Category Archives: Knowledge Management

Some Great Ideas to Revitalize the Innovation Engine, Part II

In yesterday’s post, we discussed some of the suggestions from Henry Nothhaft’s recent book, Great Again, on How to Revitalize our Innovation Engine. These suggestions included the liberation of entrepreneurs and start-ups from start-up killing taxes and regulations, the restoration of the VC engine to an earlier design where it worked well, and ending the indifference to domestic manufacturing. These are all great suggestions, but probably the most important suggestion Henry makes is to:

  • Fix the Busted Patent System
    It’s an IP economy and (legitimate) patents are critical for a successful innovation economy, especially since investors (and VCs) want to see IP and protection for that IP before (continued) investing. However, the patent office has a backlog of 1.2B that is growing daily, primarily because, what should be one of the few self-funding agencies is being treated as a petty-cash drawer by the politicians, who have cut 150M in funding this year alone. The patent office needs to be fully funded, needs field offices where patents are filed, needs to modernize, and needs to be able to price with the market (including fast-tracking pricing options).

About the only thing I’d add to Henry’s suggestion list is to:

  • Abolish sotware and business process patents
    The EU has it right. Software should not be patentable and business processes have existed since the day after the invention of money. All these types of patents do is clog up the patent system, enable the patent pirates, and stifle innovation as funds that should be spent on innovation get spent on overpriced lawyers instead.

So what does this mean to your Supply Management operation?

It means that if you want to enable long-term success, you should:

  • help your company establish an innovation fund
    to fund innovative new start-ups that are working on technologies that could revolutionize your manufacturing or supply chain
  • source (some product) domestically
    as not only will this help insure supply if the overseas option(s) suddenly become(s) unavailable (due to political unrest, a shipping disruption, etc.), but it will give you ready access to another source of innovation that will complement your own and support the local economy (which needs to be strong to increase local sales)
  • NOT buy from companies that support patent piracy
    if a company is flooding the patent office with software and process patents, don’t buy from them. Period. They’re the reason we have patent pirates, and if they all go out of business, or change their ways to stay in business, things might get better.

Another Headline from the Land of D’oh: Knowledge Management New Source of Competitive Advantage

A recent SCMR blog post reviewed The New Edge in Knowledge by Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert of AQPC that describes the Knowledge Management (KM) concept and provides some real-world examples of leading companies that have mastered KM. The post, like the authors of the book, states that the right knowledge enables the right decisions that improves organizational performance. Well, duh!

Knowledge has been improving performance for thousand of years in all sorts of organizations — corporate, religious, government, and military. As Sun Tzu wrote, so it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. Churchill said that battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter. And Hannibal said I will either find a way, or make one. Thousands of years, and thousands of miles, apart, and all of these great military leaders understood the importance of knowledge, and managing that knowledge, to achieve success.

Knowledge is arguably one of the two greatest sources of competitive advantage (with the other being innovation). But this is nothing new. So don’t get lost in the hype.

For A Believable Vision Of Procurement 2020, Head Back To 2008

Long Before Ariba published their 20/30 Vision of the Future of Supply Management and Aberdeen took us back to 1999 with their vision of the next decade of Supply Management, the leading Supply Management minds at Hackett sat down and came up with their vision of Procurement in 2020 which was a heck of a lot better than most of the stuff I’ve seen this year (with a notable exception being Bob’s Next Level Supply Management).

In Hackett’s 2020 Vision For Procurement: A Revolution Through Evolution of Capabilities and Value (which was released as their Procurement Executive Insight on April 15, 2008 and followed by their 2020 Vision: Delivering on the Evolving Value Proposition of Procurement which was detailed in their 2008 Book of Numbers), Hackett identified the emerging trends that will define tomorrow’s world-class performance and help an organization move up the capability path. Realizing that transformation in most organizations is evolutionary, and not revolutionary, Hackett’s leading minds lay out an evolutionary path that takes organizational capability from reactive to strategic in a four-step process that passes through planning and alignment along the way.

The authors note that while an average Supply Management organization starts out with the goal of assuring supply, this is a very reactive strategy. Supply Management has to get to the point where it is harnessing the power of supply markets to maximize the value it is getting from its spend, to enable business strategy, and to optimize its tactical execution. Along the way, Supply Management will progress through TCO and demand management. As it progresses to harnessing the power of supply management, the organization will continually expand its circle of influence, dig deeper into its customers needs, and provide better service as time goes on.

In addition, it will also need to acquire the following strategic capabilities:

Business Process Sourcing
Supply Management will need to become the starting point of BPS activities and skillfully integrate disparate methodologies surrounding core competency analysis, resource management, service delivery models, business process management, and portfolio management into its overall supply management practice so that it is the first business unit consulted, and not the last, in any conversation surrounding business process (out)sourcing.

Supply Performance Management
Supply Management will go beyond simply managing the inbound supply chain to shaping strategies, goals, and objectives for the business as a whole based on its knowledge of global supply markets for materials, talent and technologies. It will need to seamlessly integrate supply planning with financial planning and operational planning so that each decision is best for the business overall.

