1. Information & Knowledge
Management
Class 7: Success Stories
Marielba Zacarias
Prof. Auxiliar DEEI
FCT I, Gab 2.69, Ext. 7749
mzacaria@ualg.pt
http://w3.ualg.pt/~mzacaria

2. Summary
Shell
BAE
NSF

3. Shell
Early ’90s
Opportunity of exploring oil in deep waters
Challenge: Never been done
Need of:
Assess current technology use
Innovate & learn more
Review business practices &
communication styles

4. At the beginning..
Deep water division same as other Shell teams
2 units
exploration
determine field potential value
production
develop project
Teams aligned with functional skills

5. Communication
Due to dimension & inmaturity
Communication among units is critical
but...
hindered by formal protocols
Hard, complex and slow communication
Maps done by exploration had to be
“adjusted” by production

6. Reorganization I
Division reorganized in 3 units based on
geographical areas
Multidisciplinar teams with a single team
leader
Number of members & structure varies
througout the project
excepting core members
Responsible for all project life cycle including
financial aspects

7. Re-organization I
project 1 project 2
exploration
production

8. Results
Ways of working and communicating
changed
Individuals more conscious of the impact
of their work on others
Creative thinking
Different individual & grupal dynamics
focus on global goals
atitude negociadora

9. Reorganization II
Creation of a central group with “core” competencies
of Shell with experts of each functional area
Team support
Problem:
Comunication among specialists reduced a lot
There were no formal communication processes among
teams
Fragmented and dispersed documentation, in different
formats
40% time searching for it
information management problem

10. Re-organization III
Creation of CoP for each functional area
regular discussion forums
sharing standards within teams
Use of web technologies web to
Knowledge capture and difussion
Knowledge repositories distributed with
“push” model

11. Results II
Push Model did not work
Extended with pull model
Each community has a leader
functioning as a “knowledge steward”
Each community was autonomous but a
standard practice emerged

12. Global Results
Cost reduction and quality improvement
Replication of good practices
Sharing of ways to avoid errors

13. BAE
Manufacturing of defense and
aerospatial systems
To adapt itself to market changes, BAE
decided to change its culture
Managers got together in a discussion
forum

14. Forum conclusions
People most valuable asset
client first priority
future in partnerships
innovation & technology source of
competitive advantages
performance needs to be measured to
guarantee success

15. Forum Results
Conclusions discussed with all “middle
managers”
“Value Statements” formulation
Creations of groups to address each
statement
Group responsible for defining and
disseminating list of values based on
each statement

16. Assessment Instrument
Definition of instrument to assess if
behavioral patterns were compatible
with the defined list of values
Instrument supported by intranet

17. Training
1500 manager have a training program
providing an understanding
of the business
of the team role
of the manager role in the organization

18. Virtual University
Partnership with knowledge management experts
Virtual University
Collaborative forum
captures & disseminates good pratices and other
contents
explicit (written good pratices)
tacit (expert identification)
Experienced managers of each unit play the role of
directors
Life-long corporative learning center

19. Infoglut
In 1999
300 good practices
In 2000, regular learning session
140 presential participants
1400 online participants
30 min every day in searching information
60% spent 1h in duplicating information
Intermediation & Internalization Tools
facilitate & speed information search

20. Results
ROI not estimated
Managers think goals were achieved
Connected people in different places working
in similar problems
Instead of separated groups, now works as a
single organization
BAE went from fourth to second place world
wide in its sector

21. Norke Skog Flooring
European manufacturer of floor materials
Created an innovative material categorization
Need of showing the benefits of this categorization
to the market
Solution: colaboration
Partnership with Celemi
tools supporting product launch & branding

22. NSF
Marketing tool that showed distributors,
installers, and retailers in a personalized and
interactive fashion, the advantages of NSF
categorization
Does not “push” information
Allows discovering what the salesman needs in
a “just in time” approach
Provides knowledge in personalized sessions
according to the salesman backgroun acordo a
background and education level

23. Learning process
Create interest
Provide just-in-time information
Exercises
Provide conclusion points and notion of
goals achieved

24. TSF Results
50% increase in product sales