Sunday, July 27, 2003		Books

Managing knowledge in IT companies
D.S. Cheema

Leading with knowledge
Edited by Madanmohan Rao. Tata Mc Graw Hill. Pages 588. Price: Not quoted

THE book is about Knowledge Management (KM) practices in global IT companies. It is the first in a series of books called KM travelogues to be edited by a Bangalore based consultant. As the series unfolds it will provide useful insight into KM practices, its tools and traps etc. Though a number of books have been written on KM, none provides first-hand accounts by KM experts. This is the first attempt in India to put together the experiences of executives from some of the best KM companies spread across the globe from the USA and UK to India and Australia Madanmohan Rao has done a commendable job in editing the wealth of KM wisdom from some of towering giants in the field.

Enterprises are realising how important it is to " know what they know" and be able to make maximum use of the knowledge. This knowledge can be found in many different places such as data-bases of the organisations, files and of course the heads of the individuals working in different places and at different levels. This knowledge resting in different places must be integrated so that it can help executives to make the best decision in the interest of the organisations. This is a major challenge and special efforts are required to identify the knowledge assets and manage them to get the best out of individuals and organisations so that organisational goals and objectives can be achieved. It is an established fact that enduring advantages come less from advanced technologies than from the correct application of information, which is transformed into knowledge and wisdom.

The book tells the story of success of KM in some of the best IT giants of the world. The authors of these chapters are senior executives who have been practicing KM. One chapter at the end is devoted to project management paradigm in KM environment. The last chapter of the book provides insights into the software business environment and implications of KM practices for managing knowledge. The editor reviews Knowledge Management Case book: Siemens Best Practices in the appendix. Siemens is considered one of the top ten KM-driven companies according to an international bench marking exercise MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) and the case studies documented are some of the best known cases of knowledge transformation.

Since the book is a compilation of the experience of different companies, the reader is expected to study and understand the peculiar position and environment of the company and see it in the right perspective to find out why it has succeeded as KM company. All authors of the success stories provide the background of the company in the form of an introduction or overview. They discuss the company’s commitment to KM in the changed global scenario, the process of adopting KM, their problems and difficulties and ultimately how they succeeded in providing the competitive edge to their companies. Almost all authors provide a peep into the future, at the end of the chapter emphasising that they may have travelled a long distance since they started with KM but they have to go very far if they want to reap all the advantages KM can provide.

In the Introduction, Madanmohan Rao has provided the backdrop, " The Road Thus Far— a decade of learning and knowledge literature and brings out the problem of individual and organised knowledge management. The fact that global market is expected to be worth $ 8.8 billion US only motivates the companies of the future to adopt KM or perish at their own peril. Rao has provided the framework for the analysis of KM practice, as applied to the IT sector based on the contributions from the writers of various chapters. He calls it 8 C’ s framework for assessing and enabling the success of 21st century KM practices all parameters begin with the letter C. His 8 C’s audit consists of Connectivity, Content, Community, Culture, Capacity, Cooperation, commerce and Capital. KM typically manifests its impact in four key business processes: design of products/ services, customer relationship management, employee management and business analysis. He further surveys the salient features of KM practices in the profiled IT companies in alphabetical order starting with EDS (Electronic Data Systems) and ending with Xerox.

The discussion of KM practices in the book throws open the window to research questions at the level of the individual, business unit, process, technologies, organisation, sectors, vocations and even nations and regions. Rao argues that KM practices like many other management paradigms and fads go through successive phases before they mature. The KM life cycle begins when KM practices are sparked off by a technology trigger, reach a peak of inflated expectations and then hit a trough of disillusionments, a slope of enlightenment then emerges, followed by a plateau of productivity.

Overall, a unique collection and analysis of KM literature which can help beginners, individuals and companies in any sector to take up KM for competitive advantage.