KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM):
COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES AND
TECHNOLOGICAL SKILLS

Volume 10, Number 2                   September 2003

GEN3 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR QUALITY OF LIFE (QOL)

     Burns (1978) described transformational leadership as focusing on ethical issues to appeal to moral values to mobilize energies and resources to transform institutions.  Design of "Electronically Networked Enterprises" with Virtual Communities Of Practice (VCOP) is essential for leadership in an era of globalization.  Dimensions  of transformational leadership are discussed elsewhere in KM

RISE OF A NEW BREED OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO)

The age of the imperial CEO is waning. In its place, a crop of new CEOs - humble, team building, highly communicative - are rising. CEOs mentioned in the article are: 
Art Collins, CEO of Medtronic                        http://www.medtronic.com
Jeff Immlet, CEO of General Electric               http://www.ge.com
Christine Jacobs, CEO of Theragenics             http://www.theragenics.com
Harry Kraemer, CEO of Baxter International      http://www.baxter.com
Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors *          http://www.gm.com 
Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS                              http://www.ugs.com
Joe Galli, CEO of Newell Rubbermaid                http://www.newellco.com
John Edwardson, CEO of CDW                       http://www.cdw.com
Mark Frissora, CEO of Tenneco Automotive      http://www.tenneco-automotive.com
John Hammergren, CEO of McKesson              http://www.mckesson.com
* See Holstein, William J (June 2003). Big Man, Big Hurry. Chief Executive, 189, 26-32. 

Martin, Justin (August/September 2003). Rise of the New Breed. Chief Executive, 191, 24-29. http://www.chiefexecutive.net

THE FLEXIBLE CORPORATION: HOW CEOs CAN DO MORE FOR LESS

     Roughly 10 years after the Internet first appeared on the radar screen as a possible commercial tool, its influence on the ways companies structure themselves  is finally becoming clear.  It is now possible to identify processes - from claims processing to call centers to bill collection - that can be pruned out of a company's bureaucracy and transferred to third parties operating in destinations thousands of miles away.                                                  A must read article

Pellet, Jennifer (August/September 2003). The Flexible Corporation: How CEOs Can Do More For Less. Chief Executive, 191, 24-29. http://www.chiefexecutive.net 

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 

     It's a good news/bad news story. The BI industry is poised for a giant leap forward. The bad news is, many of the incumbents are going to be left behind. 
     In its first 10 years, BI evolved from a replacement for mainframe reporting to the essential tool for disseminating and analyzing information. In that same time period, the dramatic expansion of data warehousing, combined with the widespread adoption of enterprise solutions such as ERP and CRM and the overall increase in computer literacy fueled the expansion of BI demand and BI companies.  Today, most of the leading tools are in release 6 or 7,… 

Raden, Neil (September 1, 2003). Stepping Up BI Expectations. Intelligent Enterprise, 6(14),  22-26,46. http://www.IntelligentEnternrise.com
Also, mine one of IE's "Communities." 

IntelligentEnterprise.com contains five online communities of interest to professionals: 
Intelligent BPMcom.       Business Performance Management. 
IntelligentCRM.com.       Customer Relations Management. 
IntelligentEAI.com.        Enterprise Application Integration. 
IntelligentERP.com.        Enterprise Resource Planning. 
IntelligentKM.com.         Knowledge Management. 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: THE NEED TO KNOW 

     This just in from the Knowledge Management front: Whatever your company is doing in this area, and it probably should be doing something, don't call it knowledge management. 
     Many people take a rather dim view of that term.  OK, let's not mince words: Knowledge management might as well have promised to wash the dishes and mow the lawn for all the hard business benefits many companies believe they've gotten from it. Yet even as they ditch the baggage-laden nomenclature, companies are moving ahead with IT -enabled initiatives to better gather and share expertise and data that lives within their organizations. Half of companies in  Information Week Research's second-quarter Priorities survey list knowledge management as a top technology priority. What they're doing is toning down the pie-in-the-sky initiatives of yesteryear into simpler, more focused business strategies, enabled by… 
     Raytheon Co. is an example of a company tackling a classic knowledge-management problem with an emphasis on using information, not just collecting it. 
     Raytheon Six Sigma, ..., is designed to make the reuse and sharing of knowledge the first and last steps in any process. To ensure that there are leaders evangelizing that approach, the company designated business unit "knowledge champions" and created steps that 
     Raytheon is also encouraging "communities of practice" built around... specialties. 
     Shell International Exploration and Production discovered the importance of practicality in its approach to knowledge management long before most. The 30,000-person unit of Royal  Dutch/Shell launched a knowledge-management initiative six years ago, but after a year ditched the "knowledge management" label and called the initiative simply "new ways of working," 

Knotzer, Tony (August 18,2003).  The Need to Know.  InformationWeek, Issue 951, 34-44. 
http://www.informationweek.com           http://www.informationweek.com/TC/sw/bizapps

THE RESOURCEFUL 100 CIOs

     After stocks tumbled and earnings slid three years ago, CIOs took steps to rein in technology spending. They let people go, froze salaries, canceled projects, and fired consultants. But those solutions can go only so far before cost-cutting begins to cannibalize essential operations, hurt quality and service levels, and stifle innovation. Tough times demand more than penny-pinching and bullet biting; they require resourcefulness - creativity combined with a commitment to wringing the most value from every IT dollar. From nearly 400 applications, we chose the 100 companies whose resourceful practices have best helped them preserve business- critical IT capabilities and ... invest in new systems to drive efficiency and fuel growth. 

Varon. Elana (August 15,2003). The Resourceful 1 00. CIO, 16(21),30-34. http://www.cio.com Articles through p. 92 highlight excellent IT strategies. An example is below.

HOW TO CREATE AN AGILE WORKFORCE


     Five months after the markets tanked in April 2000, Manpower began to notice less demand for its services. Even as revenue slipped, however, the company's 350-person IT department still had tons of work to do, especially since it was now charged with new projects that would help the company run more efficiently. 
CIO of North American operations Peter Stockhausen and his IT management team responded to the challenge by devising an innovative approach to sharing staff within 1T: a marketplace for allocating workers among various projects. 

Levinson, Meridith (August 15,2003). How to Create an Agile Workforce. CIO, 16(21),65- 70. Alliant Energy, Roadway and Royal Caribbean Cruises are discussed in the article. 

PREPARING GENERATION Z
CIOs say college graduates aren't ready for corporate IT jobs.

     Ask CIOs to give the nation's colleges and universities a report card on how they're preparing the next generation of IT professionals, and they'd respond with a pretty dismal grade. 
     'If I had to grade graduate programs on what they're delivering, I'd give them a B-minus and a C-plus for undergraduate programs,' says George Voutes, enterprise technology programs manager at Deutsche Asset Management Technology, a New York-based division of Deutsche Bank AG. 'We have got to get away from strict programming and systems development,' says Voutes. 'Those are skills to get into the field, but we have to train our technology people to think more like business people and arm them strong communications skills.' 
     A Computerworld survey of 244 IT professionals found that three quarters of them say academia isn't preparing graduates for the IT jobs of today or the next few years. The survey, plus interviews with ClOg indicated that the shortcomings are in business skills, troubleshooting skills, interpersonal communications, project management, and systems integration. 

Hoffinan, Thomas (August 25, 2003). Preparing Generation Z. Computerworld; 37(34),41-42. http://www.computerworld.com

AUTO INDUSTRY PORTAL  COVISINT   KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR

     The Big Three auto makers are finally ready to make Covisint, the business-to-business Web portal they founded three years ago to reach suppliers, the central engine in their e-commerce and messaging system. 
     At last week's Auto-Tech conference, DaimlerChrysler said by year-end it would phase out its private supplier extranet and use Covisint to do business with its 9,000 suppliers. Ford said it intends to use Covisint to exchange electronic data interchange (EDI) orders and design data. And, although GM will continue to use its own SupplyPower Web portal, the company said it expects Covisint to support its most important XML-based priority-messaging and document... 

Messmer, Ellen (September 1,2003). Auto Industry Portal Kicks into High Gear. NetworkWorld, 20(35), 1 and 16.
http://www.nwfusion.com  
http://www.covisint.com

100 SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNERS and MOBILIZING THE SUPPLY CHAIN

     Today's best practices in supply chain management all center on one basic concept: interdependence. Each participant in an extended supply chain has its core competencies. All  must cooperate and collaborate to provide maximum customer satisfaction and to achieve optimal performance for the supply chain as a whole.  http://www.glscs.com

Getting a handle on parts flowing to and from the field is the key to closing the supply chain loop - and streamlining your break-fix organization. http://www.destinationffa.com

SPECIAL REPORT ON OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING: THE POLITICS

     A CIO at a famous Fortune 100 manufacturer has a recurring nightmare: As he continues to layoff American IT workers and move their jobs offshore to places such as India, never to return, American public opinion suddenly swings violently against globalization. He and his company are demonized, and Americans boycott his company's products.

Koch, Christopher (September 1,2003). Backlash. CIO, 16(22), 44~54.  http://www.cio.com

SPECIAL REPORT ON OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING: THE MONEY

     The current stampede toward offshore outsourcing should come as no surprise. For months now, the business press has been regurgitating claims from offshore vendors that IT work costing $100 an hour in the United States can be done foJ; $20 an hour in Bangalore or Beijing.
     In fact, such bargain-basement labor rates tell only a fraction of the story about... 

