4. Final Project (Can be done in group)
For the project, the student should assume the role of consultant or corporate executive (e.g., Chief Knowledge Officer). The purpose of the semester project is to focus on developing the rationale and business case to take advantage of the many opportunities to strategically deploy, re-deploy, acquire, shrink-wrap – sell, create corporate knowledge assets. Knowledge management in its various forms and roles is quickly becoming the framework of choice among leading edge companies, especially those with large investments in intangible assets. Knowledge management strategies often rely heavily on enabling information technologies and an understanding of these various options is critical for implementing successful knowledge management. For example, companies in the Internet market space are structuring their operations to take advantage of these technologies to focus on making better decisions related to their core competencies and lines of business to ensure delivery of superior products and services. This presents opportunities to develop new strategies that will take advantage of their corporate knowledge assets.
Your job is to select what you believe to be the most promising knowledge management strategy for a company that your team selects and develop a business case for making it happen. You should cover, at a minimum, the areas of analysis suggested below. However, you will also want to develop insights of your own that will play a critical role in making your business case.
Potential Points of Analysis
1. Review the industry within which the company competes to identify points of leverage for better management of knowledge.
2. Obtain the following benchmark financial data (please remember this is not a financial exercise) if available. This will allow you to determine the order of magnitude value of the potential implementation of the knowledge management strategy in terms of it impact on gross revenues and cost savings from operations.
• Current use of Knowledge resources
• Market share
• Cost for operations
• Revenue per employee
• Market value
• Operating margins, cash-flow from operations
Please make aanalysis of the company’s operational performance to determine potential gaps in knowledge assets. You may have to make a few phone calls and obtain corporate reports (from the EDGAR government database, your stock broker, 10Ks for the companies if they are publicly traded, corporate balance sheet, KVA analysis, interviews).
Determine the extent of the knowledge asset gaps, redundancies that will impede successful implementation of your knowledge management strategy. Make sure to include an analysis of the knowledge deployed in the information systems that support core processes such as sales/order fulfillment, billing, marketing, production.
Please make a analysis of the company’s operational performance to determine potential gaps in knowledge assets. You may have to make a few phone calls and obtain corporate reports (from the EDGAR government database, your stock broker, 10Ks for the companies if they are publicly traded, corporate balance sheet, KVA analysis, interviews).
Determine the extent of the knowledge asset gaps, redundancies that will impede successful implementation of your knowledge management strategy. Make sure to include an analysis of the knowledge deployed in the information systems that support core processes such as sales/order fulfillment, billing, marketing, production.
Project the company’s opportunities locally, nationally, and internationally as a result of implementing your knowledge management strategy in terms of:
• Products, services
• Future products, services
• Customer mix
• Opportunities for streamlining operations
• Potential new sources of revenue from selling knowledge products
I will need this to be around 16 pages so i can have enough info.
• The PowerPoint presentation accompanying the paper
Your project grade will depend upon the thoroughness, depth, and creative insights of your analysis. You must assume that I will look at your report as if my company had paid you large sums of money to provide us with a workable KM strategy that would have dramatic impact on the company bottom line. If the relationship between your strategy and its financial impact is unclear, you should work harder to clarify this relationship. I suggest you not start on this project until you feel you have a good grasp of the concepts, frameworks, and language of knowledge management.
