1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. management
4. business process

Strategic
Knowledge
Management
• Strategy: Military Origin;
• derived from the greek word strategia (Office of
the general or commander)
Or
Stratgos (Leader/Commander/ General)
Do I look like a Greek to
you?
Why don’t you forget the
Greek part and tell me in
simple terms?
In pure and simple
terms, It’s the plan
of action designed
to achieve a
particular goal.
`
My brother at XISS is always repeating the
same word, I am a student of
management;
I am doing a course on management,
Personnel Management is replaced by HR
Management.
Management this, management that!!
What on earth is management??
Managers Live by
making decisions.
So management is
about taking
decisions.
Management is
what managers do.
Management is the art
of getting work done
through others
-Mary Parker Follet
Management is,
working efficiently
and effectively .
• Many writers many concepts and all focusing on some
or more basic characteristics. For they assign a
meaning that they feel and I leave it up to you to
choose what you may want, for the world is nothing
but a world of meanings.
• All I can tell is, that they all confirm to the idea behind
the origin of this word.
The word management is the english version of the
term “menagement” which is derived from the word
maneggaire which means to handle.
Let's move ahead……
What is Knowledge?
• One day, a very scholarly
English gentleman, while
travelling in India, decided to go
across big river, so he asked one
of the village people who
owned a small boat, if he would
take him, to this request the
boatman agreed.
• As they started, the
sun became obscured
by dark clouds, and as
the river was large, the
gentleman realised,
that the crossing would
take some time. So he
started a conversation
with the boatman.
“Did you know that the sun
is approximately
93,000,000miles away, and
yet it has provided heat and
light, throughout the
universe since time
immemorial, baring that, if it
was to shift, even a fraction
of an inch out of its orbit,
there would be total
devastation?”
The boatman replied; “My dear
sir, I am just a simple man who
has had no education, there is no
way I could know such
information”
“Then” said the gentleman “You
are 25% fool”.
• Some time passed, and
as they were coming to
the ½ way mark, the
thunder began to
rumble.
Did you know notice the
lightening, just before the
rumbling sound”. The
gentleman asked. He
continued. “Do you know
how that phenomenon
occurs”
The boatman replied; “No sir”
“Its occurrence is due to the
expansion of rapidly heated air,”
the gentleman exclaimed, “ You
are 50% fool!!
• About ¾ of the way the
weather completely
changed. It became dark
and started to rain heavily
and started filling up the
little boat with water
clearly making it difficult for
the boatman. But the
foolish gentleman insisted
in questioning.
“Do you know how we get rain”,
“No sir,” was the reply.”
“ The sun evaporates water
from the sea, this gets stored in
the clouds which then travel by
be wind power, then when they
become full, it lets all the water
go, over the land. That’s how
we get rain.”
“You are 75% fool.” Said the
gentleman, now feeling very
smug.
• The gentleman was suddenly interrupted from
his basqueing by a loud cry from the boatman,
“Oh no! I have lost my oar and now the water
is about capsize the boat, we have no
alternative but to swim the remainder of the
way, luckily for us it is not very far.”
“But I can’t swim,” cried the
gentleman now seeing his
own imminent death.
“Then my dear sir, you are 100%
fool” said the boatman!!!
But bhaiya ji, the question still
remains- What is Knowledge?
Data
Information
Knowledge
• Information refers to the data that has been
given some meaning, by way of a relational
connection.
• It is important to note that without
information, you can never have knowledge.
• You need information to be able to get
knowledge.
Knowledge is the concise and
appropriate collection of
information in a way that
makes it useful .
Knowledge refers to a
deterministic process where
patters within a given set of
information is analyzed.
Information
• Information is data
that is processed.
• Information deals
with the way that
data is related.
Knowledge
• Knowledge is
information that is
modeled to be useful
• Knowledge examines
the patterns within a
set of information.
INFORMATION IS NOT
KNOWLEDGE UNTIL AND
UNLESS IT IS APPLIED
EFFECTIVELY.
•Power flows from
the barrel of the
gun.
•Power flows from
the knowledge that
you possess.
•Today knowledge is
power. It controls
access to opportunity
and advancement.
- Peter. F. Druckar
KNOWLEDGE CREATION
Knowledge update can mean creating new
knowledge based on ongoing experience
in a specific domain and then using the
new knowledge in combination with the
existing knowledge to come up with
updated knowledge for knowledge
sharing.
TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
1. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE:
• This type of knowledge is formalized and codified, and is
sometimes referred to as know-what. It is therefore fairly easy
to identify, store, and retrieve. This is the type of knowledge
most easily handled by KMS, which are very effective at
facilitating the storage, retrieval, and modification of
documents and texts.
• From a managerial perspective, the greatest challenge with
explicit knowledge is similar to information. It involves
ensuring that people have access to what they need; that
important knowledge is stored; and that the knowledge is
reviewed, updated, or discarded.
2. TACIT KNOWLEDGE
It is sometimes referred to as know-how and refers to
intuitive, hard to define knowledge that is largely
experience based. Because of this, tacit knowledge is often
context dependent and personal in nature. It is hard to
communicate and deeply rooted in action, commitment,
and involvement . Tacit knowledge is also regarded as being
the most valuable source of knowledge, and the most likely
to lead to breakthroughs in the organization . The lack of
focus on tacit knowledge directly leads to the reduced
capability for innovation and sustained competitiveness. It
includes cultural beliefs, values, attitudes, mental models,
etc. as well as skills, capabilities and expertise.
Knowledge Conversion
The conversion spiral..
•
Socialization –From Tacit to Tacit
comes from shared experience with others, networking to share
experiences. It can also come from “direct interactions with
suppliers and customers and walking around inside the
organization.”
eg. Honda’s Brainstorming camps
• Externalization - From Tacit to Explicit
information or knowledge becomes “crystalized.” People within
the organization start sharing what they’ve learned (sort of like
how I’m sharing it here) in the form of “concepts, hypothesis,
diagrams, models, or prototypes.”
eg. Honda City’s “Automobile Evolution”
• Combination –From Explicit to Explicit
knowledge takes the pace of shared presentations, meetings. The
knowledge items become categorized. The knowledge items start
to undergo classification and are morphed by people in a format
that the organization can use and apply.
Eg. Canon’s corporate policy was converted into the Mini-Copier
• Internalization - From Explicit to Implicit
the process of understanding and absorbing explicit knowledge in to
tacit knowledge held by the individual. Internalization is largely
experiential, in order to actualize concepts and methods, either
through the actual doing or through simulations. The internalization
process transfers organization and group explicit knowledge to the
individual.
Eg. GE’s “re-experience”
The 5 Ps of Strategic Knowledge
Management
The 5 Ps
• Knowledge management is a complex process
of social change and systematic development.
It relies on the alignment of FIVE key systems
to achieve full integration in to the
organizational setting. These are called the 5
Ps.
Planning
• It should clarify knowledge goals and establish
effective values and processes to support
these directions.
• Takes time and demands perseverance.
• Requires
ongoing
monitoring
and
measurement.
• Progressive review and re-planning to handle
changing environment.
People
• The most important aspect is to recognize that
strategic knowledge management lies with the
people.
• People manage the system and processes.
• Need is to convince people about the benefits
of strategic knowledge management.
Processes
• Knowledge management principles need to be
put into application via effective workplace
practices.
• Careful management of the alignment of
strategies, principles, processes and practices
needs to be done.
• Messages about what is important might be
perceived differently across the organization.
• Need of the hour would be to monitor the actual
process regularly to ensure that it reflects
knowledge priority.
Products
• Each organization builds it’s own knowledge
output. Might be shared to client or exist as
internally shared knowledge objects.
• Explicit knowledge should be captured and
distributed efficiently and timely.
• Example – Intranet.
Performance
• Regular review to ensure that the financial
and social capital investment is positively
influencing the intellectual and social capital
of the organization.
• Regular evaluation to consider how well
knowledge management is integrated into the
business context.
KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
•
•
•
•
Peter Drucker first coined the term in 1966 in
his book “The effective executive”.
Knowledge workers in today's workforce are
individuals who are valued for their ability to
act and communicate with knowledge within
a specific subject area.
They will often advance the overall
understanding of that subject through
focused analysis, design and/or development.
They use research skills to define problems
and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their
expertise and insight, they work to solve
those problems, in an effort to influence
company decisions, priorities and strategies.
VARIOUS FUNCTIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
WORKERS
• Analyzing data to establish relationships.
• Assessing input in order to evaluate complex or
conflicting priorities.
• Identifying and understanding trends.
• Making connections.
• Understanding cause and effect relationships.
• Ability to brainstorm, thinking broadly.
• Ability to drill down, creating more focus.
• Producing a new capability(Innovation).
• Creating or modifying a strategy.
KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
• The HR connection:
Knowledge Assets: People, tools, processes and
external relationships.
