Knowledge Management Toolkit, The: Orchestrating IT, Strategy, and Knowledge Platforms, 2nd Edition

About

Features

• NEW - An entirely rewritten chapter on strategy.

  • Gives students an integrative framework that coherently links concepts from business strategy to knowledge management decisions.

• NEW - Real-options analyses added for KM evaluation.

  • Explains how the Nobel-prize winning approach to dealing with uncertain financial investments can be applied to evaluating the soft-aspects of the organizational impact of KM.

• NEW - An emphasis on the notion of knowledge platforms.

  • Develops an understanding of KM implementation as a synergistic bundle of technology, business process, and cultural decisions.

• NEW - The role of digital peer-to-peer networks.

• NEW - A pervasive distinction between knowledge integration and transfer.

  • Illustrates the whys and hows of the technology choices that affect organizational ability to create, disseminate, and apply fragmented expertise.

• NEW - Several new cases.

  • Gives students the opportunity to see methods and techniques in action in real-world scenarios.

• NEW - Companion CD-ROM—Contains unrestricted KM Toolkit, plus an extensive bibliographic database of recent KM research, a complete working Web-based KM system, bonus appendices, and reusable copies of all of the book's figures.

  • Provides single-source convenience in a format conducive to today's learning styles, and allows students to gain hands-on experience in applying methods and techniques.

• Today's best techniques for planning, design, development, deployment, and management.

  • Shows students exactly how to identify the knowledge most crucial to a business, align business strategy and knowledge management, leverage existing infrastructure, transition from managing data to knowledge, focus on process, and on tacit—not just explicit—knowledge.

• Widely applicable and trend-proof.

  • Describes techniques that can be applied at the level of organizations, communities, business units, or departments, and that will probably still apply when organizations supposedly become X-shaped, intermediated, or inorganic.

• A 10-step road map—Each step of the strategy is explored in depth in a full chapter. The 10-step road map appears at the beginning of each step chapter, with details of the current step highlighted in the respective chapters.

  • Helps students not only master individual techniques, but build a strategy for using them in context.

• KM case studies from leading companies worldwide—From Nortel to Rolls Royce.

  • Shows students how real-world companies have implemented the techniques successfully.

• A hands-on KM project assignment.

  • Gives students experience in using methods, techniques, and strategies by walking them through their own KM project, identifying real-world best practices, key risk factors, and proven solutions for mitigating them.

• Practical checklists and diagrams.

  • Helps students identify and resolve the most critical issues they will face at every stage of the process, from team building through delivery.

• “Lessons Learned”—At the end of each chapter.

  • Summarizes the key points and serves as a reference checklist.

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Description

• Copyright 2003
• Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/4"
• Pages: 416
• Edition: 2nd

• Book
• ISBN-10: 0-13-009224-X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-13-009224-3

In The Knowledge Management Toolkit, Second Edition, leading consultant Amrit Tiwana walks step-by-step through the development of a state-of-the-art enterprise Knowledge Management System. Thoroughly revised to reflect today's latest tools, technologies, and best practices, this hands-on guide shows how to build KM systems one step at a time, with each step delivering new business value, and seamlessly building on the work that preceded it. It brings together all the hands-on techniques and practical tools you need to build KM systems that leverage your existing technology investments. Amrit Tiwana presents KM case studies from leading companies worldwide, from Nortel to Rolls Royce. But unlike other books, this one doesn't stop with case studies: Tiwana walks you step-by-step through your own KM project, identifying real-world best practices, key risk factors, and proven solutions for mitigating them. He presents checklists designed to help team members identify and resolve the most critical issues they will face at every stage of the process, from team building through delivery. The accompanying CD-ROM contains Tiwana's interactive, unrestricted KM Toolkit, plus an extensive bibliographic database of recent KM research, many printable documents, a complete working Web-based KM system, bonus appendices, and more.

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Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

The 10-Step Knowledge Management Road Map

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Click here for a sample chapter for this book: 013009224X.pdf

Table of Contents

(NOTE: Each chapter ends with Lessons Learned.)

Preface.


Acknowledgments.


About the Author.

I. THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD.

1. Introduction.

Knowledge Management: In Search of Alchemy. What This Book Is About.

2. The Knowledge Edge.

Making Sense of Nonsense. Intellectual Capital. The Drivers of Knowledge Management. Creating the Knowledge Edge.

3. The Origins of Knowledge.

From Data to Information to Knowledge. From Data to Knowledge. Classifying Knowledge. The Three Fundamental Processes. Taming the Tiger's Tail. Business and Knowledge.

II. THE ROAD AHEAD: IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT.

4. The 10-Step Knowledge Management Road Map.

The 10-Step Knowledge Management Road Map. Phase 1. Infrastructual Evaluation. Phase 2. Knowledge Management System Analysis, Design, and Development. Phase 3. Deployment. Phase 4. Metrics for Evaluation.

