Provides an overview of knowledge management, including descriptions of knowledge management strategies, processes, organization, infrastructure, systems, and challenges. Describes the approaches at two leading consulting firms, Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, that have been pioneers in knowledge management strategies.
Linda Doyle, president and CEO of Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., has succeeded in turning around the organization after several difficult years. She has launched several strategic and organizational initiatives, and has instilled a new philosophy and vision. Now, however, there are disagreements over the use of the centralized marketing organization and the degree of autonomy still held by the product groups.
Watermill Ventures acquires and turns around an underperforming business. The case describes the criteria the company uses to identify acquisition candidates, its screening and selection process, and the way it introduces strategic thinking at the business it acquires. Steve Karol, Watermill's founder, is concerned because the company has only acquired two companies in its three years of operation. He is considering a number of actions, including establishing a Web site to broaden the base of contact.
Harvey Golub, CEO American Express, initiated and led a large-scale change process. The case describes the organization he inherited, two successive waves of reengineering, his "principles-driven" approach to decision making, and his goal of converting American Express from a diversified financial supermarket to one unified operating company.
In June 1995, Barbara Schetter, VP and general manager of R.R. Donnelley's Digital Division, is struggling to gain acceptance from other groups and divisions at the printing giant. The Digital Division employs radically new technology--digital printing presses and transactions management systems--to deliver short-run, customized printing. But it is based on a completely different business model than Donnelley's traditional businesses and is finding it difficult to overcome informal resistance.
Charlie LeMantia, the president and CEO of Arthur D. Little (ADL), a leading consulting firm, is trying to decide whether the firm has a complete and effective corporate strategy. The case traces ADL's history, its rise to prominence and subsequent decline, and LeMantia's efforts to turn the organization around. Special attention is devoted to his introduction of process thinking and process management, and their impact on the way the company is managed.
The mission of industrial design has traditionally been to support engineering and marketing by improving the look and feel of a product. But a handful of pioneering companies--such as Thomson Consumer Electronics, Apple Computer, and Northern Telecom--are extending the parameters of design, pushing to the forefront something that has been an afterthought at most companies: a product's usability. User-centered design goes beyond ergonomics to encompass the cognitive aspects of using a product, or how logical and natural a product is to use, as well as the emotional aspects, or how people feel about using it. Thomson, for example, has declared that all its entertainment products must be engaging, foster a sense of discovery, and eliminate fear. And Northern Telecom has defined usability as simplicity, ease of use, and conspicuous customer value. Photographs of Thomson's System Link universal remote, Apple's PowerBook computer, and Northern Telecom's Vista modular phone illustrate how the new definition of usability can be incorporated into products.
This case examines the design of Apple's first notebook computer in a context of extreme time-to-market pressures that challenge Apple's "time-to-perfection" culture and functional organizational structure. Its focus is on industrial design (ID), user testing, and mechanical design interaction in creating design alternatives, identifying user-centered themes that bring coherence to the design. The examines tensions between diverse concepts of product, competing priorities, and tradeoffs between design perfection and time-to-market. Holistic approach of ID versus incremental approach of other groups is highlighted.
Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management.
The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with the opportunity to critique a standard cost system and to assess the characteristics of the proposed system that traces costs to production activities.
Describes a program of value-analysis workshops undertaken by this company as part of its massive effort to regain the number one position in its industry. The value-analysis workshops are the second half of the company's two-part Quality Has Value process. The focus is on: 1) the general question of how to apply value analysis, an industrial-engineering based tool, to white-collar work, and 2) how to handle some very sensitive issues that came out of the value-analysis workshop for a particular department.
Describes the three distinct approaches to quality management represented by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Philip B. Crosby. Designed to introduce students to the elements of statistical quality control, structured approaches to quality improvement, and zero defects programs and to show them that there is more than one way to improve quality.
In the preceding case, Copeland had to choose between two alternative plant layouts for organizing its Sidney plant. Now it must get work force approval for a change in "bumping" rules before proceeding with the change. Management must decide how to proceed--to continue with the reorganization, delay the moving of equipment and personnel, or drop the project completely.
In the (A) case, Copeland had to choose between focusing its Sidney plant by product line or by manufacturing process. Now that it has made that decision, a plant layout must be selected from two alternatives.
Describes the evolution of a company's manufacturing strategy over an eight-year period. Copeland had pursued a strategy of building freestanding focused plants devoted to single processes or product lines, and then moving products from the home plant at Sidney, Ohio to the new facility. Sidney is now left with a jumble of unrelated products and processes, and management must decide whether it should be reorganized by product line or manufacturing processes. HBR reprint number 85117 "Competing Through Manufacturing," January-February 1985, by S.C. Wheelwright and R.H. Hayes may be taught with these cases.