During APQC's December 2008 knowledge management community call, an audience poll showed that 22 percent of call participants expected a small increase in their 2009 knowledge management budgets and 35 percent expected no change, whereas 44 percent were anticipating some kind of decrease in their 2009 budgets. The discussion then shifted to ask how the audience members intended to protect their budgets. A second poll revealed that the biggest priorities for 2009 were to show tangible results and market those results to internal customers.
The results of these polls have led to many discussions here at APQC, both internally among our staff and with our customers. One such discussion occurred with the members of APQC's KM Advanced Working Group, in which we talked about whether the work they are doing is showing tangible results and whether their KM groups and staff are positioned to support their organizations during these tough economic times. The KM Advanced Working Group participants all believe that their knowledge management functions are aligned with organizational strategy, and each agreed that his or her KM function was positioned to support the enterprise through these tough economic times.
They also shared their perspectives on the strategic role of their KM functions within their respective organizations. Some of their responses included:
- influence the business and advise regarding company strategy;
- investigate, design, and disseminate KM solutions to fulfill business challenges;
- accelerate the rate of organizational learning;
- identify and capture critical knowledge before it "walks out the door;" and
- enable innovation.
So tell me: Does KM have a strategic role to play in your organization? If so, what is it? How has the current economic crisis impacted or changed that role? Or will it?
Hi Darcy,
I guess my response is very relevant during this economic downturn, and based on personal experience. Quite honestly my opinion is that regardless of whether you have aligned yourself strategically with the corporate objectives, if you are a non-essential organization, that is not organizationally within the budget of the business process you enable, you are in danger of being eliminated. I was recently laid off from my Information Technology Company and they eliminated the entire KM Services group. 6 months prior we believed the exact same thing that you listed in the responses from members (as justification for our existence). However, when it comes down to those tough economic decisions that all corporations make, they will go for the short term impact and eliminate all non-essential "strategic" activities.
My #1 lesson learned is for KM to be within the business unit and not within any "corporate" entity in order for it survive this economic downturn. And even then, it should eventually disappear, as it is fully integrated into how you do business. I am more convinced than ever that the goal of KM within an organization needs to include eliminating itself. Companies that rely on knowledge workers and knowledge enabled services should have knowledge processes fully integrated into the "rules of the game".
Regarding this post and associate comment: Having been involved twice in “KM group elimination”, I have the battle scars to show for it. Yes, KM can be strategic one day and eliminated the next. That is world in which we operate. I fully agree with Darcy’s premise that the key is to show tangible results and market those results to internal customers. It may seem like a waste of effort in these tough economic times, but it will provide (relative) longevity
Regarding the statement that KM should eventually disappear: I have heard this before and I completely disagree with this comment, based on my experiences with being associated with this field since the early days of Artificial Intelligence, through Expert Systems, and now KM. Sure there will be down periods, but it has amazed me how this field has evolved itself over time (to no small degree aided by vastly improving technology). There will always be new challenges and applications of KM – to name a few, how many KM programs have fully integrated with learning and organizational development? How many companies have CKO’s (Chief Knowledge Officers)? How many cultures fully leverage their intellectual capital to beat the competition, to expedite innovation or to create new markets? I think there are many opportunities on the horizon, even if it may take longer because resources are being cut to the bone right now. The work we do may not be called KM in the future, but it will continue to evolve and provide value to those companies with enough insight and foresight to forge ahead and commit.
Linda Hummel