KM in Practice

While determining your desired knowledge destination is of crucial importance, developing the strategy is considered as the uppermost act of strategic planning, since it is about deciding “How are we going to get there?”, or in other words “How are we going to achieve the KM vision?”. Strategy intends to operationalize the vision statement through the specification of the exact actions that will lead the organization to the desired condition.

Before specifying the desired course of action, in terms of specific initiatives, the identification of the appropriate strategic approach along the codification axis is required. The two extreme positions along this axis are referred to as the codification and the personalization approaches (Hansen, Nohria, & Tierney, 1999). In order to support this fundamental decision it is proposed that the strategic approach to be followed should be determined upon the characteristics of the business process under consideration.

According to the latest APCQ’s business process classification framework (APCQ, 2005) processes are separated into two distinct categories: operational processes (Develop Vision And Strategy, Design & Develop Products & Services, Market & Sell Products & Services, Deliver Products & Services, Manage Customer Service), which correspond to the core business functions that create organizational outputs, and management and support processes (Develop and Manage Human Capital, Manage Information Technology, Manage Financial Resources, Acquire, Construct, and Manage Property, Manage Environmental Health and Safety, Manage External Relationships, Manage Knowledge, Improvement, and Change), which aim to underpin the core business functions.

Management and support processes tend to be more structured and conventional presenting common and easily standardized characteristics regardless of the business sector they are applied to. As a result when it comes to managing the knowledge of these process the codification approach seems to be more appropriate. On the contrary, operational processes vary greatly across different business sectors and even individual enterprises, and thus the selection of the strategic approach to be followed is not that simple.

In this case, the best way to decide on the condign approach for each organization is through the analysis of its business environment and characteristics, including the products it offers, the market it competes and its internal structure. In this spirit the following questionnaire, which should be answered by the KM Board, attempts to measure some typical business parameters in order to support the decision regarding the strategic approach to be pursued.

The above questionnaire is part of the strategy development process which includes the following sequence of steps, also defining the outline of the strategy statement:

Business functions analysis

• Prioritize business function in need of knowledge support (based on the vision statement)
• Select business function to be supported by KM initiatives

KM approach selection analysis

• Categorize the business functions to be supported as either operational or management and support functions
• Answer the KM strategic approach questionnaire (corresponds to operational functions)
• Analyze results (corresponds to operational functions)
• Select the appropriate approach for each function based on the above categorization and results of the questionnaire

Strategic actions analysis

• Select the appropriate strategic actions for each function (based on the vision statement and the prior analysis)

In support of the strategic actions analysis activity a set of indicative actions for each strategic goal is proposed in the followingFigure.

KM Goals and Actions©KMinPractice.com

References

1. APCQ. (2005). Process Classification Framework. Retrieved May 2006, from APQC’s site: www.apqc.org
2. Hansen, M., Nohria, N., & Tierney, T. (1999). What’s your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review , March–April, 106–116.

Last update: 15-04-2008 09:56