Crafting a Knowledge Strategy

Telephone: (Australia) +61 3 8300 0747 email: Abstract Knowledge strategies are often inflexible and unable to cope with the emergent properties that characterise the complex and dynamic environments of the ‘knowledge age’. Knowledge strategy should encompass (i) actions that are intended to result in anticipated business outcomes; and (ii) actions that emerge as a result of the many complex activities that are undertaken within an organisation. This paper describes an approach to designing a knowledge strategy that encompasses both of the above elements. The proposed approach has three parts that work in parallel: (i) a knowledge framework; (ii) a knowledge environment; and (iii) knowledge initiatives. The paper provides an overview of the proposed knowledge strategy design, describes each part separately, and combines them to provide an integrated approach that allows the theory, techniques, and tools of knowledge management to be used effectively in improving business outcomes. Introduction Most knowledge-management practitioners share a common view on the theory and practice of ‘strategy’. Strategy, it is generally agreed, is a plan to be executed in the future to achieve specific objectives. However, this view of strategy is limited and potentially dangerous because it obscures the rich and paradoxical nature of the wider concept of strategy, and it can result in significant opportunities and danger signs being overlooked. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998, p.9) have encapsulated the paradox of strategy with the following observation: Ask someone to define strategy and you will likely be told that strategy is a plan, or something equivalent—a direction, a guide or course of action into the future, a path to get from here to there. Then ask that person to describe the strategy that his or her own organization or that of a competitor actually pursued over the past five years— not what they intended to do but what they really did. You will find that most people are perfectly happy to answer that question, oblivious to the fact that doing so differs from their own definition of the term. Strategy, therefore, should be viewed as a combination of: (i) the actions that are intended to result in anticipated business outcomes; and (ii) the actions that emerge as a result of the many complex activities that are undertaken within an organisation. This paper