Posted by Ross Hall on March 21, 1998 at 04:41:38:

In Reply to: Re: No Proof? posted by Jay Reay on March 17, 1998 at 13:47:37:

Jay,

My views on pragmatism vs philosophy are widely known!!!

I agree that some managers are turned on to the needs to look at Knowledge, but I have also found a lot of managers who are more interested in optimising supply chains than enhancing competitiveness, including some MDs ( which is the worrying thing!! )

Also known is my view that there are going to be very few ( if any ) Knowledge Management projects, but that instead KM techniques and practices will embed themselves in to other projects.

Since the end of '95 I have been embedding KM techniques in to projects as a part of the project rather than jumping up and down and shouting "Knowledge Management" ( to which comes the response, "begon ye fadish consultant!" ) Using these techniques has helped me help clients realise some dramatic improvements in their business. However, this is all tactical, project driven stuff rather than strategic.

On the strategic front I have helped a client to identify a 3M UKP potential saving if they can make their decisions a little faster. That's about 5% of turnover. We can't value the knowledge required to make that decision directly, but we can measure the impact of using knowledge on the business environment!!!

Ross ;-))

P.S. On the subject of F1 teams, a friend of mine used to work for one of the top 3 teams. He wrote AI based simulations to test in the computer what the cars would do. When they introduced refueling, he suggested building a model to test it and optimise performance. "No" said the team manager, "it won't be a significant factor". As a result the team's pitstops were 12 secs while everyone else did 8-10 secs!!!

• Ross Hall Homepage

---

Follow Ups:

---

Click Here to Post Follow Up in New Forums

    Knowledge Management Think Tank (New)

  

 Subject: 

Message: