Various Approaches to KM Strategy - Assignment Example

?Laura Ashley Is A Global British Iconic Brand. With Reference To Knowledge Management Strategies and Effective Use of Technology Evaluate the Role of Knowledge Management in Laura Ashley Achieving Competitive Advantage Table of Contents Introduction 3 Knowledge Audit Link to Strategy 4 Codification 4 Personalisation 5 Various Approaches to KM Strategy 6 Competitive Intelligence 6 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 9 Technology 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Bibliography 16 Introduction Knowledge Management (KM) primarily refers to an idea where the most essential resources of an organisation provide suitable knowledge to its employees in terms of operational activities. Through the application of KM, an organisation can enhance its performance by creating new knowledge as well as sharing it amid all levels of employees along with utilising that knowledge which in turn ensures effectiveness within overall organisational performance. Through KM, knowledge is appropriately distributed among every member of the organisation in order to enhance knowledge based productivity (Henczel, 2000). Contextually, it has been observed that since the past few decades a majority of the organisations have begun to emphasise on managing workforce in order to survive in a rapid changing competitive environment. KM primarily focuses on this accelerated changing environment through which organisations can transform their entire activities into ‘knowledge work’ and all of its employees into ‘knowledgeable workers’ (Uriarte, 2008; Fao, 2013). Laura Ashley plc is considered one of the leading United Kingdom based organisation whose operations are primarily based on dealing with designing, distributing, sourcing and selling of apparel items, accessories as well as home furnishing products. In the UK, the company operates with over 211 stores in which 134 stores deal with selling activities of various product categories, 54 home stores operates under home furnishing and accessories products and 21 stores act as a gift as well as clearance outlets (Laura Ashley, 2013). The essay intends to discuss the aspect regarding the way Laura Ashley implements KM strategies in order to attain competitive advantages. Additionally, this essay intends to delineate regarding the various approaches of KM strategies which Laura Ashley execute and follow in order to enhance its overall operational performance. Knowledge Audit Link to Strategy Codification Knowledge audit is considered as a systematic and strategic approach towards the dimension of KM by which managers obtain an opportunity to incorporate its diverse operational activities within their organisation. Knowledge audit facilitates to bring efficiency within the productive procedures and also assists to share valuable knowledge amid the internal as well as external shareholders (Botha & Boon, 2003). With the help of well-developed knowledge audit strategies, an organisation can be able to identify suitable strategic directions in order to improve its knowledge based productivity. The objective of this strategy is to influence an organisation to maintain collaboration, coordination and make more consistent approach towards its goals (Hansen & et. al., 1999; Janicot & Mignon, 2012). In order to understand the role of knowledge codification, it is necessary to evaluate the attributes of the strategic options which are primarily implemented by Laura Ashley. With the aid of the KM strategies, the company can improve its work performance and also identify the sources of competitiveness. By emphasising on knowledge codification strategy, the company’s Information Technology (IT) and Research & Development (R&D) departments play an imperative role for sharing the knowledge production information by which it can instantly access and distribute valuable knowledge amid its team members (Che Pa & et. al., 2012; Laura Ashley, 2013). Laura Ashley has primarily adopted and follows two major knowledge audit strategies i.e. codification and personalisation which helps the company to improve its interpersonal communication system as a source of valuable information in terms of its products and services. On the basis of these two strategies, the company is able to take decisions regarding its resource allocation, operational activities, employment engagement strategies along with understanding the trends of its business portfolio. Additionally, through these knowledge audit strategies, the company is able to disseminate its knowledgeable information in the form of internal database network. Knowledge codification is considered as one of the vital aspects in order to create a unique KM strategy. Through codification strategy, the company is able to identify the suitable knowledge which is required in order to distribute valuable information among every level of employees. In this regard, it has been viewed that Laura Ashley utilises knowledge codification in order to create as well as improve the cognitive value of its services. Through knowledge codification, the company is able to maintain a consistent level of interpersonal communication amid its employees and also build strong relationships with its clients and stakeholders. In order to implement knowledge codification strategy, the company strategically maintains mutual relationship among its employees by which it is able to disseminate its knowledge information within the entire operational environment (Venkitachalam & et. al., 2003; Laura Ashley, 2013). Personalisation Personalisation generally emphasises upon the tacit as well as implicit knowledge of particular employees and it is concentrated on sharing suitable knowledge essentially through direct or face-to-face interaction among the staff members within the organisation. In terms of personalisation, Laura Ashley primarily focuses on informal-knowledge sharing strategies through internal networking system in order to deliver analytical advice to the employees. In order to utilise personalisation knowledge, the company’s IT department plays an imperative role for connecting employees through transferring or sharing of valuable knowledge so that they can improve their performance on the basis of that particular knowledge information. Moreover, the personalisation approach does not entail the distinction between knowledge and the knowledge providers, it primarily emphasises upon the aspect that knowledge should be shared or transferred through face-to-face interaction. Additionally, with the help of personalisation strategy, Laura Ashley is able to resolve various issues which are associated with the low-level of employee performance by establishing interactions with individual employees in order to follow knowledge based performance. In order to