Capitalizing On Knowledge Management In A Value Driven Age

An emerging sphere within the business decision making context is the non-linear and dynamic rise of information networks that proliferate on the internet and mobile phone; through various social media channels or information aggregators that, if used properly, are powerful tools in the strategic formulation and subsequent implementation of diversification imperatives that collectively defines Organisational DNA.

A key focal point in competitive strategy is the management of ‘cost leadership’ which is highly contingent on how it can be mimicked to streamline efficiency to enable organisational practices and processes to foster a) knowledge management and b) value management in the organisational system.

My level of insight into the ‘knowledge management’ spectrum of organisational systems is that there exists two levels of distinctively attributable knowledge sources – the first being ‘tacit’ knowledge and the other known as ‘explicit’ knowledge. Both of these knowledge sources in this digital age are freely available either through aggregation software (such as one I use NetNewsWire) or direct-social-media such as Twitter and LinkedIN Groups.

Tacit knowledge is embedded deep within the organisational code from the genesis of the corporation – something that evolves with astute and experienced leadership opposed to ‘explicit knowledge’ which is emergent that often coalesce through the interaction of some or all participants in the system (whether from front-line or middle-office functions).

To quickly assess whether the right type of knowledge management is taking place in the organisational setting; one needs to immerse their intellect into a framework that not only aims to define management by objectives; but also one that fosters the sense of learning that is often an overlooked dimension when formulating strategic innovations.

This framework should not be reconciled in isolation but in tandem with established strategic management techniques such as The Boston Consulting Group Matrix which is re-factored into what I call the ‘microarray-model’ of organisational learning.

 Now, lets decode this to map out toolset in which anyone can evaluate opportunities whether they are for or not-for profit.

Evidently, as the ‘Learning Organisation’ tests its forecasts as a function of time and hones its competitive advantage, it can likewise digest its mindset in the ‘stars’ plane which indicates that the organisation is positioned well to capitalise on some imminent opportunities in its environment and subsequently capture these opportunities which exist, but its only at an aggregate level i.e. not investing its full organisational capabilities in this domain as doing so would deplete the benefit of marginal increases to induce capacity.

The flip side of this spectrum – which is also representative of the ‘start-up’ challenge is that the organisation is ‘premature’ in its maturity lifecycle (finance folks would attribute this as the ‘seed or angel funding’ challenge) and is thus positioned on the ‘question marks’ spectrum of the plane on the right – which is indicative of the appreciative foresight into capturing a myriad of opportunities that will be conducive to the organisations growth; but the likelihood of penetrating markets for revenue is relatively low due to a lack of captured market share (the niche market problem).

This paints two diametrical scenarios – or a ‘mystery of the middle’ type of scenario – where the start up organisation is trying to formulate its competitive strategy in the face of a plethora of unique opportunities but the incumbent is well developed and armed with a ‘distinctive competence’ to scope and deploy its resources to capture the market in question; which leads to lost opportunities and a possible alienation of the startup’s ambition to integrate quick wins due to their inability to scale to the incumbents size – a clear cut definition of the premise that defines the failure and potential ‘value-creation’ aim of the startup.

                   

HR 2.0 - How To Retain "Agent" Relationships In Organisational Systems

Within the Australian educational landscape, we have seen the evolution of the Universities Admission Index to the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) which aims at aggregating and creating a single universities admission rank that fosters not only transparency, but more so 'fluidity' in the Educational System.

However, regardless of how prolific the new 'system' is - it still 'ranks' you on a set of 'quantitative data' which is based on a 'statistical model of inference' that does not account for a) the desire for undergraduate students to express their key strengths in alternative projects (such as web development or mobile-web development) and b) the incorporation of their 'unique abilities' to create the right type of 'career succession' programme that ties in with their goals and ambitions to allow their interests to be fostered and inter-woven into a process that enables them to progressively integrate their key strengths across all bands (whether its of a technical, systematic or dynamic nature).


