Knowledge Management Plan for Mobily Telecom Company - Case Study Example

Running head: Knowledge Management Plan Name Course name Professors’ name Date Executive summary Knowledge management entails strategies and practices used in an organization to recognize, generate, represent, distribute and enable implementation of insights and experiences. In a nutshell, the insights and experiences comprise knowledge that can be found in individuals or processes within an organization. The purpose of knowledge management is not only to improve efficiency of a worker or an organization but also to enhance processing of knowledge that will automatically lead to quality solutions. Many knowledge management practitioners participate in fields such as information technology, content management, customer relation management, analysis of social networks, and storytelling with an intention to improve performance of an organization. Knowledge management is distinguished from organizational learning since it focuses more on management of knowledge as a strategic resource and subsequently encourages sharing of such insights. This will go along in avoiding redundancy work, reduce training time for new employees, retain intellectual capital after an employee turnover and to appreciate changing business environment. Table of conten Introduction 4 Company profile 4 Nature of Knowledge Management 5 The context of knowledge management 6 Benefits of Knowledge Management 6 Knowledge management strategy for Mobily 8 Elements of the strategic plan 8 Objectives 8 The plan 9 Codification strategy 9 Personalization 10 Learning loop 14 Implementation of knowledge management plan 15 Timelines 16 Estimation of budgets 16 Measurement of performance 17 Conclusion 18 Appendix 18 Introduction 1 Company profile 1 The nature of Knowledge Management as a set of processes 2 The context of knowledge management 2 Benefits of Knowledge Management 3 Knowledge management strategy for Mobily 4 Elements of the strategic plan 5 Objectives 5 The plan 6 Codification strategy 6 Personalization 7 Learning loop 10 Implementation of knowledge management plan 11 Timelines 12 Estimation of budgets 12 Measurement of performance 13 Conclusion 14 Appendix 15 Introduction This paper presents Knowledge Management Plan for Mobily telecommunication firm that is based in the Republic of Saudi Arabia. Before specifying strategies used, it is vital to consider nature of Knowledge management as a type of activity or rather a set of processes. The processes capture knowledge production and its subsequent integration. Such distinguished processes take place within complex adaptive organizational systems that are characterized by distributed continuous learning, problem solving, self organizing and new phenomenon produced by changing business processes. Knowledge may be obtained either before, during, or after activities relate to management of knowledge. In an attempt to cultivate knowledge, organizations have resorted to making content submission mandatory and including rewards when measuring performance. One of the strategies to be used when formulating knowledge management plan is active management of knowledge otherwise termed as push strategy. Personalization approach also forms a knowledge management strategy and simply involves individuals making knowledge requests to experts. Company profile Mobily is a telecom multinational formed in 2004 by a consortium led by Etisalat. The organization is the second mobile service provider in the Republic of Saudi Arabia and is ranked 13th in the world. Mobily is the first communication firm awarded license for third generation service and beyond. Success of the organization is further evident with its listing on Tadawul Stock Exchange. In addition to this, Mobily enjoys a 40% market share of total mobile subscription in Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of March 2008, the telecom company was granted approval by Communication and Information Telecommunication Commission to purchase Bayanat al-Oula, a licensed data service provider. During the same year, Mobily bought more shares in Zajil, a leading internet services provider. This is a clear illustration that the company has a strong financial position marked by resource power both human and non-human. Nature of Knowledge Management Firestone & McElroy (2004) presented a three-tier framework of business processes and results. The researcher distinguished between operational business process, knowledge processes and processes used in managing knowledge processes. In this case, operational processes are activities that use knowledge but do not produce or integrate it. The outcome of this process may be in form of customer relations and environmental compliance or market share expansion. There are two procedures in the three-tier framework. The first procedure is knowledge production where an organization produces new general knowledge and other knowledge whose creation is not a routine process (McElroy 2003). Secondly on the model is knowledge integration which presents the new knowledge to persons within an organization. The outcomes related to these processes are new strategies communicated throughout an organization using e-mail system. At the same time, the outcome can be in form of new health care policy communicated through personnel manual. It is from this analysis that we arrive at a consensus that knowledge management is the set of processes that seeks to change exiting pattern of knowledge processing with an intention to transform nature of outcomes. The context of knowledge management The processes involved in the three-tier conceptualization of knowledge management take place within a complex adaptive organizational system with features of distributed learning and problem solving. It is possible that the procedure goes through Decision Execution Cycle. In this situation, decisions within an organization take a cycle starting from planning, acting, monitoring, and evaluating behaviour. Decision Execution Cycle utilizes existing individual-level knowledge so as to reach a decision criterion. Individual knowledge in DEC marks the starting point for an action. Decision Execution Cycles further generates new knowledge covering specific circumstances by using pre-existing knowledge to monitor, evaluate, plan and decide. When monitoring and evaluating, persons decide the degree to which output compare with expectations that accompany decisions. If the mismatch is great, managers goes ahead to evaluate whether previous knowledge was useful in bridging the gap. Inability of previous knowledge to offer solution calls for learning to take place (Firestone, 2004). Benefits of