Leveraging knowledge for innovation: products and services

Dr. Suzanne ZyngierAssociate Dean (International)Faculty of Business, Economics & Law La Trobe University, Australia

s.zyngier@latrobe.edu.au

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Leveraging knowledge for innovation: products and services

Dr. Suzanne ZyngierAssociate Dean (International)Faculty of Business, Economics & Law La Trobe University

• Progressive change of emphasis from ‘data’ to ‘information’ to ‘knowledge’

• Knowledge has become the primary organizational resource

• Organisations are competing at the product as well as service level

• Good understanding of the market demands produce better competitive advantage.

• This requires constant assessment of “what works and what does not”

WE LIVE IN A KNOWLEDGE ERA

Innovation is not invention!!

Innovation –Originality, newness, freshness, novelty,

improvement, advance, revolution

Invention–Creation, discovery, development,

device, contraption, gadget, design

What is innovation?• Innovation is the process of transforming a

concept or and invention into a product or service that creates value.

• Innovation is the process of transforming a concept or and invention into a product or service that someone will pay for

• Innovation for profit, innovation for a government service, innovation for a social good

Challenge

• Unless you do something with an idea, what good does it do you or your business ??

• Ideas = knowledge

KNOWLEDGE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE -

• “In Post-Capitalism, Power comes from transmitting information to make it productive” Drucker, P. (1964)

• Best practice and competences need to be retained and managed

• New ideas need to be supported where they support the aims and objectives of the organisation.

17

KNOWLEDGE IS AN ASSET

• Most company executives say their greatest asset is knowledge held by their employees

• They also say that they have no idea how to manage this knowledge

THE MODERN BUSINESS IS CHARACTERIZED BY:• Globalization• 24/7 environment• Uniformity in undifferentiated products/services• Highly diversified products/services that

differentiate business initiatives• A radically reduced time to market and time in

market• Ever changing and growing networks of

alliances and partnerships

KNOWING YOUR BUSINESS:• ‘In a post-industrial world, the only thing that

counts in terms of whether you survive is not milk, it’s not butter, it’s not fruit, it’s not oil, it’s ideas’

• » Frank Crowther, cited in Rylatt, 2003

• Knowledge production is expected in addition to the production of physical goods

• BUT “Knowledge production” requires specific conditions to succeed

The world is increasingly complex Corporate communications, social media, ICT, and

print media Work environment is complex due to the massive

increase in the number of subjective knowledge items we need to attend to everyday

Up to 200 emails, faxes, social media items and voicemail messages daily– how do we prioritize?

Expected response time has decreased ICT assists in the challenge of trying to manage this

complexity amidst information overload

21

Knowledge is part of the whole organisational Information System

The research

• Global Survey – methodology• Survey Results• Conclusions

Responses by Region

Northern America20%

Southern America1%

EU29%Asia & Pacific

27%

India & Sri Lanka17%

Africa3%

Middle East3%

Responses by industry sector

ICT26%

Professional services15%

Education and research13%

Government10%

Manufacturing7%

Not-for-profit/community sector

6%

Banking and f inancial services

6%

Consumer goods4%

Healthcare4%

Engineering & infrastructure

3%

Energy and resources3% Hospitality

2%Agri-sciences

1%

Aims in investing in knowledge %

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Improving market share

Identifying new markets

Developing new product/services

Improving efficiency

Improving effectiveness

Pearson Correlation n=218 (two-tailed test) significance 0.355

Techniques used to support knowledge for innovation

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

NarrativeOrg. learning programs

SNAStorytelling

After action reviewStrategies to protect IP

Knowledge brokersCoP: face to face and virtual

Best practice replicationInnovation support

Peer-to-peer knowledge sharingStrategic information management

Facilitated networkingMentoring

Knowledge Techniques

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80Na

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ve

Org

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SNA

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After

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Stra

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Know

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Best

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% use Innovation % use Overall

Knowledge Tools used to support innovation

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Expert systemsData w'house & mining

BlogsWikis

Online forums or list-servSearch and retrieval agents

Instant messagingGroupware

PortalVideo-conferencing

Doc. mgt systemsDocument repositories

Intranet

Knowledge tools

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80Ex

pert

syst

ems

Dat

a w

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Blog

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Wik

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Sear

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Intr

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% use Innovation % use Overall

Conclusions: Leveraging knowledge for Innovation

1. Confirms the link between the priority for organizations in developing new products and services with the strategic alignment of the Knowledge program to that priority;

2. The same strategy is not right for all: in the selection of tools and techniques to support organisational knowledge for innovation;

3. The usefulness of the tools and techniques selected lies in understanding the purpose behind each.

Questions???

Dr. Suzanne ZyngierAssociate Dean (International)Faculty of Business, Economics & Law La Trobe University, Australia

s.zyngier@latrobe.edu.au