Rediff link: http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/10km.htm
Abstract:
In a global world, knowledge is very crucial. It provides a basic framework to, connect, collaborate coordinate and communicate in highly complex and competitive market place.
India has done fabulously so far in this era. Thanks to nation’s top notch educational institutions, we have been leading our way into Nirvana in globalization. Going forward it is up to the Indian companies to nurture the very individuals or its employees with training in new technologies, management mantras, concepts and ideologies. In fact many Indian companies do offer a decent career path and comprehensive training programs as well. The only problem in all these training programs offered is that it could be pursued only in India, the so called its off-site employees. But companies fail to impart training and extend support in education to many of the employees working onsite at client’s locations across world. The reason is the cost, effort and management of such a program.
In this article, I would like to provide a solution, which could be adopted by firms to provide a seamless educational framework for its employees globally.
Knowledge Management (KM) has been a predominant trend in business in the recent years. Scaling-up research prototypes to real-world solutions usually requires an application-driven integration of several basic technologies. Typical characteristics to be dealt with are: manifold logically and physically dispersed employees and knowledge sources, different degrees of formalization of knowledge, possible conflicts between local (individual) and global (group or organizational) goals.
Leverage on Open source – No need to re-invent the wheel
Many organizations already have adopted an open source revolution that is questioning if there will be any thing like Intellectual Property (IP) in software.
We have already seen tremendous push towards the open source, where in companies have developed products and services at low cost, efficiently and quickly.
Organizations could leverage the following of open source and develop a seamless knowledge management system, where in knowledge could be imparted to employees all over the world. There are many content management systems (CMS) which offered via open source licensing terms and conditions such as Mambo, Drupal, PHPNuke, DotNetNuke etc., These content management systems are extremely flexible in the sense that it can be customized based on organization requirements.
Another advantage is that the open source contributors for these open source frameworks are very active and vibrant. So any issues with the CMS, the contributors or as I would like to call them “ambassadors” keep plugging away with new features and making it bug free, preparing for deployment on production systems.
Organizations do not need to spend astronomical sum of money to build an employee friendly knowledge management system. More ever, any initiative in open source is good for the community, organization and the entire knowledge ecosystem. Further more, building on the experience, such a knowledge management system portals, will help companies remain competitive and excel in winning key customer accounts.
My advice to the companies is that in a knowledge economy and highly competitive world, we cannot afford to be complacent and ignore the onsite folks. Companies should be able to leverage technologies available and provide a comprehensive training curriculum for both onsite and offshore employees. Such an environment will help organizations manifold. They are
Creates a global knowledge ecosystem for the company.
Helps in nurturing talent and reduce attrition
Transitioning individuals on high worth projects are easier
Transforming average resource to high caliber contributor for future projects in pipeline.
Providing the resources for employees to be highly adaptable for demanding project assignments.
Conclusion
We are in a knowledge economy. Individuals compete with people all over the world. In private sector, it is no longer necessary to belong to any particular race caste or creed. To make a dent to the bottom line of organization and individual’s goals and aspirations, the very basic necessity is to provide the basic requirements. And yes, knowledge management is as important as food, water and air.
In many global companies a comprehensive knowledge management is in place. The draw back is it has to be nurtured by the individuals only in majority of situations. For instance, majority of Knowledge base comprises of employee contribution such as case study, lessons learned of projects etcetera. Sure I am not questioning the premise of a knowledge base, but the reality is not just about lessons learned after math successful projects. What gets documented into a knowledge base is yesterday in most of the organizations. We need knowledge management for tomorrow. It is also about what to anticipate in real projects of today and clients and how to mitigate proactively for unfavorable situations of tomorrow. End of the day, it is all about transforming unfavorable environment to favorable landscape of immense opportunities and exceeding customer expectations in the competitive global world.
A word of caution to Individuals: No matter in what situation you are in. It is imperative that you have to keep pace with the changing global world and remain competitive to survive.
Friday, February 10, 2006
How to think Outside the box - Rediff Article
Abstract:
This article addresses and explains what it means to “Think outside the box”, why it is so important in any industry and how it has helped many industries/companies to transition the business outcome from mediocre to extra-ordinary.
Introduction:
The phrases “Reframing”, “Lateral thinking”, “process improvements, “Thinking outside the box” and many more such phrases, is a very powerful concept worthy of deeper investigation and practice than just another management cliché in today’s complex and dynamic business world.
The world runs on Internet time said former Intel chief Andy Grove in 2001, after the “Webization” adoption and completion by corporate companies’ world over. It is much more important for thinking heads of global companies to have folks on payroll, who can “Think outside the box” to compete against global competitors. In the modern era of highly competitive global environment, apart from the five forces of Michael Porter and three forces of Larry Downes, the key is to have a Out of the box thinking strategy to be successful.
