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Our client engagements have given us many unique perspectives on knowledge management, from broad industry-wide KM issues and trends to what works and doesn’t work at a project level. Our clients appreciate this depth of knowledge and often tell us “It’s nice to know that you’ve been around the KM block more than just a few times.”
In this Section, we want to share with you some of our beliefs and observations about the practice of knowledge management.
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Knowledge management is a process—not a software package.
Companies have deployed a number of technologies that fall under the general category of knowledge management—document management systems, intranets and extranets, data warehousing and data mining technologies, groupware, and decision support systems, to name just a few. However, implementing a “shrink-wrap” software product or two is not knowledge management!
Many organizations are failing to exploit the full power of knowledge management because they haven’t addressed the other core elements necessary for successful KM implementations. It is not the technology that is holding organizations back but a failure to build KM into the organization’s day-to-day operations and culture in order to encourage end-user acceptance.
Knowledge management is strategic and must be tied directly to the core business issues and performance metrics.
KM must be integrated into the organization’s business strategies and core business processes. KM initiatives are successful when the outcomes of the initiatives are explicit and tightly linked to business strategy. Executive support will disappear when KM is viewed simply as infrastructure.
The need for knowledge management is universal.
We are happy to report that we have found countless KM initiatives that span all types of industries, government agencies, and educational institutions. Knowledge management has become an accepted part of the business agenda. A recent survey conducted by KPMG Consulting found that over four-fifths of 423 large organizations in the U.S. and Europe had or were considering a KM program. Specifically, 38 percent had a KM program in place, 30 percent were currently setting one up, and 13 percent were examining the need.
Whether these initiatives are defined in terms of knowledge management, content management, e-learning, portals, communities, intellectual capital, knowledge assets, or a dozen other terms, the focus of these programs is the same: organizations want to create business value and sustainable competitive advantage through the superior management of their knowledge.
The value of an organization’s intellectual capital must be made explicit.
Traditional financial accounting approaches fail to measure the organization’s collective knowledge base, represented by the cumulative knowledge contained in its people, its processes, and in its data, information, and knowledge repositories. In fact, accounting methodology regards people (labor) as an expense or liability instead of a valuable productive asset. Knowledge assets must be measured and business strategies must include investments to grow and harness the value of the organization’s knowledge and human capital.
Knowledge management is a customized solution.
The most successful KM initiatives are those that are customized to the organization’s unique business requirements. Customization is required for tasks such as establishing the organization-specific taxonomy and metadata; identifying the types and sources of content; designing process and information workflows; integrating new KM systems with legacy applications and databases; and designing and implementing the appropriate organizational change management activities, such as new KM roles and rewards and recognition programs. A “cookie cutter” approach has ruined many KM programs. One size does not fit all!
Technology is vital for the transformation to a knowledge enterprise.
Information technology is a critical enabler of knowledge-based enterprises. In fact, many see IT as a requirement to succeed in today’s economy. Companies must exploit new technologies to improve core business processes, increase productivity, and raise profitability. However, like investments in all early technologies, we believe that a single-minded focus on computer hardware and software—without consideration of the other important strategic, business process, content, and change management components—is a recipe for disaster.
Knowledge management solutions require changes in the business model and changes in the behaviors of individual employees.
KM has the most immediate and measurable impact when it focuses on the daily activities performed by individual employees. While job redesign is usually addressed as a part of KM project, typically not enough effort goes into encouraging employees to learn about and incorporate the new processes and systems into their daily routine. From our research, we’ve found that the most successful KM projects spent roughly two-thirds of their budgets on non-technology items, such as process redesigns and change management activities!
Knowledge management plays a vital role in emerging models of organizations.
Knowledge management supports two emerging organizational models.
The knowledge evolution must be managed and not left to chance.
As incomplete as today’s IT systems might be, some influence and control over “knowledge-rich” business processes is significantly better than none at all. Knowledge management must be understood as both a science and an art in order to reap optimal advantage. Aspects like the design of new knowledge worker roles and new rewards and recognition programs are critical for this success.
A growing body of knowledge management case studies and best practices is available to learn from and leverage.
The KM field has matured sufficiently over the last decade so that a body of accepted practices and standards has evolved. What was theory yesterday has evolved, been refined, and tested in a variety of commercial and industrial settings. Newly launched KM programs can benefit from the lessons and insights drawn from previous successful KM implementations, which can be found in published case studies, best practices, and benchmarking studies.
The benefits of knowledge management are being realized.
Our direct experience shows that companies are achieving real benefits from their knowledge management initiatives and the types of benefits achieved are quite varied. In a recent KPMG study, respondents envisioned KM playing an “extremely significant” or a “significant” role in improving competitive advantage (79%), marketing (75%), customer focus (72%), employee development (57%), product innovation (64%) and growth in revenues or profits (both 63%).
Most companies have a long way to go on their knowledge journey.
In our opinion, most companies are at the earliest stages of deploying knowledge management.
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