Knowledge Management There are proven benefits that accrue from Knowledge Management to a business organization. By sharing Knowledge across departments, strategic problems within an organization are minimized substantially. Knowledge Management further ensures that the right information gets to the right people at the right time so that the right decisions are made (Morten, 1999). The present business world is marked by intense competition from rival companies. How fast an entity makes critical decisions is therefore critical. This is part of the reason why organizations should change from solving existing problems to continuously improve knowledge base and afterward reshape aspects of business. An organization which is able to seize new knowledge is more likely to outsmart its competitors. As discussed in the Decision Execution Cycle, knowledge is a key factor to improve the face of Mobily telecom. Research by various scholars including Markus (2001) demonstrates vast benefits of Knowledge Management. A successful implementation of the program guarantees an organization employee creativity and therefore greater proximity to invention. Additionally, the company is bound to realize lower costs of operation due to high economies of scale. A telecom company like Mobily derives its economies of scale from vast number of subscribers. In the communication industry, quality of services rendered occupies the top priority. If Mobily company is not capable of delivering to the required standard, it will loose its customers to other service providers like Saudi Telecom Company that has invested in Jawal, Hatif and internet services. STC is known for its active participation in various community projects. Knowledge Management would therefore come in handy to make certain that services provided by Mobily are competitive. During mergers and acquisitions valued resources are lost may be lost. This creates gap since merger happens within a shirt period of time. It is in such period of time corporate assets, infrastructure, and operations are misplaced and will necessitate recalling retired or severances employees at an extra cost to the company. Knowledge management serves the purpose of realigning a company after a merger. There is always a time when an organization needs to access information from knowledgeable individual (Collins, 2003). If such information is not stored so that others can determine problems and their solutions, the knowledge is locked with the person. Knowledge Management alleviates company’s reliance on some few individuals. Knowledge management strategy for Mobily A knowledge management program ought to enumerate strategies and objectives in relation to what the program is designed to do. Before proceeding to other steps, a problem that the program is meant to address and solve should be laid down. In the case of Mobil Inc, the strategy is supposed to improve knowledge of the workforce to help company maintain its competitive advantage. This will open way to a more clear approach to an appropriate strategy of solving the problem. Elements of the strategic plan There are essential elements that should be contained in a Knowledge management strategic plan. Objectives or rather problems that will be addressed must be laid down as the first step in formulating a strategy. Approach, plan, budget and measurement follow in successively (Allee, 2003). The people, processes, data, and technology should be included as elements of a strategic plan. Final component of the plan is to measure whether objectives have been met by the plan. Objectives The objective of Knowledge Management program will be aligned with corporate strategy. Mobily’s corporate objective is to empower rural consumers by providing telecom services in those areas. The firm is in the process of launching 3G mobile telephony with an intention of building consumption rate of its customers. In order for the organization to improve its performance, communications should be shaped well such that access to key resources, experts, and knowledge sharing across business units is made easy. Given the fact that Mobily telecom is operating under innovative world of technology and telephony, it is imperative that the company distributes its knowledge resource across manpower. This knowledge management plan aims at improving organization’s overall performance by managing knowledge resources. The plan The action plan for this knowledge management plan revolves round stated objective. Emphasis will be placed on the people since telecommunication industry relies mostly on personal interaction in order to improve and consequently achieve business objectives. For successful implementation of knowledge management strategy, it must be realigned with other business strategies. This means that financial performance strategy, intellectual capital strategy, Information communication strategy, human resources strategy, and other relevant business strategies co-exist together with knowledge management strategy. In a study by Allee (2003), knowledge management is classified into codification and personalization strategy. Codification strategy Codification strategy simply means reusing codified knowledge in order to realize fast processing of quality and reliable information. It includes databases of information, earlier reports and presentation which have camouflaged customer expectations. Knowledge experienced by workers are stored in documents either hard or soft copy. This approach of storing information indicates that knowledge is not linked to a single person and at the same time reused for various activities (Allee, 2003). The idea of reuse is essential in codification strategy and creation of larger revenues. To demonstrate codification is where a company avails software used to troubleshoot mobile phones. Employees are simply trained on how to use the software product. This accessory enhances provision of services such that an expert individual would not be recalled when problem arises but any person can just utilize the software and solve the impending problem. Mobile telecommunication receives its revenue from the kind of services offered directly to its customers in terms of customer experiences. If a company trains its customer care agents on standard answers to frequently asked questions, and goes further to accumulate hands on experience, service provision will be improved. With respect to human resources strategies, knowledge management using codification method calls for hiring new college graduates who are suited to reuse knowledge and carry forward implementation of solutions to problems. New graduates are always ready to utilize automated knowledge retrieval devices and