ABSTRACT:
Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. is
What Knowledge Management (KM) Means For Bharti
At Bharti, Knowledge Management (KM) is what KM does … for business results and for creating an organizational culture of uninhibited sharing & replication of knowledge.
KM for Bharti is a tool to achieve business objectives faster & better - through an integrated set of initiatives, systems and behavioral interventions - to promote smooth flow & sharing of knowledge relevant to the business and to eliminate re-invention.
Why Bharti
Embarked On A Formal KM Program
KM is not an end in itself. We
at Bharti believe KM effectively deployed can be a
powerful enabler of:
Ø
Consistent
customer experience by reducing variation in performance across business units
or across time
Ø
Speed
in business results by eliminating reinvention
Ø
Converting
individual knowledge into re-usable organizational knowledge – to the
extent possible
Ø
Empowering
each individual employee to leverage the collective knowledge of the entire
organization in serving customers
Key Enablers Of KM At Bharti:
Bharti has seven categories of enablers for KM - strategic focus, alignment with business, KM organization,
KM processes, culture, content-quality and technology. Our initiatives under
each of these categories are described below:
1. Strategic Focus
The biggest enabler is the focus and seriousness of top management and high expectations
from KM. KM ranks number five out of the company’s top ten strategies
identified to achieve the company’s business objectives over the next
three to five year time horizon. KM and its results form part of monthly
business reviews, and of all important management communications. Performance
appraisals at all levels include KM-specific measures. The company has
institutionalized President’s and CEO’s Awards for KM.
2. Alignment with business objectives
According to Mr. Badri Agarwal, President, Bharti Infotel, “KM for us is not fashion, but a serious tool to achieve our business objectives with maximum speed and zero re-invention”. KM and its results form a permanent agenda item on the President’s business reviews with CEOs of each business unit and CEOs’ reviews within their units. Mr. Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Cellular, identified three strategic business imperatives – Customer Delight, Revenue Enhancement and Productivity / Value Maximization. A set of top priority business measures has been defined. It was ensured that each top priority measure maps with at least one of the President’s three strategic imperatives – otherwise, it wouldn’t be on the top priority list. All KM initiatives including knowledge repositories, sharing, replication and communities of experts, are structured around each of these top priority business measures. Our knowledge-map is based on our business process map, and critical measures under each process – which helps us ensure that all KM initiatives are structured and focused around critical business processes. The results of KM are measured in terms of impact on these top priority business measures. Our KM initiative is very clearly focused on (even skewed toward) knowledge replication with quantified and demonstrated results on critical business measures.
3. KM Organization and Roles
Bharti has dedicated KM coordinators centrally and at each business unit. These people act as catalysts in the KM process. They are change agents who bring in and spread the culture of knowledge sharing across the organization. They influence other employees and facilitate the process of sharing and replicating knowledge and measuring the results. We also have communities of experts led by knowledge champions. These are functional experts in each of our critical business processes. They collaborate and promote knowledge sharing, replication and performance improvement in their own area of specialization, with necessary support and facilitation from the KM coordinators.
4. Standard KM Processes
We have defined and are institutionalizing standardized, close-looped processes for knowledge-sharing, replication and measurement of results. Knowledge-sharing and replication that could help improve performance on critical business measures will no longer be a matter of chance or choice, but a mandatory activity like any other business process. Our business leaders are extremely supportive of institutionalizing these KM processes. In fact the demand for such processes came from some of our business leaders.
5. Culture and People Engagement
For creating an organization-wide culture of knowledge-sharing and replication, and to institutionalize KM, it is critical for all employees to engage in KM activities, and not just a fraction of our employee base. To help us keep track of this, we are putting in place a measurement of “employee engagement in KM”. Each month, the percentage of employees in every business unit and in every critical business process who have been part of at least one knowledge submission to the company knowledge base, or a knowledge replication initiative or a knowledge sharing session, will be measured and reported. This will be included in regular business reviews. Our target is to have 40% employee engagement in all directly customer-impacting processes within a year and 80% within two years. We also use employee communications, posters, weekly “did you know…?” emails and other media to create curiosity, excitement and awareness about KM among all employees.
