Posted by Bob Guns on August 26, 1998 at 14:25:13:

In Reply to: Re: Framework for Developing Knowledge Management Strategy posted by Yogesh Malhotra on August 25, 1998 at 20:27:35:

All right, Yogesh, here are the pieces of research that I have been working on:

a) initial round of research on the challenges and competencies of CKOs (and CLOs)- I interviewed 25 people holding these positions. Most were from Fortune 500 companies. The first article I produced from this research was published in The Journal of Knowledge Management in June of this year. It was entitled, The Chief Knowledge Officer's Role: Challenges and Competencies. In that article I identified 7 exemplary challenges facing CKOs and 6 key competencies needed in this role. The key competencies in order of importance were:
1. interpersonal communication skills
2. passionate, visionary leadership
3. business acumen
4. strategic thinking skills
5. being a champion of change
6. collaborative skills
What was noteworthy was that technical skills were not deemed as important as these other competencies. What I felt was missing was what I call integrative skills, which represents the competency to cut across functions to bring about a strategic, integrated KM initiative. Most CKOs are still operating from what I call one of 4 functional lenses:
1. legal/technical
2. corporate librarian
3. information technology
4. training and development
The two solutions I put forward to close this gap are to either develop what I call Renaissance leaders who have followed a Japanese-like spiral career path or to build Strategic Knowledge Teams comprised of leaders of at least IT, HR, and Strategy who forumulate and implement KM strategies under the guidance of the CKO.

b) a second round of research in which I have just completed interviewing 27 CKOs and CLOs. In this research, I asked some of the same questions as in the first round to determine if there are any significant shifts, particularly in competencies. However, I was also interested in finding out what strategies they were putting into play, and what best practices were being implemented. I have not started analyzing the results of my research yet. The results will also be published in the Journal of Knowledge Management. What I can say is that there was considerable hesitancy around the question of what knowledge management strategy they were working on. That's why I made the earlier comment on the need for more KM strategy work in this field.

c) I have been working with Brian Hackett of The Conference Board over the last year on another piece of research that addresses the gap between a learning organization approach and a knowledge management approach. We have just sent out the initial surveys on this research, and will be following up with selected interviews. PricewaterhouseCoopers has sponsored this research. The second phase will involve a working group of 10 to 15 companies in which specific applications based on our initial findings will be tested out. If anybody wants to put the name of their firm forward as a potential member of this working group, please call Brian Hackett at The Conference Board for more details: (212) 339-0367. We have no preliminary results of this research, so I am unable to comment on it at this time.

I intend to do more selective research in the future with a few CKOs at a time in relation to a specific KM topic. If anybody wants to suggest a topic or CKOs that I should interview, I would be open to those suggestions. Anyway, I've probably said enough for now. Any comments on this research?

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Follow Ups:

• KM strategies Denham 17:22:31 8/26/98 (6)
  • Re: KM strategies Sue Hansen 22:55:56 10/06/98 (4)
    • Re: KM strategies Meckler 12:03:45 10/07/98 (3)
      • Re: KM strategies Sue Hansen 23:10:05 10/19/98 (0)
      • Re: KM strategies Yogesh Malhotra 12:04:46 10/12/98 (1)
        • Re: KM strategies Meckler 14:25:57 11/06/98 (0)
  • Re: KM strategies Bob Guns 09:12:52 8/27/98 (0)

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