develop unique competitive strategies, personalisation approach facilitates the company to deliver creativity products and assist employees to deliver precise analytical advices in order to resolve high level strategic issues. By following personalisation approaches, the company is able to facilitate conversation and also exchange of tacit knowledge among the every level of staff members (Venkitachalam & et. al., 2003; Laura Ashley, 2013). Various Approaches to KM Strategy Competitive Intelligence Competitive Intelligence (CI) primarily deals with assimilation, selection and comprehension of ‘publicly-held’ information that focuses upon the competitors’ position, intention, strategic capabilities and performance. Additionally, CI is considered as a systematic procedure that helps organisations to understand and to transform as well as to spread information throughout the overall operational system regarding competitors and customers as well. Through CI, Laura Ashley can obtain reliable, specific and functional strategic knowledge in terms of market evolution, business opportunities and threats (Taib & et. al., 2008; Laura Ashley, 2013). Figure: Competitive Intelligence Framework Source: (Albescu & et. al., 2008). Through the utilisation of CI, the marketing department of Laura Ashley strategically assimilates functional knowledge information regarding the external business information which helps the company to adopt unique strategic decisions as per the business situations. Moreover, with the help of CI, Laura Ashley is able to identify its competitors’ business positions, product offerings and service delivery approaches on the basis of which the company is able to re-structure its internal operational procedures in order to deliver instant responses to its potential competitors (Albescu & et. al., 2008; Laura Ashley, 2013). It has been observed that the UK retail market is quite competitive, where competitive activities are continuously increasing along with new product offerings. In order to obtain this essential information regarding competitors, a majority of the firms have emphasised as well as invested on its CI department. Contextually, through CI, Laura Ashley obtains valuable knowledge information in terms of market functions i.e. its competitors’ performance, customers’ demands along with determining its future business performance. Moreover, with the help of CI, Laura Ashley transforms its raw materials into knowledge intelligence by which the company strategically supports to its business decision procedures. Through CI, it obtains suitable external business information by evaluating its competitors’ annual reports, taking customers’ feedbacks, assessing supplier activities and conducting various trade show activities among others. By implementing CI techniques, the company systematically as well as ethically assimilates and monitors along with distributes external business information within the overall department. In this way, it is able to make appropriate strategic decisions, develop accurate operational plans and also improve its strategic business model. It has been observed that the company primarily utilises CI for bringing in efficiency towards its marketing and functional department in order to attain competitive position as compared to its closest competitors. Furthermore, it has been observed that CI plays a significant role through which Laura Ashley attains competitive advantage by enhancing the quality of information, bringing efficiency towards its decision making procedure, strategically enhancing its operational procedure, increasing organisational effectiveness and also through identifying potential business opportunities as well as threats (Taib & et. al., 2008; Laura Ashley, 2013). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) With regard to KM strategy, CRM primarily emphasises on managing relationship between an organisation and its prospective customers. Contextually, CRM implies that in order to manage customer relationship, it is necessary to administer knowledge for the customers, knowledge about the customers and knowledge from the customers. In this context, KM and CRM approaches both emphasise upon the distribution of essential knowledge towards the supportive activities of the business in order to gain competitive advantage. KM plays a vital role as a service provider of CRM by managing four knowledge aspects i.e. content, collaboration, competence and composition which are also known as 4C’s of CRM (Manaves, 2011). CRM is considered as a strategic concept that facilitates an organisation to deliver unique services to its individual potential customers. CRM facilitates Laura Ashley to personalise their services which are specifically demanded by the customers by which the company creates its new market opportunities. In terms of KM strategy, CRM approaches aid the company to enhance its knowledge support in order to develop customer oriented business activities. Through CRM activities, Laura Ashley strategically emphasises upon its overall business process i.e. marketing, sales and services as per the customers’ changing demands or preferences. Additionally, the company’s CRM process primarily focuses on two aspects i.e. knowledge intensity and operational complexity. In relation to knowledge intensity, it always follows and utilises the acquired knowledge which is obtained from customer feedback and by supplier information. In terms of operational complexity, the company utilises huge amount of necessary knowledge in order to implement overall CRM process in an efficient manner. In order to maintain strong relationship with the customers, it strategically makes use of the customer knowledge in every aspect of its operational activities. The company generates this customer knowledge by directly interacting with the customers and by exchanging information in between the organisation and the involved customers or stakeholders (Gebert & et. al., 2002; Laura Ashley, 2013). For obtaining suitable and precise knowledge from the customers, Laura Ashley implements CRM technique on the basis of three systems which include operational CRM, analytical CRM and collaborative CRM. In relation to operational CRM, the company is able to bring efficiency within its CRM business procedure by incorporating sales activities and marketing activities with customer feedbacks in terms of products and services. In terms of analytical CRM, the company systematically manages and assesses the knowledge of the potential customers in order to gain a better understanding regarding each and every customer towards its offered products and services. Moreover, through this system, the company is also able to control its warehousing activities and manage data mining solution in an efficient manner. By considering collaborative