IIA. THE FIRST PHASE: INFRASTRUCTURE EVALUATION AND LEVERAGE.

5. The Leveraged Infrastructure.

Leveraging What Exists. Leveraging the Internet. The Knowledge Platform: A 10,000-Fott View.

6. Aligning Knowledge Management and Business Strategy.

Strategic Visioning. Knowledge Transfer versus Integration: The Strategic Dichotomy. Real Options Under Uncertainly. The Responsiveness Quadrahedron: Variety and Speed. Business Models and Executability. Codification or Personalization? Knowledge Maps to Link Knowledge to Strategy. Strategic Imperatives for Successful Knowledge Management. Strategic Imperatives for Successful Knowledge Management. Assessing Focus. Detecting Lost Opportunities.

IIB. THE SECOND PHASE: KM SYSTEM ANALYSIS, DESIGN, AND DEVELOPMENT.

7. The Knowledge Management Platform.

Technology Components of the Knowledge Management. The Seven-Layer Knowledge Management System Architecture. Foundation for the Interface Layer. The Web or Proprietary Platforms? Collaborative Intelligence and Filtering Layer. Knowledge Management Platforms versus Other Enterprise Systems. The Application Layer. The Promise of Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Networks.

8. Knowledge Audit and Analysis.

Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight. Measuring Knowledge Growth. The Knowledge Audit Team. Conducting the Knowledge Audit. Choosing Your Company's Knowledge Niches.

9. Designing the Knowledge Management Team.

Sources of Expertise. Team Composition and Selection Criteria. Team Life Span and Sizing Issues. The KM Team's Project Space. Chemistry. Highways to Failure.

10. Creating the Knowledge Management System Blueprint.

The Knowledge Management Architecture. Components of a Knowledge Management System. Integrative and Interactive Knowledge Applications. Build or Buy? User Interface Design Considerations. A Network View of the KM Architecture. Future-Proofing the Knowledge Management System.

11. Developing the Knowledge Management System.

The Building Blocks: Seven Layers. The Interface Layer. A Live Walkthrough: Urban Motors. The Access and Authentication Layer. The Collaborative Filtering and Intelligence Layer. The Application Layer. The Transport Layer. The Middleware and Legacy Integration Layer. The Repository Layer.

IIC. THE THIRD PHASE: DEPLOYMENT.

12. Prototyping and Deployment.

Moving from Firefighting to Systems Deployment. Legacy Deployment Methods. The Results-Driven Incremental Methodology.

13. Leadership and Reward Structures.

From the Chief Information Officer. The Successful Knowledge Leader. Reward Structures to Ensure Knowledge Management Success.

IID. THE FINAL PHASE AND BEYOND: REAL OPTIONS ANALYSIS FOR PERFORMANCE.

14. Real-Options Analysis for Knowledge Valuation.

The Limitation of Traditional Metrics. Real-Options Analysis. Measuring Inputs for Real-Options Models.

III. SIDE ROADS: APPENDICES (ON THE CD-ROM).

Digital Appendix A. The Knowledge Management Assessment Kit.
Digital Appendix B. Alternative Schemes For Structuring the Knowledge Management Platform Front End.
Digital Appendix C. Software Tools.
Endnotes.
Bibliographic References and Further Reading.
Glossary.
Index.
About the CD.

Preface

Preface

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

—Confucius

The Knowledge Management Toolkit provides a strategic road map for implementing knowledge management (KM) in your company. This book rests on two assumptions. First, that there is no silver bullet. Second, the value of a business's knowledge is determined by its masterful application.

Features in This Edition

Following the popularity of the first edition, this edition has an entirely rewritten chapter on strategy; real-options analyses have been added for KM evaluation; the notion of knowledge platforms is pervasively emphasized; the role of digital peer-to-peer networks is discussed; several new cases have been added; and the distinction between knowledge integration and transfer runs deep. Several other features of this edition are noteworthy. For starters, all figures are made electronically available on the CD-ROM. In addition, the entire appendix, including the entire KM assessment kit, is now digitized on the CD-ROM. The entire bibliography is also provided in electronic form.

How to Use This Book

In spite of the hyperlinked, web-like world we live in, I highly recommend that you go against that notion and read this book in a linear fashion: Begin with Chapter 1 and continue through Chapter 4. Once you reach Chapter 4, if you have a strong reason to jump to any other chapter, do so. Chapters 5 through 14 make the most sense if you read them after you've read Chapter 4. The reason for this recommendation is simple: Each of Chapters 5 through 14 represent one step of the 10-step road map introduced in Chapter 4. The 10-step road map appears at the beginning of each of Chapters 5 through 14, with details of the current step highlighted in the respective chapters. Every chapter except Chapter 1 ends with a "lessons learned" section that summarizes the key points covered in that chapter. This might be useful as a checklist when this book is not gathering dust on your bookshelf.