Knowledge Management
It will need to master content-driven analytics which integrate external data into internal data models for supply prediction, planning, and risk mitigation that will allow it to build robust and agile (virtual) supply models that can be redesigned as needed in response to significant events.

Talent Management
Supply Management will need to adopt a cradle-to-grave talent management framework that includes knowledge management and advanced training models that allow it to advance its personnel to the next level. The framework will need to contain an innovative “brand management” model that will differentiate Supply Management as the career path of choice for new talent.

New Product Development and Introduction (NPD/NPI)
Supply Management will have to include advanced design-for-supply support that incorporates multi-tier cost modelling, scenario
planning and optimization that will allow the organization to understand the critical relationships between requirements, specifications, costs and constraints and make the best design decisions for the business overall.

Supplier Management
Supply Management will have to proactively engage suppliers and extend internal competencies and knowledge into suppliers’ operations
to increase their process capabilities, financial health and goodwill toward the buyer. Supply Management needs to progress to the point where it is able to detect a potential problem before the supplier detects the problem, and then step in to help the supplier resolve it before it materializes.

Next Level Strategic Sourcing
Strategic sourcing has to advance well beyond TCO modelling and the application of the best e-Sourcing tools to the point where it is using deep supply intelligence to identify unseen risks and anticipate supply capabilities that can deliver breakthrough improvements in innovation, environmental sustainability, new market entry, brand enhancement and other key business strategies. It will utilize scenario planning on the extended supply network to provide visibility of opportunities and risks that will guide Supply Management to the right buy for the organization every time.

Good Networking Tips from the CPO Agenda

A recent article over on the CPO Agenda on how to get “in with the in crowd” had some great tips on networking, especially for those new to the on-line networking scene. Diving right in, they were:

Start Social
Social networking platforms allow you to reach out to people you haven’t seen or spoken to in a while that you used to work with. It’s often easiest to start networking with people you already know.

Choose Your Platforms Carefully
The article points out that LinkedIn is the most effective and valuable site for professionals, not Facebook, which is great for friends and family, but not business. SI agrees and is quite happy to see that there are experts who know the difference. It also gets Twitter right. Use it to follow companies to get information on changes to the business, best practice, or new legislation but don’t expect much more from it.

Systemize Your Contacts Strategy
Start by making a list of people you have not connected with in a while who have been helpful to you or who you have respect for and create a plan to keep in touch with them regularly.

Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone to Meet New People
Start by offering to do projects that are outside of your normal scope of work that will help you meet new people and suppliers, but for which you will have support from your team, who can often make the initial introductions.

Only Attend Events You are Interested In
Not only are many events a waste of time, but many don’t draw the crowd they advertise. Plus, even if the event draws a decent mix of professionals, if the event holds no interest to you, people will sense it and may assume that they have no interest to you, which will destroy any chances you have for good networking. Also, try to select an event where people you know typically go as well and arrange to meet up with them while there. Not only will it insure that the event is not a total waste of time, but your connections can introduce you to new people.

And, when using LinkedIn:

Have a Good Profile
It’s important to have a strong and authentic profile that allows people to see how you have developed throughout your career. And don’t forget the picture.

Connect Wisely
Although you want a strong network of at least 100 people, don’t connect with this anybody and everybody. First of all, you can only maintain real relationships with so many people. (British anthropologist Robin Dunbar puts the upper limit at 150 friends based on our brain size.) Secondly, you don’t want to look like a connection whore, err, super networker. In-depth network analyses show that they are not the source of online conversations. They are the sink hole where everything ends up.

Remember Online Etiquette
Simply put, it’s not okay to send direct messages or ask for favours from people you don’t know and haven’t met. You should be introduced first.

It is Better to Give than Receive
Build a reputation as a giver to a community. However, don’t just share interesting articles that are relevant to your network. Also take the time to explain why and add to the conversation.

Is It Social Software or Collaborative Knowledge Management That Gets Results?

A recent article over on Chief Executive on Tying Social Software to Business Metrics that Matter indicated that one of the biggest opportunities a company has to drive operating performance to new levels, run lean, innovate, and accelerate talent development is to tap the full capabilities of social software. As proof, it references “social software” deployments by OSIsoft, that realized a 22% improvement in average time to issue resolution through customer support’s use of Socialtext wikis, and Alcoa Fastening Systems, that reduced compliance activities by 61% using an internal collaboration platform.

Seems to me that the author is confused. “Social” software, at least in the common vernacular, refers to the social networks like Twitter, that makes a twit out of you, Facebook, that is contributing to the downfall of western civilization as you read this, and similar sites that have no real value and only provide you with ways to poke, prod, ping, and tweet your valuable time (and intelligence) away.

Wikis and similar platforms are really collaborative knowledge management platforms that allow users to collect, share, and create new knowledge that can help them advance themselves and the organizations they belong to, unlike social sites that only help them flitter their time away through pointless games and photo sharing. Yes there is a social aspect, but its about collaboration for education and innovation, not to see who can get the highest poke per minute count or follow the most twits who spend their days tweeting about how great Britney looks in her new outfit.

Social platforms only increase endorphins. In order to get results, you need to increase serotonin. That’s what collaborative knowledgement platforms do. Don’t get them confused.