Analysis of costs in the article include The Cost of Selecting a Vendor, ... of Transition. ... of  Layoffs, The Cultural Costs, ... of Ramping Up, and The Cost of Managing an Offshore Contract. 
 
Overby, Stephanie (September 1,2003). The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing. CIO, 16(22),44-54. http://www.cio.com

HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS MANDATE MOBILE COMPUTING

     They sound more like cartoon characters from a children's fable, but HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and The Leapfrog Group are significant to IT directors in healthcare. Published by the Department of Health and Human Services, HIPAA imposes sweeping standards for the privacy and protection of all electronic information that is linked to individuals. HIPAA affects all health-related organizations in the United States, from one-physician offices to hospitals, insurance companies, and other healthcare organizations.  HIPAA regulations went into effect in April 2003, and companies must comply in the next two years.
     The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of more than 140 public and private organizations that provide healthcare benefits to 34 million customers in all 50 states. A must read article. 

Roddy, Jim (September 2003). Healthcare Organizations Mandate Mobile Computing. Integrated Solutions, 7(9), 66-67. http://www.IntegratedSolutionsMag.com
 

TORN BETWEEN PAPER AND DIGITAL?

University of Louisville Hospital saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by replacing paper processes with document management SAN (storage area network) solutions. 

     What would happen if information about one of your customers got into the wrong hands? Is it possible that your customer's business could be compromised? Could you be sued for letting it happen? What should you do to make sure this doesn't happen? These are the kinds of questions businesses in just about every vertical market are asking themselves - and their attorneys. Small businesses have industry mandates, such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) or ISO (International Organization for Standardization), that force them to meet strict data security and records management requirements. But, even if your business doesn't have such mandates in place, it's wise to consider how the documents and data you capture are stored and retrieved, and by whom. 

McCall, Jay (September 2003). Torn Between Paper and Digital? Integrated Solutions, 7(9), 31- 36. http://IntegratedSolutionsMag.com Also, mine http://www.imrgold.com


THE GLOBAL ENABLED SUPPLY AND DEMAND CHAIN SERIES: PAYMENT

It may not look like it yet, but the financial supply chain is coming together
for many corporations, and things are about to get much more enabled.

     Though the vision for a paperless payment process actually began as early as the 1970s, Corporate America continues to use the paper check as a 'primary means of payment. Automated clearing house payments (ACH) and wire transfers were - and still are - the most widely used systems that reflect some semblance of automation in the financial supply chain. 

Murphree, Julie (August/September 2003). iSource Business, 5(4),26+: www.isourceonline.com   Issue contains The Global Enabled Supply and Demand Chain, Version 6.0

CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT 2003 ELITE

     The September issue of CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT (CRM) cover story lists CRM Leaders followed by The CRM Elite, Influential Leaders, and CRM Market Leaders. http://www.destinationCRM.com

RFID TAGS AND SMART DUST

     A tidal wave of data is approaching the data warehouse that could easily deliver 10 to 100 times more data than we have ever seen. Is this some Big Brother scheme? No, it's an incremental revolution that's been quietly proceeding in manufacturing plants, retail stores, and development labs in many locations. The revolution consists of two related technologies: radio frequency identification (RFID) and "smart dust." 
      RFID is the next generation of bar-coding technology. Instead of a series of bars simply painted on a label, an RFID tag is a miniature electronic circuit. The simplest RFID tag can be packaged in a label very similar to a bar code label. But instead of being scanned by a laser that must "see" the bar code, the RFID tag merely needs to pass near a specially RFID transceiver. The transceiver bombards the tag with invisible radio waves, thereby activating the RFID tag's circuitry which transmits its information back to the transceiver.

Kimball, Ralph (July 18,2003). RFIF Tags and Smart Dust. IntelligentEnterprise, 6(12), 18 and 20.  http://www.lntelligentEnternrise.com

SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL (SIP) PACKS A PUNCH

     SIP has emerged as the undisputed protocol champ in its class,…. Session Initiation Protocol has not only proved it can deliver standard-based VoIP (voice over IP) phone systems, it also has the legs to impact many other technologies involving real-time communications, including instant messaging, presence, 3G wireless and packet over cable. In addition, SIP is  making it a lot easier to add related services to your network, such as voicemail, IVR (interactive voice response) and unified messaging.

Morrissey, Peter (August 21,2003). SIP Packs a Punch. Network Computing, 14(16),29-32. 