Many of the software tools mentioned in the book are included on the companion CD-ROM. Most, though not all, tools on the CD-ROM have feature restrictions of some type. They are not here to give you entire software suites to help you cut down the expense of building a KM system or to charge you an extra ten dollars for a CD-ROM that cost only twenty cents to produce. These tools are here because I believe that they add value and help you make sense by seeing the technologies that we talk about in the pages that follow.

How This Book Is Organized

Table P-1 summarizes the organization of this book. An additional table in Chapter 4 (Table 4-1) leads you through the individual phases and steps of the KM road map. The techniques described in this book need not always be applied across the organization; they can be applied at the level of communities, business units, or departments.

Table P-1 How This Book Is Organized

Chapter	What Is Covered
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1	Introduction, KM's value proposition.
Chapter 2	Imperatives for KM, its need, potential business benefits of KM.
Chapter 3	How to make the transition from IM to KM, topologies of knowledge, differences between IT tools and KM tools, why KM is difficult to implement.
Part II: The Road Ahead
Chapter 4	The 10-step roadmap for implementing KM in your company.
Part IIa: Leveraging Your Existing Infrastructure
Chapter 5	How to build a knowledge platform based on your existing IT infrastructure.
Chapter 6	How to align business strategy and KM in your company.
Part IIb: The Second Phase: KM System Analysis, Design, and Development
Chapter 7	How to lay the infrastructural foundations of your company's knowledge platform, choose the collaborative platform, the seven layers of the KM architecture.
Chapter 8	Audit, analyze, and identify existing knowledge assets in your company.
Chapter 9	How to design a right-sized and well-balanced KM team.
Chapter 10	How to create a KM blueprint customized for your company and robust enough to be "future-proof."
Chapter 11	How to develop the KM system, understand how it can be integrated with existing technology standards.
Part IIc: Deployment
Chapter 12	How to deploy the system using the results-driven incrementalism (RDI) methodology, select pilot projects, maximize payoffs, and avoid common pitfalls.
Chapter 13	Understand the reward structures, cultural change, and leadership needed for making KM successful; in your company, decide whether you need a CKO or equivalent manager.
Part IId: REal-Options Evaluation
Chapter 14	Decide which metric(s) to use for KM in your company--real-option analyses, balanced scorecards, quality function deployment, Tobin's q--and how to use it, arrive at lean metrics that help you calculate ROI on your KM project.
PART III: SIDE ROADS: APPENDICES
Appendix A	The KM assessment kit and CD-ROM forms.
Appendix B	Alternative schemes for structuring the front end.
Appendix C	Software tools.

Assumptions About Your Company

There are certain assumptions that I make about you as a reader of this book. I would hope that most, if not all, of these are true if this book (which is written with these assumptions about you as a reader in mind) is to help you and your company with implementing knowledge management.

What This Book Is Not About

Let me first explain what this book is not about and what it is that distinguishes this book's approach. This book is:

• Not about trends: Forget trends and forecasts about how businesses are disintermediated, organic, flattened, and T-shaped. This book is not about trends. Predictions, as all research, weather forecasts, and stock markets suggest, is rarely an accurate predictor of the future. What you'll learn in this book will probably still apply when organizations supposedly become X-shaped, intermediated, or inorganic. Rather than being a trend in itself, this book will help you benefit from those trends.
• Not about new vocabulary: This book is not out to invent new buzzwords. Buzzwords come and go; KM is here to stay.
• Not about the silver bullet: This book is not the silver bullet for KM and does not claim to be one. It is not about trademarked methodologies that promise the world but scarcely deliver a village.
• Not about analogies: Analogies can sometimes be helpful but can also be very misleading. Analogies are an effective way of communicating strategies, but a very hazardous way of analyzing them. Remember that the road map is not a "shrink-wrapped" methodology. Nowhere in the following pages will you find a discussion about how KM is like ecology, bungee jumping, war, or making love. The same holds true of the cases discussed in this book. Cases are instances of strategies, not strategies themselves.
• Not about my opinion: Opinions can be wrong. This book is built on lessons learned from years of cumulative research spanning several countries and hundreds of companies, big and small, in diverse industries. Wherever there is an opinion, I'll tell you it's an opinion, and that opinion is not necessarily a fact.

Think of this book as a conversation between you and me. I would love to hear your comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms, and reactions. Feel free to e-mail me at Amrit_Tiwana@bus.emory.edu

Amrit Tiwana
Atlanta

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