The Knowledge Park

Knowledge Management (KM) is one of the business applications of
IT that has long been touted as a panacea for sustained organizational growth.
However, barring a few notable examples, not many organizations have been able
to transform knowledge into quantifiable efficiency units-much less into
economic units (rupees earned or saved). The main reason, often cited by the
critics of knowledge management critics, is its long gestation period and the
lack of rigid deployment frameworks. That suggests that either the initiative
fizzles out during deployment stage or leads to unexpected results.

In the Indian context, these success stories are few, if any,
primarily because of the resource crunch and the senior management's
low-priority treatment for knowledge management initiatives. Moreover, Indian
managers need knowledge management solutions to deliver instant results, or at
least some results in short term.

In our book e-Learning: An Expression of the Knowledge
Economy one of the uses of e-Learning propounded was a co-joint architecture of
e-Learning and e-Knowledge. Accordingly, to keep the employees and the customer
constantly on the learning curve, organizations must have a well-defined
architecture to handle skill-related learning and current business knowledge. As
the architecture consists of both knowledge and learning, we called it the
e-Learning and e-Knowledge architecture (see figure 'e-Learning and e-Knowledge
Architecture).

e-Learning and e-Knowledge architecture consist of two
facets: the skill side and the business side. While the skill side of the
architecture is focused on a learning domain based on the individual needs, the
business side is oriented towards application of the learning based on
organizational needs. At the time of developing the architecture, we did not
realize that the same architecture could be scaled up over the years into a
knowledge management framework.

Over the last couple of years, we have realized how such a model
(see figure 'e-Learning and e-Knowledge Architecture) could be useful for the
managers to purchase instant gratification and push the organization towards a
compelling and comprehensive knowledge management system, in a step-wise
approach.

Knowledge Co-creation

Like the first step of a child, the first words it spoke, these are some of
the events that are recorded, primarily because of the emotional value they
carry. Organizations also realize that every time they take a new step or do
something different, they could record it for further improvement. So, next
time, if they were to do something similar, the previous experiences can be used
to improve and enhance the results.

Some of the examples include launch of new product across
distributed regions that might require training of staff and continuous transfer
of knowledge from the head office to nodal points (for example, distributors,
retailers). Using a learning-based knowledge management system, the organization
can train the employees and dealer partners, and support them through the launch
cycle. The support could include answering questions on unique issues not
covered in the formal communication or training, or handling an exceptional
issue. If the organization plans to introduce the same product in different
markets, for example, the learning from the previous launch can be codified as
knowledge and applied to subsequent events.

Obviously, all knowledge may not be useful immediately, or
perhaps not useful at all. Therefore, to some extent, organizations need to
invest in archiving the knowledge and reducing the information overload. Thus,
it makes sense to use IT tools to capture the experience of each event, and
abstract them. This cycle-recycle process enables organization to re-use the
knowledge (see figure 'Feeding on The Past').

The impact can be traced back to quantifiable measures, such as
a reduction in errors, an improvement in production efficiencies, a
specialization in specific activities, multi-tasking and brand image. All of
these work in isolation as well as in tandem with each other. While you can
target specific areas to get visible results, other areas can be simultaneously
improved upon. For example, a reduction in number of errors has a direct impact
on the productivity. And in the same way, efficient production methods will lead
to reduction of bugs. These acquisition and dissemination of knowledge will lead
to improvement in specific areas, while people can learn from the experiences of
other functions and become multi-skilled.

Thus, with technology becoming more reliable and more people and
organizations jumping on the bandwagon of information technology and Internet,
knowledge management should be on everyone's agenda so that knowledge sharing
and co-creation becomes a part of the organizational system. And more so when
skilled and knowledgeable workforce in one reason why India is considered a
preferred outsourcing destination.

Gaurav Chadha and Nafay Kumail

Gaurav Chadha is a business manager at Knowledge Solutions Business at NIIT and
Nafay Kumail is head for Processes and Systems at Training Solutions Group,
Infopro India.