“Thinking outside the Box” à An interpretation with examples
It is never easy to “Think outside the box” nor is it reflection of one’s intelligence. For a given problem, some people tend to explore solutions in the unknown world, which requires creativity, mental toughness, agility and boldness. Often the individual is a leader in true sense, but we do not have to be leaders to think outside the box. Exploring in an unknown world means to investigate the un-walked path, leaving a psychological comfort zone”. It is thinking beyond the parameters of human consciousness and experience - to see beyond the norm, to be a visionary. It means leaving behind frustration, anger, stress, and fear. Can you be creative? Moving the consciousness 'out of the box' to move out of your physical form.
Life is a journey and exploring through the muddle is adventureous. So how do you think outide the box? Well, it all begins with how we think and consider things. I am sure; we were, are and will be trapped in the maze of thinking till mortality strikes human race. The reality of life is that most of the world follows the conventional wisdom. We have been thought to think in routine ways from early days of school. The fear of something abnormal catastrophe makes the world is trapped in matrix or a box.
A liberal, open mind, unconventional wisdom, zeal of being different and an approach to uncover the known in unknown method is like thinking outside the box. One should think beyond barriers of political, economic, social and ego barriers.
An example is when companies bid in application development and services, the lifecycle costs and development time can be reduced by 20-25% if companies can actively participate and adopt opensource framework, libraries and architecture. I don’t see many companies associate the value addition provided by opensource when bidding for projects.
Recently I read in Business week that, GM is trying to hire multiple companies to deliver IT outsourcing services. All big companies, such as IBM, EDS, HP, etc., are competing for approximately 15 billion dollar business. GM no longer has to rely on one single company. The company which has the best strategy to solve GM’s IT services problem could get a major pie. Now GM creating a competition platform and level playing field to deliver the best quality solutions at viable cost structure is thinking outside the box.
Another example as mentioned in killer-apps, Christopher Brennan, the regional manager for British Petroleum's (BP) with the limitations and stagnation in gas station sales, thought an idea, outside the box to install kiosks. The kiosks played an important role in transforming the channel sales. This is thinking outside the box.
Companies spends amazing amount of money, efforts and time to define, develop and implement strategy, but thinking outside the box, if thought in its entirety can be far more successful than strategies, where in it is devised to realize the benefits on long haul
It is much easier to think outside the box
I decided to do some research quite literally. I brought a 42” HD-TV box from my garage into my living room. I tried to put myself and close the lid at the top. After pushing the self-timer button on my camera, I almost fell on my face while trying to get inside the box before the picture was snapped. My conclusion, therefore, is that's much easier, and certainly much safer, to think outside the box.
The need for thinking outside the box
The person at the top feels that the quality of solutions, services or ideas in vogues is not great. This stems from frustration. It also comes from people working in teams who feel that the contribution of others is not helping find new and original solutions to the challenges of the modern world.
Characteristics of Thinking Outside the box
Thinking outside the box requires different characteristics
One should be willing to take new perspectives to day-to-day work.
Capable of thinking different with an open mind and thoughts with some substance and do things differently.
Focusing on the value of finding new ideas and acting on them.
Striving to create value in new ways.
Listening, supporting, nurturing and respecting others when they come up with new ideas.
Out-of-the box thinking requires openness to new ways of seeing the world and a willingness to explore. Out-of-the box thinkers know that new ideas need nurturing and support. They also know that having an idea is good but acting on it is more important. Results are what count.
Conclusion:
In an effort to introduce the concept of Thinking outside the box, I have tried my best to explain in detail the relevance and how it is being used in companies to deliver best in breed solutions. Any company that was, is and will be successful, if they spend some time in nurturing and supporting thinking out side the box ideas.
The best part is, without any limitations, the concept can be introduced in any industry segment, any domain and in any department of an organization.
End of the day, it is not only the Porter’s laws or new terms that is introduced that will drive the economies of the global world, but also the ability to create, nurture and support the concept of “Thinking outside the world”.
I think, it is fair enough to say that, Porter applied the “thinking outside the box” concept to existing strategies and competitive forces to devise his visionary statements. How many of us could do that? My guess is not many.
Simple and quick Puzzle to test your ability of “Thinking outside the box”
You have 9 dots or points, each one spaced away approximately by 2 inches from each other. You have to connect all the 9 points by maximum of 4 lines, without revisiting the dots or points more than once.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Michael Porter, Larry Downes, Nicholas Negroponte and many others who have inspired me to write this article.
This article addresses and explains what it means to “Think outside the box”, why it is so important in any industry and how it has helped many industries/companies to transition the business outcome from mediocre to extra-ordinary.
Introduction:
The phrases “Reframing”, “Lateral thinking”, “process improvements, “Thinking outside the box” and many more such phrases, is a very powerful concept worthy of deeper investigation and practice than just another management cliché in today’s complex and dynamic business world.
