Maximising Knowledge Sharing
Benefits Across Boundaries
Demonstrating the Value of Knowledge Management Conference
18 October 2007
Marc Aafjes, Global Head of Knowledge Management
Vodafone Group

Vodafone is a global organisation which leverages its unique
experiences and knowledge as a competitive advantage
• Vodafone Group is the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world:
– equity interests in 25 countries and partner Networks in a further 40 countries
– Vodafone has approx. 206.4 million proportionate customers worldwide (31/03/07)
– Total market capitalisation of approx. £84 billion at (26/05/07), making it the 4th largest company in
the FTSE 100 and the 21st largest company in the world
• Vodafone has the unique opportunity to leverage its large and diverse global
footprint to make knowledge a key competitive advantage:
– Operates in markets with different degrees of maturity – enabling opportunities to leverage knowledge
from mature markets in new and emerging ones
– Combines focus on increasing operational efficiency as markets mature with a focus on innovation to
become the leading total communications company
– Employs approx. 66,000 people with a wealth of experience and knowledge
• Our KM objective is to improve systematic transfer of knowledge and experience
across the organisation to deliver tangible benefits – by ‘connecting our people’
This presentation contains my personal and generic views which are not
necessarily the views of Vodafone.
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In this presentation I’ll provide some practical tips to
maximise knowledge sharing benefits across boundaries
Key Challenges Key Messages
• KM faces key challenges which can be • Gain buy-in in the top and working level
observed across any environment: by showing benefits – not claiming them
– Limited incentives to share knowledge
– No system or infrastructure
• Establish both management incentives &
– Not open to learn – ‘not invented here’
peer recognition to encourage sharing
• As organisations grow so do these issues
as ‘social ties’ amongst people change:
– Impossible to know everyone in the
• Develop a ‘shadow-organisation’ to ‘make
organisation
the market’ and strengthen the network
– Specialisation often drives this further – i.e.
more interaction within the function
• Becoming an multinational company,
• Create a supporting infrastructure that
adds further issues:
emphasises virtual social networking
– Language and cultural barriers make transfer
harder
– Increased risks of ‘silos’
This presentation emphasises challenges and tips that arise in large and
multinational companies .
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Demonstrating the value of knowledge management to
top management is a crucial prerequisite
• As with any other business initiative, KM will firstly need to demonstrate its value
to top management – without their support, execution will be hard…
• Justify KM initially by establishing the value of knowledge in the organisation and
market – KM costs are pale in comparison:
– Draw parallels with the value created by other companies and determine potential value for yours
– Highlight available internal success stories and determine the total value if these were multiplied
– Employs approx. 66,000 people with a wealth of experience and knowledge
• Determine and track your own metrics that demonstrate the benefits of the KM
programme for your organisation
– Measurement by proxy – e.g. P&G products to shelve
– ROI – e.g. Intec quantified cost reduction
– Balanced Score Card – showing lead and lag indicators from number of users/documents to social
network metrics
• Continuously stimulate and capture success stories – but don’t claim them
– The key aim is to continue to emphasise the tangible value – the cost can often be justified by
operational BSC metrics
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Establishing the right incentives at both managerial and
working level is the essential foundation for execution
• Establish both Hard and soft incentives:
– Make it a formal part of performance evaluations and career advancement
– Drive comprehensive reward & (peer) recognition at individual and team level
– Senior leadership focus and showing desired behaviours
• Organise for collaboration:
– Provide cross-unit objectives to drive collaboration
– Right-size unit resources – making people more receptive to sharing
• Use targeted job rotation to drive ‘connectedness’ and ‘shortest path’ across the
organisation
• Create heroes and communicate success stories
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A key element to drive the internal knowledge market is a
‘shadow organisation’ that makes the market
Example Set-up of ‘Shadow Organisation’
Central KM Delivery
SPOC SPOC SPOC
Team Structure
Business Unit Business Unit Business Unit
Functional KM Mgr, Functional
Tech.
Technology Champion*
Functional KM Mgr, Functional
Marketing
Marketing Champion*
Functional KM Mgr, Functional
HR
HR Champion*
Functional KM Mgr, Functional
Finance
Finance Champion*
Functional KM Mgr, Functional
Other
Other Champion*
= ‘Knowledge Brokers’
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The emerging concepts from social software are a key
ingredient to providing a strong supporting infrastucture
Internet Examples
Description & Benefit
• People create their profiles and can attach files and link to other people and
communities
Social • Improves index of expertise and activities of individuals and improves search
Networking
• Makes connections more visible an enables network analysis
• Builds trust in virtual environment and enables trusted referrals
• Enables people to describe /’tag’ content and knowledge and rank which they find most
helpful
Social • Improves classification of knowledge by using ‘common’ denominator and bridges
Tagging & ‘jargon’ of different groups – from taxonomy to folksonomy
Bookmarking • Improves search/navigation and creates prioritisation of documents – ‘this is a good
place to start’
• Documentation of experiences and opinions by individuals and groups
Collaborative • Strengthens volume and quality of documented knowledge
Document-
• Makes it easier to form new communities around emerging topics
ation
• Increases sense of collaboration and strenghtens relationships
In essence social software makes it easier (and more efficient) to connect people
across both organisational and country boundaries.
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BACK-UP
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Knowledge-sharing challenges arise from both ‘supply’ and
‘demand’ side issues in the internal knowledge market
Internal Knowledge Market
Example Issues & Causes
‘Supply’-side:
Knowledge
Not ‘capturing’ or ‘indexing’ knowledge or expertise
•
‘Supply’ Lack of time and/or incentives
•
Lack of process, skills and/or tools
•
Concerns around confidentiality
•
Overestimating relevance and underestimating value of sharing
•
Ease of Searching &
Lack of trust in unknown ‘recipients’
•
Finding
Lack of willingness to help:
•
Lack of time and/or incentives
•
Knowledge Quality Lack of relationship with ‘requestor’ of knowledge
•
‘Demand’-side:
Effectiveness of Transfer &
Learning ‘Not invented here’
•
Available resource to ‘reinvent’
•
Political and emotional elements
•
Bad past experience:
•
Knowledge Inefficient infrastructure
•
Irresponsive ‘supplier’
•
‘Demand’
Low quality of knowledge – hard to contextualise
•
Promoting a knowledge-sharing requires a holistic perspective across the internal
knowledge market – both supply and demand, and across the full process.
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