Business and Governments, including University Communities, are demanding greater rethink on their investments in Education and Retraining, given the pressures for improved productivity, innovation skills and Self-directed Learning/Empowerment for Professional s and Entrepreneurs!
The battle cry of KM has reached Africa in the early years of this decade, and by now it has become a continental movement which is driven forward by governments, more so than business. The result: everyone is now supposed to “do” KM. And the enthusiasm, at least at the level of rhetoric is ubiquitous.
The issue of appropriate knowledge in and for Africa is utterly absorbing but hugely complex. It is not possible to talk about knowledge in Africa without engaging with the problem of global power relations. Knowledge is, after all, power.
Johann Kinghorn, Kinghorn, Director of the Centre
by Knowledge Dynamics and Decision-making at
Stellenbosh University, South Africa
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Innovation has become the most strategic core competence of organisations. In turbulent times competitive advantages do not last very long and in order to survive, organisations need to embark on a new journey of on-going strategic renewal. This is an extremely difficult goal and can be achieved only through focused and systematic innovation management.
Organisations find it difficult to cope with this goal and often confuse creativity and innovation, knowledge management and innovation management; wonder if and how to empower their people to become entrepreneurs – though they are hired employees; worry about the need to open up the organisation in order to innovate and hesitate how to manage risk in this threatening new business environment.
Edna and Yossi Pasher have helped organisations with these demanding issues for many years and have led the Knowledge Management and Innovation Management movement in Israel since its very beginning and they shared their knowledge with the participants in this workshop (and Israel is considered ‘‘The Second Silicon Valley”!) In addition – they actually practice what they preach – and since they believe that knowledge and innovation are created mostly in conversations – their workshop was highly interactive and engaged the
participants in understanding the problems they cope with, identified opportunities to cope with them and innovated for renewal and sustainability. Some of the subjects covered were:
The benefits of applying digital technologies to government and business operations are widely recognised in most countries. KM is becoming part of many e-Government initiatives. The five stages of e-Government – from emerging digital services via websites, to enhanced and interactive services, to transactional interactions between citizens and government, to connected governments to serve citizen needs with integrated back office infrastructure, to
transformational government where KM has an important role.
Russell Pipe, Adviser to the Asian
Institute of Technology, Bangkok
Major attention is being placed on e-Participation for Citizen-Centric e-Government. The focus is to re-build and strengthen relationships between citizens and governments. KM is considered key to sharing knowledge and providing access to knowledge and expertise. Top challenges to the uptake of KM are public awareness, ability to understand and apply KM, and providing strong management support.
The presentation focuses on these issues as well as leadership in planning and management that are keys both to success of e-Government and applying KM. High level leadership and coordination as well as effective work by Chief Information Officers (CIOs) required to achieving success. These remain a
challenge in many countries.
Russell is a consultant to the World Bank Global ICT Division, having worked on e-Government projects in several countries as well as policy, regulation and services trade issues. He was responsible for preparing the E-Government Knowledge Map under a World Bank project in 2006. He served as a member of the steering group for the Thailand National E-Government Assessment Project in 2008-2009. In 2009 he was appointed Advisor to the International Academy of CIO.
Under an International Telecom Union (ITU) programme, he carried out an assessment of e-Government strategy in the Marshall Islands. He directed a project for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy to design a programme to provide IT operational support and staff training for its extensive micro-finance loan programmes. In 2006 he prepared an ICT assessment of Lao PDR, evaluating progress toward accession to WTO. Under a World Bank project in Cambodia, he provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Posts and Telecom Cambodia
to implement commitments following accession to WTO.
In January 2010 he will be director of an AIT 10-day training course on Strategies for Successful E-Governance.
Speaker: Debbie Lange, Global Knowledge Manager Marine, Lloyd’s Register
Lloyd’s Register is an independent risk management organisation providing risk assessment and risk mitigation solutions around the world with 240 offices worldwide, served by some 6,000 employees. Lloyd’s Register Marine works around the world to assess and certify ships, systems and facilities to improve quality and increase safety at sea. Lloyd’s Register owes its name to Edward Lloyd’s 17th century coffee house in London, which is also where Lloyd’s of London started.
Debbie Lange of Lloyd’s Register
Knowledge lies at the heart of the organisation; Edward Lloyd helped his shipping industry clientele to exchange information and knowledge. He also printed the first Register of Ships in 1764, giving underwriters and merchants an idea of the condition of the vessels they insured and chartered. Today the challenge is to leverage over 250 years of corporate memory, in order to realise strategic objectives – captilalising on corporate memory is driving the need to address everyday business issues with knowledge management solutions.
Learning from others is key to the Knowledge Management Programme to ensure the technical edge is retained, duplication is reduced and service to clients is improved to ultimately improve safety at sea. The focus of the Knowledge Management Programme is on integrating practices and renewed processes into day to day activity – globally. In addition to developing a seamless approach to organisational learning in conjunction with the Group Human Resource team.
This presentation focussed on the KM journey in Lloyd’s Register, from strong management support, to investment and implementation of new tools, practices and processes including People Finder and Technical Queries applications, Knowledge Risk Assessments and Sharing Practices associated with Knowledge Retention and Transfer, engagement with the Global Human Resource community and how Lloyd’s Register has branded the KM programme internally.
Debbie joined the London office of Lloyd’s Register in 2006 and now manages the Global Knowledge Management Programme from their Hong Kong office. Debbie has held several Knowledge Management roles over the last 10 years, predominantly in New Zealand where she was Project Manager and then Director of Knowledge Management for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Knowledge Manager for Sheffield Human Resource Consulting Ltd.
Debbie is also an executive member of the UK based Knowledge and Innovation Network.