HR- the closest collaborator on the people asset.
HR Role: Facilitation, nurturing and supporting
knowledge workers.
• Peter Drucker’s original differentiation of knowledge
workers from manual workers under debate.
• A new opinion: Every worker is a knowledge worker.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COP)
• COPs are groups of people with a common
interest who meet for sharing their insights in
order to develop better solutions to problems
or challenges.
• Members choose to join as they realize the
value of knowledge sharing.
• They encourage innovation, collaboration and
sharing of good practices, e.g, Best Practices
Replication programme at Ford Motor Ltd.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COP)
• Knowledge evolves and grows as the COP
stimulates thinking, sharing and challenging
concepts.
• COPs help in reducing barriers created by
organizational structure or geographical
distance.
• Some COPs are known to be short-lived, while
others may be formed on a long term basis.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (COP)
• COPs require commitment and the
development of a collaborative mentality.
They are self-managed groups which are not
organizationally driven or managed.
• Their success depends on the value perceived
by the members.
• They can be significant sources of influence in
an organization.
DEVELOPING A STRATEGIC
KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY
• Emphasis on communal sharing of knowledge
and the building of better practices through
community interaction.
• Aim: Integrate everyone into the knowledge
community, not just the favoured few.
• Knowledge diffusion should be encouraged.
• Bottom Line: Add value through knowledge
management.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
TOOLBOX
After Action Reviews (AAR’s)
Types of AAR’S :
 Formal
 Informal
 Personal
Steps for Conducting the AAR’s
Conducting a knowledge audit
Steps in conducting knowledge Audit :




Identifying knowledge needs
Drawing up a knowledge inventory
Analysing knowledge flows
Creating a knowledge map
 Developing a knowledge management strategy
 Exit interviews
 Identifying and sharing best practices
 Knowledge centres
 Knowledge harvesting
Peer assists
Storytelling
White pages
IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANISATION
Strategic Knowledge management has become
a major competitive tool for the present day
organisations. Knowledge management is the
acquisition and use of resources to create an
environment in which information is accessible
to individuals and in which individuals acquire,
share and use that information to develop their
own knowledge. Further, employees are
encouraged and enabled to apply their
knowledge for the benefit of the organization.
• Knowledge management helps in identifying the
relevant information and best practices which can
help in improving employee performance.
• Knowledge management is important as it helps
discover people’s skills and knowledge essential to
gain competitive advantage.
• An effective knowledge management provides
information which is important for making decision.
• Strategic knowledge management helps to
plan and forecast workforce .
• Can avoid reinventing the wheels, thus
reducing redundant work for new employee.
• It supports innovation and learning.
• Retention of intellectual properties after the
employee leaves the organization, if such
knowledge can be codified.
CHALLENGE FOR AN ORGANIZATION
IN THE KNOWLEDGE ERA
The challenge for an organization is to
have a clear understanding of desirable
strategic knowledge and the sources of
such knowledge in its community.
Thus knowledge management is not
simply about sharing what one knows-it
entails identifying valuable strategic
knowledge which should be accessible.
3 Ways to adapt an organization to the
knowledge era
• The New Factory focuses on the performance
of your intangible capital.
• The New Management is about driving
innovation in your organization.
• And the New Accounting explains the link
between intangibles and the financial
performance and valuation of your business.
• Sharing of valuable organization information
throughout organizational hierarchy.
• Strategic Knowledge management helps in
indentifying the needs of a firm, organizing flow of
information , implementing the plan and evaluating
the whole exercise to find gaps and to rectify things
in time.
• Strategic Knowledge management helps in achieving
the organizational goals.
How to prepare for the Knowledge
Era
Changing the organisation's orientation towards
codifying and diffusing knowledge is the key to
preparing for the Knowledge Era. All the main
elements of Knowledge Management are
already familiar to organisations (that is, the
objects of Knowledge Management and the
issues associated with them) but, because of
the limitations of paper-based communication,
they have been handled in sporadic and
isolated ways which have limited their
effectiveness.
• The main challenge that this creates for
organisations is to lift the emphasis which
they place on a number of key skills and
technologies in order to create systematic and
well-integrated approaches to generating,
codifying and diffusing knowledge. The areas
which need to be addressed have been
cogently summarised by Thomas Davenport of
the University of Texas as• 1. Knowledge capture, ie, creation of
documents and moving them onto computer
systems
• 2. Adding value to knowledge through editing,
packaging and pruning
• 3. Developing knowledge categorisation
approaches and categorising new
contributions to knowledge
• 4. Developing information technology
infrastructures and applications for the
distribution of knowledge
• 5. Educating employees on the creation,
sharing, and use of knowledge
KNOWLEDGE
Our knowledge is a
drop.
