowledge of its markets, products and customers, HP started to design and implement processes and tools to help its people connect, collaborate and learn.
Regulars
KnowledgeWorks: Hurricanes and KM
Even before the latest tragedies in the US, a sure way to make people laugh was for someone to say, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” But no one laughed when Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana said, “We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) wanted to negotiate an organisational chart!”
KM toolkit: Session-initiation protocol
When an important business decision needs to be made, there are few things more frustrating than trying to track down a colleague with the most up-to-date knowledge of the customer or project in question, only to find that they are out of the office, not responding to e-mail and, to top it off, their mobile phone is switched off.
Trend tracker: Collaboration
Last month I wrote about the growth in the use of wikis to deliver low cost collaboration functions. So what is happening in the world of collaboration tools delivered by the big vendors? One feature that is almost universally provided that does not exist (yet) in wikis is presence awareness.
Thought leader: Engaging the human factor in KM initiatives
Many experts who speak about knowledge management and the value it can bring to business acknowledge KM is less about technology and more about people. The human factor is often the wild card that will either help facilitate success or raise barriers that may lead to less than optimal results from KM initiatives.
