Knowledge Management:
Best Practices for Productivity & Innovation
Dr Madan Rao
Editor, “The Knowledge Management Chronicles” http://twitter.com/MadanRao madan@techsparks.com

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Existing knowledge
– Traditional knowledge
– Organisational knowledge
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New knowledge
– Innovation in organisations
– Startups/entrepreneurship

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Drivers
– Internal
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Challenges: knowledge retention
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Opportunities: improving productivity
– External
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Challenges: competition, environmental pressure
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Opportunities: innovation, globalisation
Outcomes
– Productivity, Innovation, Risk management

Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end; learning, if you use it, increases.
- Swahili proverb
I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.
- Chinese proverb
A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.
- Arab proverb
An old patient is better than a new doctor.
- Kannada proverb

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Best practices
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Project management, delivery
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Risk management, knowledge retention
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Sustainable innovation
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Intellectual capital management
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Efficiency, productivity
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Customer excellence, citizen satisfaction

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Connectivity
Content
Community
Culture
Capacity
Cooperation
Commerce
Capital

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Connectivity
– Connectivity, bandwidth, devices, platform, interfaces, standards, portal
Content
– Archives, assets, databases. Creation, codification, classification, archival, retrieval, tracking
Community
– Knowledge-exchange communities, evolution of communities, support
Culture
– Trust, support, learning organisation

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Capacity
– Roles, organisational support, training, HR
Cooperation
– Between units, with customers/partners, industry, external institutes (eg academia)
Commerce
– Commercial and other incentives, pricing of knowledge contribution, ranking and usage
Capital
– Investments into KM practice, RoI metrics

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Early bumps: Fujitsu (lack of standardisation)
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Open Text: Livelink Wireless
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Sun (Philippines): SMS, PDA workflow
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Siemens Medical Systems: Med2Go, iPaq
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Buckman Lab’s K-Netix: CompuServe -> Web
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WLANs/WiFi: Creative design of workplaces

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Siemens: taxonomy, global editing team
Swiss Re: Knowledge managers
Factiva, LexisNexis: Newsfeeds for Intranets
EMC: Techlore knowledge respository
EMC: Tech support KnowledgeBase
Fujitsu: ProjectFinder i2: Project Workbench
Hill & Knowlton: “Bestsellers”

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Bank of Montreal: Social Network Analysis
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Tata Steel: 21 CoPs
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ChevronTexaco: CoPs and M&A
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DaimlerChrysler: TechClubs
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Oracle: Professional Communities
Top down, bottom up, middle out; boundary-spanning

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EMC: KM culture via peer pressure
 i2: Start-up culture, learning fast
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IBM: Cognizant Enterprise Maturity Model
 i-Flex: quiz program
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Infosys: “Learn once, use anywhere”
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Quiver: “Engineering versus the rest” block
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Fujitsu Consulting: Early “dis-enlightenment”

Boundary spanners, roamers, outposts, knowledge project managers, stewards, coaches, trainers, councillors, counsellors, officers, integrators, administrators, engineers, librarians, synthesisers, reporters, editors, learning officers, CKOs, directors of intellectual assets, CIOs, anecdote manager . . . . . . . . . . !

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EMC: Formal training programs
HSS: KM workshops i-Flex: Software process certification
NASA: Mentoring program (Academy of
Program and Project Leadership)
Bank of Montreal: K-Café
Johnson&Johnson: KNEAT (Knowledge
Networking Environmental Assessment Tool)

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Industry associations: vertical (eg. NASSCOM), crosssector (eg. APQC), national (IKMS – Singapore; K-
Community - India)
EDS: Collaboration with US business schools
MITRE: Knowledge Partners program – retirees
Open Text: KM Advisory Board with 20 top customers
SunPhil: KM Association of the Philippines
World Bank’s networking of city mayors in Central
America

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Siemens: “shares,” cellphones
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Infosys: Knowledge currency units
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MITRE: KM Achievement Award, Corporate KM
Recognition Awards
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EDS: EDS Fellows Programs
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IBM: Knowledge Advantage awards

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Buckman Labs: US$7,500 per person (4 per cent of revenue)
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McKinsey: 10 per cent of revenue is spent on
KM
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Hoffman-LaRoche: cut down drug application process by several months (US$1 million per day)

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Activity metrics
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Process metrics
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Knowledge metrics
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People metrics
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Organisational metrics

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Quantitative metrics
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Semi-quantitative metrics
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Qualitative metrics

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Increased the population of experts available (internal + external)
Improved creation + validation of expertise (speed, quality)
New collective + unstructured + narrative knowledge
“Force multiplier” for collaboration and innovation
SEO + SMO
Trends: mash-ups and apps

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Media: management of multimedia content, smooth workflow, delivery of content on multiple devices at user end, CRM
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Government: Retention of expertise from retiring employees, one integrated citizen interface for egovernment services, better response to citizen/business queries

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High-tech manufacturing: Reduced time to market, time to repair; learning from customer inputs and suggestions; project/product management
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Banking/finance: New product development, customer/activity profiling, reducing costs, harnessing new technologies

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2 years of KM
– Scaling (horizontal/vertical), fine-tuning rewards/awards, refining metrics
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5 years of KM
– Phasing out rewards; external metrics for assessing
KM effectiveness; awards
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10 years of KM
– Global benchmarkes, global awards, thought leadership: books, case studies (eg. Infosys)

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Storytelling
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External KM
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Gamification
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Sense-making
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KM + innovation
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Research mindset
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Internal crowdsourcing

Wealth, if you use it, comes to an end; learning, if you use it, increases.
- Swahili proverb
I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.
- Chinese proverb
A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.
- Arab proverb
An old patient is better than a new doctor.
- Kannada proverb

Twitter: @MadanRao