Our ignorance is an
ocean.
Knowledge Sharing
• Knowledge Management is fundamentally about making the right
knowledge or the right knowledge sources (including people) available to
the right people at the right time.
• Knowledge sharing is therefore perhaps the single most important aspect
in this process, since the vast majority of KM initiatives depend upon it.
Knowledge sharing can be described as either push or pull. The latter is
when the knowledge worker actively seeks out knowledge sources (e.g.
library search, seeking out an expert, collaborating with a coworker etc.),
while knowledge push is when knowledge is "pushed onto" the user (e.g.
newsletters, unsolicited publications, etc).
Concept of knowledge Sharing
Explicit Knowledge and Knowledge SharingExplicit knowledge is knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and
stored in certain media. It can be readily transmitted to others. The information
contained in encyclopedias (including Wikipedia) are good examples of explicit
knowledge.
Successful explicit knowledge sharing is determined by the following criteria
Articulation: The ability of the user to define what he needs.
Awareness: Awareness of the knowledge available. The provider is
encouraged to make use of directories, maps, corporate
yellow pages, etc.
Access:
Access to the knowledge.
Tacit Knowledge Sharing –
Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another
person by means of writing it down or verbalizing it.
Sharing tacit knowledge requires socialization. This can take many different
forms. Davenport & Prusak (2000) outlined a few relevant factors:
1. Informal networks, which involve the day to day interaction between
people within work environments are considered very important
2. Unlike the formalized structure of the firm, these networks span functions
and hierarchies. They are therefore difficult to identify and monitor.
3. Management should support these networks by providing the means for
communication. Japanese firms have created talk rooms where employees
can engage in unstructured, unmonitored discussions.
• Embedded Knowledge Sharing
As a reminder, embedded knowledge refers to knowledge locked in products,
processes, routines, etc.
Embedded knowledge can be shared when the knowledge from one product or
process is incorporated into another. Management must understand what
knowledge is locked within those sources, and they must transfer the relevant
parts into a different system. To do this, Gamble and Blackwell advocate the use
of:
Scenario planning:
The practice of creating a set of scenarios and hypothesizing how they might
unfold by drawing upon the perspectives of experts, the firm's knowledge asserts
and so on.
Management Training etc…
Knowledge sharing – a core competence
The new economy has knowledge ,
creativity and innovation as its currency
while today’s consumer are on the edge
of being driven more by value and true
performance than by brand . The service
industry is , moving so rapidly that
yesterday’s hero can be a zero today. A
transparent platform for knowledge
sharing
throughout
the
whole
organization is a vital aspect.
How do you persuade people not to leave
? (knowledge retention)
How can you ensure knowledgeable
people stay in the organization and don’t
take away valuable assets to your
competitors ?
The answer…
Since the successful business model of the New Millennium
focuses on Knowledge, Innovation and Information, the
Human Dynamics of the organization have become critical.
Thus, this becomes also an issue of Culture. Many of today’s
leading companies have found that by focusing on values,
core competencies, core capabilities, behavior, and reward
systems based on knowledge sharing and creativity, they have
successfully re-designed their businesses, worldwide and
with thousands of employees.
Sharing of Strategic knowledge
• Hansen et al (1999) assert that it is not
knowledge per se but the way it is
• applied to strategic objectives that is the
critical ingredient in competitiveness
Approaches/Strategies of sharing
Knowledge
Two approaches to knowledge management have been
identified by Hansen et al(1999):
1. The codification strategy – knowledge is carefully codified
and stored in databases
where it can be accessed and used easily by anyone in the
organization .
2. The personalization strategy – knowledge is closely tied to
the person who has developed it and is shared mainly
through direct person-to-person contacts .
Knowledge and Innovation
The knowledge organization and ROI
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is a tool to achieve strategic objectives of any
organization.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge Management is a system to facilitate learning, innovation
and sharing to achieve the strategic objectives of an organization.
What is the knowledge in the context of the organization?
Knowledge today the organization has is in terms of its tacit and
explicit knowledge to perform its day today works. We may go for a
knowledge audit to identify it. Here care is to be taken that eighty
percent of the organization knowledge is tacit. A knowledge audit
will identify the knowledge inventory of the organization and a
knowledge map can be created. This would facilitate in identifying
the future knowledge requirements of the organization to achieve
its strategic objectives.
