Knowledge Management Strategy: what do we mean by strategy?

In early decade there was a discussion on the subject Knowledge Management. The outcome of this discussion was, if the organisation has to survive in the modern Knowledge Era they have to have strategy for managing and leveraging value from their intellectual assets, and many KM lifecycles and strategies were projected. (Haggie and Kingston, 2003)

A KM strategy is a general, issue-based approach to defining operational strategy and objectives with specialized KM principles and approaches (Srikantajah and Koenig, 2000)

Strategy is all these—it is perspective, position, plan, and pattern. Strategy is the bridge between policy or high-order goals on the one hand and tactics or concrete actions on the other. Strategy and tactics together straddle the gap between ends and means. In short, strategy is a term that refers to a complex web of thoughts, ideas, insights, experiences, goals, expertise, memories, perceptions, and expectations that provides general guidance for specific actions in pursuit of particular ends(Nickols, F., 2000)

To my view Knowledge Management Strategy is a way to identifying process in the organisation, which can best influence its knowledge resource. In an organisations point of view, if they define an appropriate definition to Knowledge Management Strategy they will have a clear picture ahead. This can further help in knowing the organisation in better way and prioritize the knowledge management tools and its approaches in order to support long term plans.

Further going ahead with the topic, Kimiz Dalkir (2005) explains the road map of knowledge management strategies by considering the following points,

1) Knowledge Audit
My perception behind knowledge audit after going through the authors book is Knowledge Inventory within an individual or a group need to be audit as to be on the right track, He considered the view of Skyrme who says,
“A knowledge audit is often carried out in conjunction with a knowledge management
assessment, which provides a baseline on which one can develop a knowledge management
strategy”(Skyrme, (2001))
After studying on Audit Knowledge, I think it is a serious study of Knowledge Management in the organization. Audit of knowledge helps to clarify the needs of businesses in knowledge and skills, strengths and weaknesses of the company in organizing the flow of knowledge, threats and risks of loss of knowledge, as well as new ways to improve knowledge management.

2) Gap Analysis
“The Strategy is used to define a plan of action by undertaking a gap analysis”. Kimiz Dalkir (2005)
But my view on Gap Analysis is, it is a part of Knowledge Mapping Process where I agree on the facts from KM WIKI say’s “Knowledge mapping is data gathering, survey, exploring, discovery, conversation, disagreement, gap analysis, education and synthesis.”(kmwiki, knowledge mapping)

Failure of KM Strategies (Andrusenko, T. (2007))

According to Andrusenko, T. (2007) following are the reasons due to which there is an failure of KM strategies and I completely support this failures,

1) Lack of support for top management of the company.
Effective implementation of CM requires much more than mere information technology. The first necessary change in corporate culture, starting with the leaders of the enterprise. That is, they must first begin to implement KM in their practice.

2) Underestimating the potential benefits and costs.
How much will it cost and what return on investment? - They should be asking at the outset. High expectations as well as the lack of methods for estimating project costs may lead disappointment. Although this requirement at the level of common sense, many companies neglect these estimates.

3) Inadequate technology support.
Consultants advise companies to protect their investment in KM projects also through the careful choice of supporting information technology based on proven standards and software.

4) Bad planning and lack of clear criteria for assessing effectiveness.
We recommend that you devote sufficient time to determine the points of the plan and all the necessary requirements for its security, including the identification of business goals, return on investment, technological requirements, development of a pilot project, and evaluation of results.

Note: The above Article of (Andrusenko, T. (2007)) is not in English format so I have publish his ideas by translating.

Reference
1) Haggie, K., and Kingston, J. (2003). Choosing Your Knowledge Management Strategy. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, June 2003. Available: http://www.tlainc.com/articl51.htm [2/10/2009,2009]
2) Srikantajah, T., and Koenig, M. (2000). Knowledge management for the information professional. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
3) Nickols, F., 2000, strategy: definitions and meaning. Available: http://home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm [2/11/2009, 2009]
4) Skyrme, D. (2001). Capitalizing on knowledge: from e-business to k-business. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
5) Kimiz, D. (2005). Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice, Pg No. 247-259.
6) Kmwiki, knowledge mapping. Available: http://kmwiki.wikispaces.com/Knowledge+mapping [2/11/2009, 2009].
7) Andrusenko, T. (2007). KM Strategy in Organisation. Available: http://www.knowledgeboard.com/item/2849/pg_dtl_art_news/pg_hdr_art/pg_ftr_art [2/11/2009,2009]