The world runs on Internet time said former Intel chief Andy Grove in 2001, after the “Webization” adoption and completion by corporate companies’ world over. It is much more important for thinking heads of global companies to have folks on payroll, who can “Think outside the box” to compete against global competitors. In the modern era of highly competitive global environment, apart from the five forces of Michael Porter and three forces of Larry Downes, the key is to have a Out of the box thinking strategy to be successful.
“Thinking outside the Box” à An interpretation with examples
It is never easy to “Think outside the box” nor is it reflection of one’s intelligence. For a given problem, some people tend to explore solutions in the unknown world, which requires creativity, mental toughness, agility and boldness. Often the individual is a leader in true sense, but we do not have to be leaders to think outside the box. Exploring in an unknown world means to investigate the un-walked path, leaving a psychological comfort zone”. It is thinking beyond the parameters of human consciousness and experience - to see beyond the norm, to be a visionary. It means leaving behind frustration, anger, stress, and fear. Can you be creative? Moving the consciousness 'out of the box' to move out of your physical form.
Life is a journey and exploring through the muddle is adventureous. So how do you think outide the box? Well, it all begins with how we think and consider things. I am sure; we were, are and will be trapped in the maze of thinking till mortality strikes human race. The reality of life is that most of the world follows the conventional wisdom. We have been thought to think in routine ways from early days of school. The fear of something abnormal catastrophe makes the world is trapped in matrix or a box.
A liberal, open mind, unconventional wisdom, zeal of being different and an approach to uncover the known in unknown method is like thinking outside the box. One should think beyond barriers of political, economic, social and ego barriers.
An example is when companies bid in application development and services, the lifecycle costs and development time can be reduced by 20-25% if companies can actively participate and adopt opensource framework, libraries and architecture. I don’t see many companies associate the value addition provided by opensource when bidding for projects.
Recently I read in Business week that, GM is trying to hire multiple companies to deliver IT outsourcing services. All big companies, such as IBM, EDS, HP, etc., are competing for approximately 15 billion dollar business. GM no longer has to rely on one single company. The company which has the best strategy to solve GM’s IT services problem could get a major pie. Now GM creating a competition platform and level playing field to deliver the best quality solutions at viable cost structure is thinking outside the box.
Another example as mentioned in killer-apps, Christopher Brennan, the regional manager for British Petroleum's (BP) with the limitations and stagnation in gas station sales, thought an idea, outside the box to install kiosks. The kiosks played an important role in transforming the channel sales. This is thinking outside the box.
Companies spends amazing amount of money, efforts and time to define, develop and implement strategy, but thinking outside the box, if thought in its entirety can be far more successful than strategies, where in it is devised to realize the benefits on long haul
It is much easier to think outside the box
I decided to do some research quite literally. I brought a 42” HD-TV box from my garage into my living room. I tried to put myself and close the lid at the top. After pushing the self-timer button on my camera, I almost fell on my face while trying to get inside the box before the picture was snapped. My conclusion, therefore, is that's much easier, and certainly much safer, to think outside the box.
The need for thinking outside the box
The person at the top feels that the quality of solutions, services or ideas in vogues is not great. This stems from frustration. It also comes from people working in teams who feel that the contribution of others is not helping find new and original solutions to the challenges of the modern world.
Characteristics of Thinking Outside the box
Thinking outside the box requires different characteristics
One should be willing to take new perspectives to day-to-day work.
Capable of thinking different with an open mind and thoughts with some substance and do things differently.
Focusing on the value of finding new ideas and acting on them.
Striving to create value in new ways.
Listening, supporting, nurturing and respecting others when they come up with new ideas.
Out-of-the box thinking requires openness to new ways of seeing the world and a willingness to explore. Out-of-the box thinkers know that new ideas need nurturing and support. They also know that having an idea is good but acting on it is more important. Results are what count.
Conclusion:
In an effort to introduce the concept of Thinking outside the box, I have tried my best to explain in detail the relevance and how it is being used in companies to deliver best in breed solutions. Any company that was, is and will be successful, if they spend some time in nurturing and supporting thinking out side the box ideas.
The best part is, without any limitations, the concept can be introduced in any industry segment, any domain and in any department of an organization.
End of the day, it is not only the Porter’s laws or new terms that is introduced that will drive the economies of the global world, but also the ability to create, nurture and support the concept of “Thinking outside the world”.
I think, it is fair enough to say that, Porter applied the “thinking outside the box” concept to existing strategies and competitive forces to devise his visionary statements. How many of us could do that? My guess is not many.
Simple and quick Puzzle to test your ability of “Thinking outside the box”
You have 9 dots or points, each one spaced away approximately by 2 inches from each other. You have to connect all the 9 points by maximum of 4 lines, without revisiting the dots or points more than once.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Michael Porter, Larry Downes, Nicholas Negroponte and many others who have inspired me to write this article.
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