We have a knowledge-dollar (K$) scheme under which employees earn points or K$s every time they share new knowledge in the company
knowledge base or every time they replicate or apply knowledge shared by
others. This and similar reward and recognition schemes have been institutionalized
at the level of individual employees, functional heads and business units. The
objective of these schemes is to create interest, excitement and motivation
among people, and ensure that early adaptors get high visibility so that they
serve as role models for others. We have a KM orientation-training module to
which existing and new employees are exposed.
All employees are encouraged and given rights to submit content to company
knowledge repositories. Initially, we were deliberately not over-stringent
about quality of content submitted, and would publish most submitted content.
It is important to encourage employees to make more submissions and create a
culture of free knowledge sharing in the organization. We believe the initial
phase of culture-building, and of encouraging free knowledge flow, has largely
been achieved in the company. This phase lasted about eighteen months. The
“quality screws” are now being gradually tightened – as
described in the next point.
6. Quality of Content in Knowledge Repositories
Quality of content is ensured in two steps. First, all content submitted is
scanned by a member of the KM team to ensure relevance to the business, quality
of documentation and adherence to standard KM formats. The content then goes to
the knowledge champion and community of experts who “own” the
concerned knowledge repository. They finally review and approve content for
publishing, or edit or reject it if required. Having standard documentation
formats for knowledge sharing, replication and knowledge-sharing sessions helps
us maintain quality and objectivity of content. These standards are also part
of the KM orientation training, which a majority of our employees have gone
through.
7. Technology Enablement
For us, KM is not about technology or IT. However, we have deployed technology as a powerful enabler for KM. Our Knowledge Portal Gyan Bharti on the corporate Intranet is a common virtual platform for all employees to share knowledge and replication. It contains repositories of re-usable organizational knowledge structured around critical business processes. It helps us to knit experts in each of these processes into communities, and facilitates collaboration among members of these communities. The KM portal has automated workflows for knowledge submission, approval and publishing. It also automatically allots K$ to employees, and lets them check their K$ balance and transactions.
Measuring The
Impact Or Results Of KM
As emphasized earlier, for Bharti, KM is what it does for business results. We measure the results of KM in terms of its impact on critical business measures. The impact of each knowledge replication on a business measure is captured and documented. We have a simple standard format for documenting replications. The format includes the quantified impact of the replication on a business measure. During the last year, over 1,500 knowledge submissions by employees were published on the KM portal. Each one of these was from an internal or external source, and screened for relevance to at least one critical business process before publishing. During the same period, over 450 of these submissions were applied or replicated by at least one other business unit within the group – which means a replication rate of 30%.
Here are two examples of sample business results:
Ø One replication enabled a business unit to reduce customer complaints related to bills not being received by customers (a critical business measure) from 4.2 complaints for every 100 customers each month to 0.74. This was done by taking best practices from a knowledge submission from another unit published through KM and replicating these
Ø Another replication enabled a business unit to reduce its technical faults (another critical business measure) from over 20 faults for every 100 customers each month to under 4 faults within a two month period.
Almost every one of the 450 replications completed so far has a similar story to tell about direct quantified improvement in a critical business measure.
Critical Factors Responsible For
Institutionalization Of KM At Bharti
While many enablers have been discussed above, the biggest factors responsible for results, institutionalization to date, and future sustenance are:
Ø High expectations and seriousness of top management. The alignment of performance appraisal systems at all levels to include KM-specific measures and including KM performance as a regular agenda item on business reviews reflect this seriousness. At Bharti, KM is not a fad, but is a serious tool for business excellence.
Ø Constant focus on hard business results, without losing sight of the culture angle.
Ø Standardized close-looped processes for knowledge sharing, replication and measurement of results.
About The Author
Arun Hariharan is a Knowledge Management, Quality and Performance Management practitioner. He is Senior Vice President – Knowledge Management at Bharti Cellular Ltd. (www.bharti.com). He can be contacted at arun_hariharan@rediffmail.com.