Mr. Morrissey follows the above-mentioned article with an analysis of SIP phone vendors: 
Network Computing                             http://www.nwc.com/1416/1416f2.htm
Polycom                                            http://www.polycom.com
Mitel Networks                                   http://www.mitel.com
Siemens                                            http://www.siemensenternrise.com
Zultys Technologies                            http://www.zultys.com
Snom Technology                               http://www.snom.com
SipTone                                            http://www.ipdialog.com
Morrissey, Peter (August 21,2003). Polycom KOs Proprietary VoIP Woes. Network Computing, 14(16), 34-42.   http://www.nwc.com

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT'S TREND SETTING PRODUCTS OF 2003

     KM World's Trend Setting Products of2003 is an outstanding resource. The list contains products for business process management, content management, portals, collaboration, small enterprise suites, document management, and records management.    http://www.kmworld.com  

McKellar, Hugh (September 2003). Trend Setting Products of 2003. KM World, J 2(8), 16-17. "Best Practices in Records Management & Regulatory Compliance" is outstanding.

MOST INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS AWARDS IN SPEECH TECHNOLOGY

     The July/August edition of Speech Technology Magazine highlighted many companies that were selected as Most Innovative Solutions Award winners; a September/October issue describes four of the companies. Several customers will discuss how speech impacted their companies at SpeeckTEK 2003. 
Visit   http://www.speechtek.com   and  http://www.speechteckmag.com

2003 READERS' CHOICE AWARDS

The July 28 issue of Info World contains the Readers' Choice Awards. This 1 ~ year was a close race for Favorite Vendor. Results based on 1,000+ readers are listed for Best Application  Server, Best Enterprise Storage Product & Best Networking Product. http://www.infoworld.com

THE  INTERNET DANGER ZONE 

     The August 25 issue of NetworkWorld contains a series of excellent articles
(a) Who's that knocking at the network door? (b) What do they want? and (c) The ROI of network security. Tel Aviv University's 10,000-node network was scanned for open ports 96,000 times in two weeks from machines in 99 countries. Could this happen to ...?  http://www.nwfusion.com

CHINA: PROFITS AND PERILS

     The story of China's involvement with the outside world was a simple one when I first started covering China in 1979 - it was called the Canton Fair Trade.  This annual trading event in the city, since renamed Guangzhou, was almost the sole point of contact between China and… 

Now, of course, China has exploded economically; its engagement with the world has... In this regional report, Chief Executive presents three snapshots of foreign involvement.... 
Snapshots include:
The eBay of China: Eachnet by Rebecca Fannin
Solid Air by William Holstein, and
A Future in High-Tech also by Rebecca Fannin.

Holstein, William J.(August/September 2003). China: Profits and Perils. Chief Executive,191,30. http://www.chiefexecutive.net

ART AND SCIENCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

     Bums (1978) compared tranactional with transformational concepts and indicated that a few leaders go beyond mere exchange of items related to resources and productivity to ideas that focus on changing followers and organizations. Authors have built upon the distinctions between these two concepts and focused on areas like contextual analysis of external and internal variables, developed instruments to assess individual characteristics and traits, reported on research about stages of organizational development, and summarized the popular press (Nahavandi, 2003). 
      The January issue of KM indicated that "Globally Competitive Communities" and "Wired Communities" led to "Intelligent Communities (ICs)" with Virtual Communities Of Practice. Dubai Internet City (DIC); Ennis, Ireland; and a Florida High Tech Corridor were higWighted but there are many worthy of analysis like Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul, Korea; all ICs have unique features. What art and science transformational leadership competencies and skills are essential to co-create a preferred scenario for Intelligent Communities and Virtual Communities Of Practice (VCOP)? 
     The April issue of KM focused on globalization, e-commerce, knowledge management, and technology for curriculum content, delivery systems and outcomes assessment ideas that could be used to promote Critical Thinking Competencies and Problem Solving Skills. As countries and regions advance in digital era formats, it is essential that best practices be applied elsewhere. How can education leadership integrate transformational leadership competencies and skills into certificate and degree programs, especially for disadvantaged individuals domestically and abroad? How can community, economic, and education collaborate on regional development strategies to assist teacher education integrate business concepts into developmentally appropriate curriculum? 

Bums, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. 

Nahavandi, Msaneh (2003). The Art and Science of Leadership. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

AFRICA and AFRICAN YOUTH FOUNDATION (AYF)

     Africa was highlighted in the August 2002 issue of KM and an E-Commerce presentation made at the annual meeting of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBAA) at which the Ambassador from Ghana to the U. S. was the keynote speaker. AYF conducts programs of great value to children and youth. See August 2003 issue of KM and/or access http://www.ayf.com

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) and OTHER RESOURCES

KM can be accessed and mined: http://www.members.cox.net/greenka6/wgnewweb/wgmenu.html
KM began to include materials used in E-Commerce, international business, and capstone courses for the College of Business at Cardinal Stritch University.  The January through August issues of newsletters included many variables essential in business plan development, domestic and global. 

Comment: I work with individuals using multiple form and style guides with unique variations. Content and leads to sources remain a central focus of KM; consistency to a format is variable. 
Warren H. Groff, 3408 N. 49dt St., Milwaukee, WI 53216-3208, 414-871-1127, groffw@nova.edu