CRM, the company efficiently manages and synchronises customer information through varied communication channels such as telephone, e-mail and webpages among others (Gebert & et. al., 2002; Laura Ashley, 2013). Technology In order to bring more efficiency within KM production, Laura Ashley continuously invests on its IT department, R&D department and various other innovative technologies that facilitate the company to attain its business objectives. At present, it is continuously investing to develop its website i.e. lauraashley.com in order to identify its new potential customers as well as improve the existing customer experiences. The company’s website is considered as an online store by which it directly interacts with its customers and delivers necessary products and services as per their requirement. Moreover, the company has also developed its website with the integration of offering pertinent information through blogs where people all over the world can share their ideas, product preferences and suggestions which are utilised by the company as knowledge information. This websites is considered as an online virtual scrapbook where the company shares thousands of images and videos in order to deliver knowledge information to its customers around the world (Levy, 2009; Laura Ashley, 2013). Additionally, the company also utilises several social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest in order to promote products as well as services and also take feedbacks from the people all over the globe. Additionally, in order to gain more valuable information, the company also follows decor8blog website where it shares its product information, work experiences and information about the new product launching in order to influence the people across the globe. Apart from these, it also renders its participation in various social networking sites by making its own webpages in Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. By utilising these social media technologies, the company shares, exchanges and obtains invaluable knowledge information among the employees and the people throughout the world (Laura Ashley, 2013). Conclusion From the overall discussion, it has been observed that KM plays an imperative role through which an organisation can enhance its performance, productivity and operational efficiency on the basis of knowledge resources information. Through KM strategies, a company can influence its staff management in order to perform efficiently and become more competitive as compared to its rivals. Additionally, with the help of these strategies, an organisation can share and exchange knowledge information within the internal working environment through which its employees can improve their performances and also increase the overall productivity on the basis of the derived information. Moreover, from the above discussion, it has been also viewed that Laura Ashley is one of the leading UK based fashion retail companies which strictly follows the KM strategies in every aspect of its operational activities by which the company is able to deliver knowledge based products and services to its potential customers. Additionally, the company implements knowledge audit strategy by which it obtains knowledge information from its customers and disseminates that knowledge amid every level of employees in order to attain competitive advantages. References Albescu, F. & et. al., 2008. Business Intelligence & Knowledge Management: Technological Support for Strategic Management in the Knowledge Based Economy. Revista Informatica Economica, Vol. 4, No. 48, pp. 5-12. Botha, H. & Boon, J. A., 2003. The Information Audit: Principles and Guidelines. Libri, Vol. 53, pp. 23-38. Che Pa, N. & et. al., 2012. A Survey on Approaches in Knowledge Audit in Organizations. Asian Transactions on Computers, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 1-8. Fao, 2013. What Is Knowledge Management? ABC of Knowledge Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/knowledge/docs/ABC_of_KM.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Gebert, H. & et. al., 2002. Towards Customer Knowledge Management: Integrating Customer Relationship Management and Knowledge Management Concepts. The Second International Conference on electronic Business, pp. 1-12. Hansen, M. T. & et. al., 1999. What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review. [Online] Available at: http://www.itu.dk/~kristianskriver/b9/Whats%20your%20strategy%20for%20managing%20knowledge.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Henczel, S., 2000. From Information Management to Knowledge Management. The Information Audit as a First Step towards Effective Knowledge Management: An Opportunity for the Special Librarian. [Online] Available at: http://forge.fh-potsdam.de/~IFLA/INSPEL/00-3hesu.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Janicot, C. & Mignon, S., 2012. Knowledge Codification In Audit And Consulting Firms: A Conceptual And Empirical Approach. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Vol. 10, pp. 4-15. Laura Ashley, 2013. Corporate Information. About Laura Ashley. [Online] Available at: http://www.lauraashley.com/about-laura-ashley/corporate-information/page/corporateinformation/ [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Laura Ashley, 2013. Annual Report 2012. Corporate Information. [Online] Available at: http://www.lauraashley.com/content/ebiz/lauraashley/resources/docs/Annual_Report_Jan_2012.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Laura Ashley, 2013. Laura Ashley: Pinterest Tips. Home. [Online] Available at: http://blog.lauraashley.com/at-home/ Accessed March 05, 2013]. Levy, M., 2009. WEB 2.0 Implications on Knowledge Management. Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 120-134. Manaves, P., 2011. Fast Strategy of Knowledge Management (KM) in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) of Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/july_dec2010/pdf/P_01.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Taib, K. M. & et. al., 2008. Knowledge Management and Competitive Intelligence: A Synergy for Organizational Competitiveness in the K-Economy. Communications of the IBIMA, Vol. 6, pp. 25-34. Uriarte, F. A., 2008. Introduction to Knowledge Management. ASEAN Foundation. Venkitachalam, K. & et. al., 2003. Supporting Knowledge Strategy in Consulting Organizations: Codification, Personalization or Both. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2003/papers/modern-business/207.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2013]. Bibliography Gottschalk, P., 2005. Strategic Knowledge Management Technology. Idea Group Inc. Geisler, E. & Wickramasinghe, N., 2009. Principles of Knowledge Management: Theory, Practices, and Cases. 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