systems by the use of codified knowledge as input. To add on this advantage is the possibility of conducting training in large groups while at the same time utilizing codified knowledge and computer based distant learning. Personalization Personalization strategy provides inventive, analytical, and rigorous advice on major strategic problems by utilizing individual experiences. Employees use each other as resources through a session of brainstorming, networking, face to face conversation, and team assignments (Hislop, 2003). The point of emphasis is on personal knowledge and experiences. Personalization is particularly useful when information can not be codified and stored in electronic format. One of the returns attached to personalization is that telecommunication firm can charge higher prices and afterward sustain higher profit margins. Personalization strategy will be utilized in this knowledge management plan because of innovative and personalized products in addition to services provided by Mobily. In the strategy, information and communication graduates can be employed by Mobily who will then utilize their analytical and critical thinking skills to resolve specific problems in the organization. Team building is a common observation in organizations seeking to inculcate teamwork among its employees. An intensive group discussion leads to sharing of knowledge and exposure to new ideas. To apply personalization strategy in Etihad Etisalat Company, this research notes the kind of services provided by the organization. The company has unified access license in up to 15 circles enabling the company to provide full spectrum of communication services to about 900 million customers. Furthermore, the company provides internet telephony, internet access services, and broadband services. Other services provided by Etisalat stretch from national to international telephony solutions, both prepaid and post paid products, roaming and value added services. The analysis of these services proves that the company should focus more personalization strategy whilst codification can be used as the secondary strategy. Since personalization strategy focuses on expertise and innovative thinking of human experts, business process will be in an organic form (Cummings, 2005). This means that expert individuals invite members of an organization into a discussion session with an objective of sharing ideas which could lead to solving a problem. For this reason, there is absence of pre-determined and formalized procedures for identifying, eliciting, representing and authenticating the knowledge objects of processes within a business. The basis of personalization strategy is in provision of communication infrastructure aimed at facilitating exchange of ideas among human resources in an organization. While recognizing the importance of efficient access to information and data, the intention here is to inter-connect people and their ideas. In terms of human resources, personalization strategy supports a view that new college graduates who are able to use their innovative skills ought to be employed so that they could solve technical problems (Hislop, 2003). Such graduates are inventors of new solutions and not implementers of ‘ready made solutions.’ Because of the reality that knowledge is with the human experts, training is done effectively through the following methods: face to face conversation, group discussions and mentoring programs. The strategy supports an idea that individual mastery of problem solving domain must be rewarded so as to guarantee future solutions. Subsequent paragraphs present steps that will be followed by Mobily telecom with an intention of managing knowledge using personalization strategy. Develop expert groups. This team enables professionals to contribute their expertise for the company’s diverse projects. Telecommunication Company can only survive in the market if it is capable of inventing new ideas. Through group discussions and arguments, expert individuals transfer their knowledge and skills to members. Inferences made in group discussions are normally printed and circulated to all members within the company for review and internalization. Human resources can further give their views in form of recommendations. Library is another asset utilized in a personalization strategy. An individual gets access to wide variety of knowledge base that has been stored in form of books, manuals, trade journals, reports and other great ideas. It is through library research that a person is exposed to different forms of shared expert intelligence. Library research further exposes an employee to unexploited knowledge base located in the depth of books. Mobily is at liberty to train its employees on different issues. Managers can appoint departmental representative to attend training session or rather employees are advised to register themselves for trainings in areas that satisfy them. The training program will empower staff and subsequently lead to fulfilment of tasks. After introduction of new telecom broadband modem product, customer service agents are offered rigorous training to expose them to various facets of the product. This is the only way employees gain ability to offer excellent services to customers. Management functions are meetings where an expert speaker disseminates knowledge by deliberating on topics that captures attention of the listeners who in this case are company’s employees. To support interactivity, question and answer session is included in the program. This will facilitate exchange of ideas between experts and audience. While adopting personalization strategy as the primary program, its application will be based on departmental description and problems addressed. Codification is applied as the secondary strategy that will come in handy to support the primary strategy. Even though research indicates probability of tribulations arising from simultaneous implementation of the two strategies, this plan recommends that personalization should be adopted due to the nature of business. The business mainly entails constant process of interaction with customers through telephone and internet services. Ability of the company to invent new and advanced electronic devices will automatically attract more customers. This validates the use of personalization strategy. Codification will apply in a call centre environment where standard solutions are coded with an objective of offering standard solutions to customers in real time basis. A simplified version of codification is where voice solution is saved using standard digits e. g dial 123 for prepaid tariff inquiries. When a customer dials the number he or she is gets an