The level of insight into this spectrum is a clear-cut articulation of how, within the nature of 'cybernetics', one can use the precedents rooted in the 'control cycle' to asses and visualize 'career succession strategies' that employs not only their academic interest, but also their Entrepreneurial interests which codify the natural flow of what I call as 'alternative career path planning'.

Alternative Career Path Planning would mean that once students are in a respectable and mature level of justification for their career intentions, they then 'test' or 'model out' scenarios which allow them to 'mix and match' even very relatively difficult subjects - in which cases at Universities, they often require 'prerequisites' - to suitable pathways that enable them to bring their core ideas and projects to fruition. This process will require the fusion of 'theory focused planning' together with a 'task-force' that employs and nurtures the evolving undergraduate intentions on incorporating empiric, up to date examples of their ideas with emphasis on historical or empirical evidence with a criterion 'measure' that utilizes a weighted-average approach to identify and validate the 'agents' capabilities with requisite skills that collectively ebb and flow with their 'ever evolving career intentions' as the fundamental principal of Human Resource strategy is to keep 'staff' as their most 'valued assets' in the organisational system - a key vantage-point for HR Managers who often struggle with 'retention' and 'turnover' ratios in their organisations as obviously, its very hard to keep the N-Gen niche motivated in industries which can from the start influence the 'agent' but then as time goes by - sway the agent to look for other 'opportunities and interests' which complement their 'motivational drivers for success'.


The core challenge here would be how can we create the relevant 'system' which not only measures data quantitatively, but also qualitatively ranks the relevant 'human capital input' within the 'organisational system' to fuse a) business intelligence initiatives with b) a 'Mentoring' initiative that propels and differentiates each 'agent' in the 'organisation' as an 'individual product' or 'product base' that aims at differentiating the various 'learning styles' in combination with a 'knowledge management platform' that not only harvests their potential; but enables them to contribute 'ideas' to members at the very senior level of the organisation (regardless of legal nature) so that they can also contribute to the 'organisational wide projects' which often require collaboration of very senior project managers (in the case of Matrix Styled Organisations) or your direct report (in the case of small business and sole trader initiatives). Personally, I believe that all organisations should respect every 'agents' input into the system, measure it with reference to something I stumbled accross in the Harvard Business Review as "experience curves" and re-concile it with a rich framework to retain, evolve and develop participants in the system.

thealphaswarmer insights: The Neuro Linguistic Programming Model

Some time ago, I was acquainted with an 'individual' with a Doctorate in Linguistics by the name of Dr Cross - and whilst this was during a very 'short term assignment' I did at the NAB - he did shed a lot of light into the 'nature of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)"

Essentially, NLP aims to look at the three modes of writing, the kinaesthetic, the auditory and most of - the visual elements of writing.


NLP is an excellent model for framing 'methodologies' in the Emerging Knowledge Economy, something that intrigues me dearly as a result of a book I have just recently completed which is highly recommended by INSEAD Professors and which prophesies the 'emergence' of 'magnets' in the global knowledge pool - something that ties in intrinsically with another article I wrote in detail on how participants in the "Network Economy" can leverage tools inlaid in this book - together with a comprehensive and detailed model of  something called  'network incubation' to enable drivers of innovation, which are primarily rooted in leadership and cultural variance, together with the fusion of collaborative work practices with either physical, virtual or more significantly distributed teams.


By integrating the tenets of NLP together with something I am working on known as 'the four fold method of self organistion' - organisations, communities of practice and perhaps even industry focus groups - which are long term but informal collaborations; can yield very significant tangible benefits to their 'bottom line' - which manifest in terms of ROI, Sales Performance Optimization, Effective Project Managment and perhaps even 'running effective team meetings' 


The biggest problem here, would be identifying the core behavioural dilemmas together with the intrinsic nature of ground rules in an Enterprise System - considering the 'system' wishes to integrate certain 'individualities or personalities' for the development of its a)social entrepreneurship or b) legislative variants.