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KM 101

Connecting KM to Business Strategy

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Dennis Pearce

December 2024

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Linking KM Strategy to Business Strategy

Value Disciplines

Treacy & Wiersema, The Discipline of Market Leaders (1997)

Customer Intimacy

Product Leadership

Operational Excellence

Critical Success Factor�Customer Loyalty

Critical Success Factor�Innovation

Critical Success Factor�Cost Control

Superb operations and execution, providing reasonable quality at a very low price. Focus is on:

  • efficiency
  • streamlined operations
  • supply chain management
  • no frills
  • volume counts

Strong in innovation and brand marketing, operating in dynamic markets. Focus is on:

  • development
  • innovation
  • design
  • time-to-market
  • high margins in a short timeframe

Excels in customer attention and service. Tailors products to individual or almost individual customers. Focus is on:

  • CRM
  • on-time product delivery
  • exceeding customer expectations
  • lifetime value and reliability
  • getting close to the customer

Adapted from the 2003 TFPL CKO Summit

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Linking KM Strategy to Business Strategy

There are core knowledge activities that are invaluable to achieving business aims regardless of a company’s primary value discipline

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Operational Excellence organizations need to continually improve productivity by:�

  • driving costs out of the system
  • developing more efficient processes
  • making the most effective use of resources
  • enhancing productivity across the input and output chain
  • increasing speed to market

Ideas

Expertise

Information

Driving continuous process improvement

Identifying opportunities for process improvement

Connecting people with people

Embedding knowledge into business processes

By continuously developing and using expertise, information, and ideas an organization can drive improvement in efficiency, effectiveness, and cost reduction. The balance and flow between ideas, expertise, and information drives continuous improvement.

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Knowledge Activities for Operational Excellence

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Customer Intimacy organizations need:�

    • a passion to understand customer needs
    • to meet those needs and solve customer problems
    • to ensure that all staff can see the whole relationship with each customer
    • to share minds with customers -- fully understand and share their dreams
    • a customer-centric approach to developing new products and solutions

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Knowledge Activities for Customer Intimacy

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Product Leadership organizations need to understand and manage their product lifecycle portfolio across these three horizons:

Time

Value

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Knowledge Activities for Product Leadership

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Knowledge Framework

Why

What

Where

How

The Value Disciplines� - customer intimacy� - product leadership� - operational excellence

(source of income)

The Dimensions of Intervention� - people� - processes� - tools

(sources of realized potential)

The Three Horizons� - defending/extending � existing business� - building new businesses� - creating options for the future

(focus of organization)

The Applications of Knowledge� - expertise� - information� - ideas

(spectrum of knowledge)

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There are natural correlations:

    • operational excellence <=> expertise
    • customer intimacy <=> information
    • product leadership <=> ideas

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Therefore, a suggested model for KM focus is:

Horizons

Defend

Extend

Explore

Expertise

Information

Ideas

Operational�Excellence

Horizons

Defend

Extend

Explore

Expertise

Information

Ideas

Product Leadership

Horizons

Defend

Extend

Explore

Expertise

Information

Ideas

Customer Intimacy

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Phase

Knowledge and Information Flow

Phase 1

Operational Excellence

Focus on improving knowledge and information flow within and across the organization

Phase 1b

Organizational Learning

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Focus on retaining the knowledge that exists within the organization (preventing “leaks”) and converting it into learning

Phase 2

Customer Intimacy

Focus on streamlining knowledge flow between Start Early and the external people/organizations it interacts with

Phase 2b

Business Agility

Focus on the speed at which knowledge from the outside world is absorbed and reacted on by the organization

Phase 3

Product Leadership (Innovation)

Focus on how quickly and efficiently a new idea can be converted into a viable product, service, or internal improvement

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New Hire

Leaving /

Retiring

Phase 1: Operational Excellence

Focus on improving:

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  • Knowledge flow within the organization
  • Efficient onboarding of new hires
  • Knowledge capture from exiting staff
  • Ability to find information and get answers to questions

Actions:

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  • Process and divisional knowledge mapping
  • More standardized, automated onboarding
  • Clarification of org structure
  • Increased blogging
  • Enterprise search
  • Streamlined taxonomy
  • Formalize and support CoPs
  • Homeroom QnA Bot
  • Present information in ways other than documents

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New Hire

Leaving /

Retiring

Phase 1b: Organizational Learning

Focus on improving:

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  • Knowledge retention within the organization
  • Embedding of knowledge:
    • In processes
    • In checklists/how-to instructions
    • Lessons learned capture and dissemination
    • Culture (“how we do things”)

Actions:

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  • Formalize lessons learned through before- and after-action reviews, other lesson capture techniques
  • Develop checklists for both routine and rare processes and situations
  • Allocate time for learning (e.g. LinkedIn Learning)
  • Lunch & Learn sessions
  • Convert expertise into training videos

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Phase 2: Customer Intimacy

Focus on improving:

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  • Knowledge flow between Start Early and the people we serve and work with (families, funders, partners, government agencies, etc.)
  • Recognizing their needs
  • Quickly delivering products and services to meet those needs
  • Consistency of message and awareness of customer’s interactions with Start Early across all divisions

Actions:

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  • Better use of Salesforce for customer interactions
  • Integration of internal and external tools (e.g. ECC with Teams and Homeroom) to streamline knowledge flow into and out of Start Early
  • Use of Homeroom Employee Engagement features
  • Ability to quickly “spin up” external collaboration sites

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Focus on improving:

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  • Speed of knowledge flow within the organization
  • Reaction time to external pressures and events
  • Speed of decision making
  • Recognition of and ability to act on opportunities

Actions:

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  • Scenario planning
  • Working out loud
  • Ensure that “work from anywhere” systems are in place and that people know how to use them
  • Enable Homeroom notifications and broadcast emails for use in emergency communications

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Phase 2b: Business Agility

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Phase 3: Product Leadership

Focus on improving:

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  • Knowledge flow from an individual who has an idea out to others who can help refine and implement it, then to those who can use it
  • Ability to recognize when old ideas, products, services, and processes need to be replaced
  • Time from concept to delivery

Actions:

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  • Develop an ideation management process
  • Turn on the Homeroom ideation module
  • Hold “idea jams” and other focused brainstorming activities
  • Use of Homeroom Employee Engagement features

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References