immediate response. Learning loop Apart from deducing Knowledge Management strategies for Mobily Company it is essential to consider nurturing knowledge through a learning organization. In simple terms, a learning organization foresees into the future by facilitating learning and continuous transformation of members (Markus, 2001). This will only happen when learning is made the culture of an organization and can happen through social networking or cognitive study. Garratt’s model demonstrates single loop and double loop learning model. The single loop learning entails offering solutions only while double loop goes further to explain what can be learned from solutions offered (Firestone, 2004). In a bid to cultivate learning spirit within an organization, it must be incorporated in the whole business strategies. This will go along to expose significance of learning in shaping company’s competitive nature in the global economy. Formulation of appropriate policies would help facilitate self motivated learning. Implementation of knowledge management plan The first step when implementing the knowledge management plan is to communicate company’s intention to support the plan. This would go along to clarify the fact that knowledge management should be made part of company’s overall strategic plans. The intended reaction from employees is to take the program seriously by making moves that contribute to success of the business establishment. Personnel to head knowledge management are appointed and will be responsible for all issues concerning knowledge management. The manager is supposed to be an independent employee who is conversant with company’s operations and overall telecommunication industry. In the same vein, all departments must appoint a representative who will work together with knowledge management manager to investigate areas where new knowledge can be generated from. The group will figure out a plan of how to change information into valuable knowledge by carrying out intense analysis of telecom industry. Since the working group has representatives from all departments, the process of codification, integration, storage and transfer of knowledge would be properly carried out. The representatives act as agents for the transfer of knowledge to other employees in a personalization strategy and they will be meeting once every week to evaluate whether employees are receptive to the new knowledge. This frequent inter-departmental meeting plays a role in enhancing multi-perspective approach to handling problems. Brainstorming aspect of personalization is to be executed over the weekend, probably on Saturday, to avoid interfering with daily activities in the company. An example of a brainstorming session is allowing participants to freely share their knowledge on how to improve market niche for the telecom industry. All activities that contributes to successful execution of knowledge management will be appraised every six months and necessary adjustment made. Timelines Communicating an intention to introduce a KM plan. This will involve use of e-mail system and other fast approach to communicate. 1st week Appoint a manager to head knowledge management 4th week Selection of representative into working groups 8th week Preparing the IT department to receive new changes such as codification 12th week Estimation of budgets There needs to be enough funds which will be utilized for the purpose of recruiting new graduates who will fulfil codification process. Other personnel like the head of knowledge management and representatives in the working group are sourced from within the department. They will receive salary increment and allowance as a motivating factor. More personnel will be employed when need arise. Office equipments comprising of computers and other information communication technology accessories will be purchased. Memory banks and software that will accumulate company’s knowledge base is built by the technicians in IT department. It is anticipated that cost of purchasing computer accessories will not be expensive since the company has links with Apple Inc which manufactures and distributes computers. Because of expanded nature of work, administration officers are employed. The following table gives an estimate cost of an expense item. Budget estimates Item Approximate cost $ Graduate recruitment 20,000 Salary increment for head of KM and seating allowance to motivate departmental representatives. 70,000 Purchase of computers and its accessories 150,000 Totals 240,000 Measurement of performance To indicate that project is on right track, the following elements are apparent. I. fast pace of solving problems II. cost of operation and time spent in handling crisis is greatly reduced III. increased telecommunication invention IV. customer appreciation of quality services V. More revenues realized after implementation of the knowledge management plan clearly demonstrates thriving program. VI. Benchmarking will assist the company deduce areas that should be improved in order to be competitive. If the objectives of the plan are not realized within the time limit provided, it is advisable to continuously monitor and adjust the plan appropriately so as to stay focused on original mission of enabling people to develop, grow, and learn. Conclusion This paper gave an actionable Knowledge Management Plan for Mobily Telecom Company situated in Saudi Arabia. The business environment of the telephony firm allows it to use personalization strategy as the primary approach and seconded by codification strategy. In essence, knowledge management guarantees an organization perpetual existence in the competitive world of telecommunication. By utilizing good Knowledge Management plan, Mobily is sure to infiltrates rural markets of Asia and other continent. The company will rise up higher in the world rankings from position 13 to even 2nd as a telecom service provider with a stretch of activities from telephony to internet. Appendix Summary of the plan in phases Phase Activity 1st phase ( 4 weeks) (sharing of knowledge phase) Communicating Establishing knowledge centre Knowledge groups Guidelines Prototype access 2nd phase (4 weeks) defining knowledge Continue communicating, manage the program, knowledge groups Review of business with prototype Examine technical requirements 3rd phase (8 weeks) Implementation of the plan Proceed with communication Development of application Practises for maintenance Establish guidelines 4th Phase (continuous) Rollout of the knowledge program Complete implementation Continuous improvement through evaluation, measurement an communication Procedures to maintain the program Validating data Forming achieve Read More