Amer Aljarallah
Switi Bora
Vivek Voona
The Distinctive Japanese Approach
Tacit/Explicit Knowledge
Spiral Model
Metaphor, Analogy, and Model
Chaos to Concept
Japanese business experts Nonaka and Takcuchi are the first to tie the
success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new
knowledge.
Nonaka proposes a fresh way to think about managerial roles and
responsibilities, organizational design, and business practices in the
knowledge creating company
Any company that wants to compete on knowledge must also learn from
Japanese techniques of knowledge-creation.
•
Western knowledge is based on explicit knowledge
-They see company as a kind of machine for information
processing
-Westerners believe that the only useful knowledge data is formal
and systematic-hard data, procedures, universal principles
•
Tacit knowledge is more important in Japan
-Organization is a living organism
-Tacit knowledge is highly personal
•
Tacit knowledge
Difficult to articulate and generally expressible only
through actions
•
Explicit Knowledge
Can be articulate, codified, stored, transferred
through documents.
•
Socialization
•
Externalization
•
Combination
•
Internalization
Problems faced in the development of automatic home bread-making
machine.
-Machine was not kneading dough correctly
-Crust of bread was overcooked
-While inside was hardly done
Analyzed the problem by comparing the x-ray of dough kneaded by
the machine and the dough kneaded by professional baker. Even then
they were unable to obtain meaningful data. No one could explain why.
Software developer Ikuko Tanaka proposed a creative solution
1. Use Osaka International Hotel’s bread making as model.
2. Tanaka trained with the hotel’s head baker to study kneading technique.
3. She observed baker’s distinctive way of stretching dough.
4. After year of trial and error ,working closely with product engineer she
came up with product specification
5. Include additional ribs inside machine.
6. After including additional special ribs inside machine
- Machine reproduced bakers stretching and
- Quality bread
Knowledge creation pattern
Metaphors
Metaphors are one of the frequently neglected but highly important
management tools for converting Tacit Knowledge to Explicit
Knowledge.
Japanese companies use the figurative language of Metaphors at all
levels of the company and in all phases of the product development
process.
Honda is one such company and following is a closer look at how the
use of metaphors in Honda revolutionized the auto market.
“Theory of Automobile
Evolution”
“Let’s Gamble”
“Man-Maximum,
Machine-Minimum”
“Tall Boy”
People
Metaphor + Intuition + Imagination + Symbols
Express the Inexpressible
Analogy
In the Knowledge Creation Process, a Metaphor is only the first
stage. The next step is an Analogy.
A Metaphor links two distinct images and is driven by intuition
where as an Analogy clarifies the similarities and differences
between them and harmonizes the contradictions.
A great example of an Analogy is the Canons development of the
revolutionary minicopier.
Pure Imagination
Analogy
Logical thinking
Model
•
The last step in the knowledge creation process
•
Contradictions are resolved
•
Concepts become transferable through consistent and systematic logic
In theory, we can see the Metaphor, Analogy, and Model as different
entities.
In reality, they overlap and is hard to distinguish but the three terms
capture the complete Knowledge Creation in an organization.
Metaphor
Analogy
Model

Redundancy
 Business Activities
 Managerial Responsibilities
 Company Information
Team2
Team1
Team3
Best
approach
Production
R&D
Kao
Sales
Marketing
Top
Mgmt
Company
Information
Middle
Mgmt
Frontline
Vision
Top
Management
Middle
Management
Conceptualization
Frontline
Chaos
{
Synthesizing
Explicit-ing
Incorporating

Umbrella concept
 “Optoelectronics” – Sharp

Justification of value
 “It’s our fate to deal with this challenge” -
Mazda

Open-ended vision
 “Let’s gamble” - Honda