Judge Business School Developing Networks and a Market for Knowledge Brokerage Arnoud De Meyer Director Professor of Management Studies April 18, 2007

The World of Management and Organisations is moving to a new Paradigm Offshoring: from subcontracting to outsourcing to partnering Knowledge Content of all our products and services is increasing rapidly New forms of globalisation in organisations are emerging The creation of a vast group of lower middle class in emerging countries with their own needs and ambitions Stepchanges in the ICT capabilities and user friendliness (Web2.0, $1 terminal, ubiquity)

This leads to profound changes Offshoring: from subcontracting to outsourcing to partnering Suppliers become partners in value creation and product design Knowledge Content of all our products and services is increasing rapidly Knowledge workers become dominant New forms of globalisation in organisations are emerging From a ‘triangular’ network towards a network of peers The creation of a vast group of lower middle class in emerging countries with their own needs and ambitions Ideas for innovation can come from anywhere Stepchanges in the ICT capabilities and user friendliness Growing irrelevance of geographical and organisational boundaries

The world moves towards: Networks, networks, networks Knowledge trading as a major source of economic activities

Some of the Issues 1.Protection of intangible goods will be a growing issue 2.Need for new methods of decision analysis and decision making in a world of information overload 3.The technology works, but how do you learn from a far away site? 4.Building the knowledge organisation

What is a firm or an organisation Creating economies of scale for capital attraction and retention A structure to organise differentiation and integration Minimising transactions costs associated with markets Or… a structure in which we have developed the capability to combine and recombine information in order to transform it into knowledge (or even wisdom?)

Knowledge has value An organisation exists because it has knowledge others don’t have Information assymetry is the raison d’être of any organisation Thus: How do you protect your proprietary knowledge? How do you mine your intellectual property?

Exploiting Intellectual Property Protection is key, but difficult and costly Methods of IP protection:  Patents & trade secrets  Copyrights, trade marks, brands  Speed  Monopoly/captivity on markets or resources Rather than focusing on one aspect of this, we need to carefully manage the portfolio of protecting mechanisms IP protection does not come naturally to people; some cultures do not appreciate the value of intangibles; Adjust your policy to the local environment And after all that effort… what do we do with it ?

I.P. mining Tap patents for new revenues Audit your IP assets to optimise portfolio management:  Reduce maintenance costs on unneeded patents Enhance entrepreneurship through seed funds (and improve your corporate value) IPR as competitive weapon:  Constrain your competitor  Steer the R&D portfolio

Learning from far away: how to smoothen the information flows? Create credibility Clear and dynamic charter Quick wins Stimulate diversity In culture And systems and processes Invest in elaborate and diversified communication systems Understand all the networks, including the ones that operate around you.

Building the Knowledge organisations: why is it a challenge? Information overload does not lead to knowledge creation: every ten years we double the quantity of data/information What are the incentives to move from being a reader to become a writer Knowledge is power (though culture may be a moderating factor): why would I give it up? We are at the beginning of a new paradigm in terms of search and decision strategies: from convergent to divergent thinking Technology is an important tool, but not the unique component of the solution!

From Readers to Writers Motivation for sharing –reward people who share –incent people to share –“Ideally a situation would occur where the people who were getting ahead in the firm were those sharing knowledge” Inhibitors for sharing –time/priorities –attitudes and beliefs –culture/fear –confusion over “knowledge” Pervasive appreciation of importance of knowledge management –getting top management to show appropriate leadership Appropriate knowledge management infrastructure

Some suggestions, based on our research Knowledge has become a resource similar to capital and human resources: manage it with the same attention: Architect your organisational knowledge Build a K-corps: Strategy Infrastructure Processes Organisation Products and services Consider knowledge as the organisational glue: companies as knowledge switchboards.

Architecting your knowledge Is everybody plugged in into the organisation’s knowledge network? Do you have a conscious design of your global knowledge base? What are the incentives to keep building the knowledge base How do you do the quality control? How do you structure knowledge in order to avoid confusion through overload Who leads the knowledge conversion processes?