1. Course: MGMT 698 – Information Mgmt
Professor: Donald T. Winski
Student: George G. Goldsmith
Company: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Program: Socrates
Knowledge Management
Fall 1999 Final Assignment Research Paper
December 9,1999

2. Research Method and Approach
BMS Library Literature Search
• 250 articles, Picked 40
• Max Boisot and Dorothy Griffiths’, Possession is nine tenths of the
law: managing a firm’s knowledge base in a regime of weak
appropriability
BMS Library
• Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak’s, Working Knowledge:
How Organizations Manage what they Know
Local Library Search
• Dr. Jim Botkin’s, Smart Business: How Knowledge Communities can
Revolutionize your Company
• Charles Handy’s The Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism: A quest for
Purpose in the Modern World
Knowledge Management 2

3. Problems and Opportunities
Diffusion within the Information Space
Information Life Cycle: The process through Adapted from Max Boisot and Dorothy Griffiths, Possession is nine
tenths of the law
which we learn and how information is
capture and shared. Challenge is in degree Codified
which we can capture tacit — experienced
4
knowledge. MV
5
3
1. Scanning 4. Diffusion
Free Market Paradox: Knowledge economy 2. Problem Solving 5. Absorption
6
3. Abstraction 6. Impacting
2
shift from physical to Intellectual Assets. 1
Necessity of networks, collaboration and Abstract Uncodified
communities. A need for proper selfishness. Concrete Undiffused Diffused
A shift from ownership to investment. A
freeing of intellect through new patentless
paradigms — shoot the rapids and pass GO
Knowledge Management 3

4. Problems and Opportunities
Collaborations and Causal Ambiguity: Associating cause with affect isn’t easy.
What skills do we desire and why? Will we have enough resources? Will there
be to big of a knowledge Gap? How interested are we? How interested are they?
Degree of
Knowledge
Transfer
Ambiguity Specificity
Complexity Experience Organizational Distance
Tacitness
Cultural Distance Protectiveness
Contributing
Factors
Significance
Factors contributing to Ambiguity and the
Effect on Knowledge Transfer
Adapted from Bernard L. Simonin, Ambiguity and the process of
Knowledge Management 4
knowledge transfer in Strategic Alliances

5. Problems and Opportunities
Learning & Innovation: The process of technology innovation likened to the
process of learning. Bridging the Chasm.
Technology Life Cycle Adoption Curve
The Learning Curve
Adapted from Geoffrey Moore, Inside the Tornado
Adapted from Charles Handy's Beyond Certainty
Waning
Waxing Mainsteam
Early Market
Market
The Chasm
En
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Sk
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t
hu
on
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m
t ic
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at
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Knowledge Management 5

6. Alternatives
N-Learners or S Learners: Builders of Dams or White Water Rafting.
Owners or Investors: Short lived companies, consumption of world resources,
underclass revolts — tear gas and rubber bullets in Seattle.
P-Teams and F-Teams: Present and Future Teams supporting and watching out for
each other.
e
urv
Independence or Interdependence: A knowledge economy will require
C
nd
Future Team
interdependence.
co
Se
Technology or Culture: 3M, as a company has
developed a healthy regard for efforts forwarded
e
rv
Present Team
Cu
contrary to management wishes. They have
st
learned that new innovations very well may be
Fir
ideas before their time, but their time may come
Second Curve Thinking
e.g. post-it notes, and scotch guard. Adapted from Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn, Mission
Possible: Becoming a World=Class Organization While There's Still
Time
Knowledge Management 6

7. Recommendations
• Realize what you don’t know and that you know more than
you know.
• Learning is adapting — surviving. The cows need milking
everyday; you’d better be learning everyday.
• Collaboration is life sustaining; share collective leadership.
• Invest today for tomorrow and do not cash in with
tomorrow’s future.
• Implement technology to support collaboration and sharing
— should naturally and seamlessly fit into the way you
work.
Knowledge Management 7

8. What’s Next
• Collaborations today focus on division of intellectual
ownership. Companies will have to share either with
employees or with their collaborators. Their cannot be
hoarding.
• The “Do one thing, and Do it Well” theme will change
hierarchy based companies to membership based networks
— nimble networks forming virtual organizations.
• A need for communities for a true purpose and passion
Knowledge Management 8