The knowledge organization and ROI
What Does Return On Investment - ROI Mean?
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of
an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of
different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of
an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the
result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.
The return on investment formula:
ROI= (Gain from investment – Cost of investment)/ Cost of
investment.
The knowledge organization and ROI
So how can a company be sure to achieve a substantial ROI on
Knowledge Management?
While starting a new KM project, an origination should
benchmark the current performance against the performance
of its peers and identify the specific operational metrics
needing improvement.
There are three basic types of improvements from a KM
initiative namely:
1.Efficiency.
2.Effectiveness.
3.Innovation.
Energized Learning Organization™ (ELO)
Organizations the world over are essentially facing the same challenges of
improving employee engagement, employee retention, innovation,
better team work across organizations and low execution skills. There
are usually few platforms for active learning and collaboration across
business lines.
Energized Learning Organization™ (ELO) is a comprehensive
organizational change program that caters to all of the above
challenges. ELO facilitates the creation of a self-sustaining culture of
learning and innovation which builds higher levels of employee
engagement and consistently delivers breakthrough results.
The benefits of this approach would be to build the capacity of the entire
organization to initiate and sustain learning without any external
support and to put the learning to test by taking up action projects. A
high level of commitment to learning and teaching will be built up in
the organization. This is indispensable for excellence in the Leadership
role.
ESSAR Group a knowledge organization.
•
•
•
•
•
•
At Essar, we focus on building careers. Essar has a high emphasis on
performance, and we link both career growth and rewards directly to merit
and achievement. Right from the entry level we draw career maps for each
employee
COACHING & MENTORING
As Essar expands globally, we work towards making every manager a leader,
and mentoring is our primary means of displaying leadership
ESSAR ACADEMY
Through the academy, Essar aims to build a learning organization for the
employee's career advancement
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
We ensure an Essarite learns new skills and gains enriching experiences
CADRES PROGRAMMES
Essar has exciting entry-level programmes for campus hires
TALENT MANAGEMENT
Essar runs various talent management and engagement programmes to
harness employee morale and skills
Case Study
• Apple Japan
• Until 1989, Apple Japan, the Japanese arm of the multinational Apple
Computing corporation, held only 1 percent of the country's personal
computer market. The appointment of a new company president marked
the beginning of an era -- he started the drive to increase Apple's presence
in the market and accelerated change. The company was to achieve
annual sales of $1 billion by the end of 1995.
• To meet this challenge the corporation approached the management
consultant firm, Arthur D. Little, who have built up a wealth of experience
in information technology and company restructuring. Apple Japan
requested a sweeping plan to penetrate the market and increase
efficiency within the company. In order to do this, they planned to
reposition the brand, expand the range of distributors, improve customer
management, and introduce the concept of the Learning Organization into
the workplace.
METHODS
•
•
•
•
•
In order to implement Learning Organization techniques, Apple was advised to
tackle the Five Disciplines which are essential to a learning organization: Team
Learning, Shared Visions, Mental Models, Personal Mastery and Systems Thinking.
Although group meetings were a regular part of company practice, more time was
allowed for group discussions and team education. This kept the work teams well
informed and increased every individual's input to their project. With the
increased emphasis on team learning, a shared vision was naturally introduced,
allowing each member to work towards the same goal irrespective of their
position.
Each employee of the company had their own mental model of how the
organisation, their managers and team colleagues operate. By trying to bring each
person's mental model into line with the rest of the team, the learning process
was made more efficient and teams acted more coherently. Personal Mastery was
also addressed by encouraging managers to set their staff challenging but
reasonable goals, and introducing training programmes.
The crucial discipline was Systems Thinking, which brought all the other factors
together. This enabled each employee to make decisions, taking the whole system
into account, instead of focusing specifically on their own problems.
These disciplines were implemented by moderate restructuring and a program of
education that was applied to everyone in the organization.
Results
• The re-organization resulted in a marked improvement in the company's
sales, with growth exceeding the most optimistic projections:
• Market Share grew to 15% in 1995 from 1% in 1989.
• Annual sales soared to $1.3 billion in 1994, with the sale of 520 000
computers
• Although not all of the success can be attributed to the introduction of the
Learning Organization concept, the results indicate an unprecedented
improvement. The learning organization was a major player in instituting
this growth.
Quotations
• "The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is
the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of
that capital depends on how effectively people share their
competence with those who can use it."Andrew Carnegie