Archive for February, 2006

What is the proper method of knowledge management

How can we relate knowledge and what the enterprise needs to know? We collect and organize knowledge on various subjects, keywords, etc. Usually knowledge is available, if someone wants to access. We may get knowledge into the business when there is a routine recurring need like maintaining equipment or selling a product. How can we relate knowledge to development of people and pro-active placement where and when needed.

How do you classify knowledge capital in your corporation

Knowledge is a type of information that is used to support and strengthen human capability for the benefit of the enterprise. Knowledge must be managed to that end. Conventional knowledge management methods enable us to collect and store knowledge but make it difficult to utilize knowledge for benefit.

Knowledge is both human capital and information capital

Knowledge is human capital to provide the needs of human capital to utilize specific performance solutions to produce specific results. Knowledge requires different capabilities from other information to create, manage, and support. Knowledge is also information capital that must be integrated with data, records, and intelligence for utilization.

Enterprises need a systematic way to define the precise knowledge needed, to relate knowledge to the capability of the user applying the knowledge, to link knowledge to where and by whom it is needed, to understand the value provided by knowledge, and to get feedback and improvement on the knowledge.

Result-performance Management (R-pM) shows how to organize and manage knowledge as human capital and to utilize knowledge as information capital

Now, there is Result-performance Management (R-pM). R-pM shows the one integrated method to organize and manage the business to apply the capabilities needed to create and manage knowledge and to integrate knowledge with information capital to produce results. Learn the Basics of R-pM from articles under that category, or join the R-pM community to download information on R-pM.

21^st Century Management eliminates 20^th century problems

Result-performance Management (R-pM) eliminates knowledge management problems and other costly 20^th century problems. Slash overheads and costs, simplify business management, and boost competitive advantage through R-pM, the conventional method for 21^st Century Management.

Download your 21^st Century Management Manual today

Your 21^st Century Management Manual, The R-pM Toolkit, is available today and is under continual development to expand and refine 21^st Century Management. The R-pM Toolkit is offered at a nominal price to encourage wide use of R-pM. Get your R-pM Toolkit, and future updates, at result-performance-management.com. .

What is the value in value propositions, value creation, value chains, value management, and all the other values we hear about?

What is the definition of value in an enterprise? We hear about shared value from business collaboration. What value are we sharing? How do we calculate shared value? Value is good for the salesman hype, but the many definitions and ambiguous usage devalues value.

Is value a business measurement or is it calculated through contrived formulas?

Value is a label that is kicked around a lot and applied to many things. Anyone can talk about value and come up with a definition. We end up with many definitions and methods of calculating the same value. [more...].

Management consultant methodologies are used to implement business change

Many consultants follow strict methodologies for business change services. Experienced professionals, who already have their own way, find it difficult to employ a rote methodology. So the firm uses inexperienced members, who can learn a methodology and follow it faithfully.

But, is the management consultant methodology appropriate?

Is there a particular methodology that is appropriate for each particular change problem? What if the problem is not a precise fit for the methodology? What is changed — the problem or the methodology? Methodologies make it easier to get from one unchanged situation to another changed situation. But, is the changed situation the situation where we want to be?

Methodologies require steps to produce a set of deliverables

Business change management consultants, computer and system implementation consultants, performance and productivity improvement consultants, and even financial and marketing consultants have methodologies for some of their services. [more...].

Investors understand financial and business investment management

Virtually all of us are investors and stakeholders. When we invest, we analyze the investment and know what we expect to see from the investment. When the enterprises we invest in, invest our money, how do they analyze the investment. How do they plan and manage the return on their investment?

The corporations we invest in cannot directly manage investments in their business

Many enterprises simply spend investment funds or invest in hopes of gaining an unsubstantiated return. They are not structured in a way that enables them to plan and manage internal capital development projects, particularly for business change and performance improvement investments.

Corporations can itemize tangible investment costs but cannot itemize the benefits

Conventional methods prevent enterprises from accurately defining the return from investments. They are forced to guess at sales and revenue increases and to input arbitrary assumptions into rate of return or cost-benefit calculations. Many corporations make financial investments in tangible and intangible assets, but only capitalize tangible assets providing an inaccurate basis for investment return and costing.

Corporations need a way to understand the full investment in tangible and intangible assets, to itemize the planned benefits, and to know all operating costs for the investment

Conventional investment analysis and management methods make it difficult for the corporation to know all costs of a business investment, the worth of capital developed, the benefits to provide the return on investment, and the full operating cost incurred in capital operations. [more...].

Business management consultants employ models for process change

Most corporate performance management consulting firms have models and methods they employ for servicing clients. Do these models deliver the value clients should gain? What benefits the client more, a lot of junior consultants following a methodology, or a very capable consultant providing advice and guidance?

Consultants need to minimize risk in management consulting projects

Clients and consultants are caught in a vicious circle. Business management change consultants want to avoid risk so they have removed performance uncertainty in producing deliverables by employing methodologies. But often what is really removed is client value and the deliverable is a contract-satisfying objective. Clients are concerned about man-time and costs, which are easy to understand, without thinking about consultant value, which is much more difficult to understand. We need to reduce the risks undertaken by consultants while improving the value delivered to clients.

Consultants need to increase professionalism to provide client value

Consultants need to change to get back to professionalism and producing deliverables that provide measurable client value. Clients need to change to appreciate the value of capable consultants, rather than managing man-time rates? [more...].

Why do we have the Chief Information Officer (CIO)

All of a sudden, we have lots of chiefs. It used to be the CEO and CFO. Then we added the CIO. But, the CIO presented a problem. Could we find one person, who had the capabilities required to understand business processing, technology, information management, equipment and network operation, and management strategy. Now, we are introducing the CTO for technology, the CMO for marketing, etc. What should be the criteria for having and organizing chiefs? What is the proper role of chiefs?

CIOs need to know information technology, business analysis, and corporate management strategy

This highlights a drawback with the conventional approach, where we add a “solution” to what is in place, rather than rethinking what is needed to really solve the problem. When computers were introduced, it created the need for special capabilities to develop programs and operate centralized equipment, so we set up electronic data processing. [more...].

Information must be created, developed, maintained, accessed, and utilized for benefit

Information must be managed to provide benefit. In business, we have data, knowledge, records, intelligence, intellectual capital, and other information. Are these kinds of information the same, or should different kinds of information be managed differently? What does it take to manage information capture, creation, disposition, access, and utilization? How do we know the benefit in information?

Information is administered rather managed as capital to utilized in performance

Information capital is important for any enterprise. In many enterprises, the base of information is one of their most valuable assets. But, generally, information is not managed as an asset. We have some data management and knowledge management functions, but normally they administer the data and knowledge for availability and access rather than managing the information as an asset for utilization to provide benefit.

Data, knowledge, records, and intelligence must be organized to produce results and managed as an Enterprise Information Base

The answer is to manage information for creation and support by the capabilities needed and to utilize information as an integrated Enterprise Information Base through Result-performance Management (R-pM). R-pM relates enterprise information to specific performance solutions utilized and specific results produced for delivery as specific information capital performance solutions of capital worth. To learn more about R-pM visit result-performance-management.com. .

Corporations have much latent worth in intelligence capital

Business Intelligence has become a big thing the past few years. But, most enterprises do not recognize the latent value of the intelligence potential in the information they have and collect every day. What is business intelligence and intelligence in the business? What is the role of intelligence? What should we be intelligent about? How should intelligence be managed and used?

Intelligence is both management capital and information capital

Intelligence is essential to a developing good strategy and executing the strategy. Intelligence is gained whenever we analyze and draw findings or conclusions from our data, knowledge, and records. Intelligence can not be produced by anybody. Normally intelligence requires someone with good analytical ability. [more...]>

Conventional corporations are not built from strong building blocks

Is there a building block that we can use to construct any enterprise? What are the building blocks we use today: organization units, functions, positions, teams, locations, etc? Do any of these building blocks build a solid foundation for our enterprises?

Conventional corporations build on a variety of organization theories and methods

The conventional foundations of our enterprises are weak. The foundation is based on organization theories and methods that are distorted by managers maneuvering for power. The organization foundation is fixed and inflexible. The business changes but the organization stays fixed, generating pressure for reorganization and another cycle of the same.

Corporations must build up from the fundamental element of the business

We need a building block that can be used to build a fundamentally strong organization for any enterprise, but also provide the flexibility to add and remove blocks for quick change. This requires that we organize the business, so that the organization is a natural organization that changes as part of business change. There will be no more re-organizations, consultant studies, politics and disputes, change management, or the other by-products of the conventional weak organization foundation.< [more...]>

Performance quality is a fundamental concept of Business Process Re-engineering

Many enterprises emphasize quality in their business processes. How does your enterprise define quality? Do you manage the quality of your processes? How do you determine good quality? How do you prevent bad quality in one part of a process from producing bad quality in another part? Should we strive for high-quality performance?

Other quality management methods manage the quality of a final output

I have looked at business processes and attempts to manage quality. Normally quality can be seen in the final output from the process. Methods like Six Sigma may be used to manage defects. Lean Management may be employed for a quality process. These methods have proven value. But they do not necessarily enable us to control quality through a complete process. What about quality outside of production, where these methods are not employed.

Corporations need to manage quality across the corporation

We need a way to understand quality consistently across the whole enterprise, to understand the impact of bad quality, and to isolate problems producing bad quality. We need to understand what actually embodies quality and manage quality wherever it exists.

Result-performance Management (R-pM) manages quality as an attribute of every result produced

The answer is Result-performance Management (R-pM), which identifies and manages every result produced by the enterprise and the performance solutions utilized to produce each result. Quality is an attribute of the result, not performance! Effectiveness is the attribute of performance solutions. Use R-pM to manage effective performance to produce quality results in everything your enterprise does. To learn the basics of R-pM view the Forum or visit result-performance-management.com.>.