KMTALK ASIA

Importance of KM in a Development Organization

Naguib — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:19:59 +0000

KMTALK recently had a brief chat with Dr. Altaf Abdul Gaffar from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the importance of managing knowledge in his institution and in the development sector as a whole. Dr. Altaf has been working in the Operations Planning & Services Department of IDB for the last 4 years. The Islamic Development Bank is a Multilateral Development Bank works towards fostering economic development and social progress in the Muslim world. It has a number of 1000 staff from 63 different nations.

Our first question to him was- How do you see the importance of technology in a development organization like yours?

Altaf: Information Technology (IT) is a key to the operation of a development finance institution. Given the multi-national nature of these institutions, there is a significant IT requirement. (more…)

Enterprise Collaboration- Giants in WAR!

Naguib — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:12:47 +0000

Microsoft and IBM are into the WAR!- the war to capture the enterprise portal market. This year both the companies have launched extra features to embed social networking functions more explicitly in their portal solutions. As identified by many, social networks are now the driver for fresh ideas, which leads to faster decision making, creativity and innovation. Both Microsoft and IBM are in the race-offering new Web 2.0 like features embedded in their portals.

SharePoint 2010 is considered by Microsoft as better, faster, and more secure processes. (more…)

Observe these behaviours.. when your organization is not practicing KM.. (the right way)

Jasmiza — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:00:11 +0000

Your staff stop to complain, they come in and go back on time. They are very quiete in meeting. They do not critique ideas. They just say yes and stay out of trouble.
Your staff stop to complain, they come in late and go back early. They want to be somewhere else. They drive Honda Accord to work and enjoy their vacation.
Your staff oppose on every single change. Either quietly or loudly.
Poor participation in organization activities. Number of turn ups are very low despite of interesting events laid out for them.
Your staff change organization but not job. They even accept offers that is just equal to their current salary. (more…)

Human Capital Strategy is a Joke without KM.

Jasmiza — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:19:08 +0000

When consultants talk about KM or propose a solution for organizations to improve profit margin by practicing KM correctly, the whole vision of the activities laid up for all staff to participate scares top management away. This is what I have encountered last year, for all KM practitioners who have the same experience, do buckle up your seat belt.

Top: I want you to help us to improve our HR, we have been spending too much on training teambuilding and yet, we received more numbers of complaints than increasing profit margin.

Consultant: I see,… well sir, when you send your staff to training, what do you have in mind?

Top: What do you mean?

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Fragmenting KM –2

Naguib — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:25:21 +0000

Social Media, Outsourcing, Downsizing, Lack of trust on tangible deliverables etc etc is making KM more vulnerable as a discipline. Though there is a common understanding among organizations that wider collaboration is crucial for survival, but the role of KM department is getting faded, to my observation. I know of at least 2 big organizations, which cut off their KM department in last year, because of economic downturn. There could be more out there.

The rise of Social media is making knowledge creation and sharing much easier than before. People are creating tons of contents using Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis. May be not all of them are useful, but there are information, facts in there. So, the role of KMers has to be changed. (more…)

Fragmenting KM !

Naguib — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:39:49 +0000

KM is such a difficult discipline to depend on in moving up to a career ladder. I have been working in this field for the past 6 years (in 3 different industries) and I found this field has a huge potential to rise or fall. High chances that it will fall as it is evident that the top management tends to lose interest and commitment towards KM very easily. They want some quick fix, which at many cases, KM cannot deliver.

Out of the three, the only organization that still holds interest and allocates proper resources to do KM is the big Oil Company. (more…)

Capturing knowledge of senior citizens- KM initiative at national level!

Naguib — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:45:03 +0000

I was having a conversation with a well renowned columnist, writer, TV presenter, activist and coordinator of ‘Reading Books’ campaign in Bangladesh during my last visit to Dhaka. He is in his 70s and still very passionate about learning and growth. He was telling me about the new building that his organization (Bissho-shahittro Kendro) is constructing and the facilities it will provide to middle-class young people striving for knowledge. At one point, he mentioned, he is planning to organize a series of interviews with him- to talk about his own life, his work, his vision for the society, issues, opportunities. The vast experienced that he gathered throughout his life would definitely help young people to move forward, to implement some ideas and improve. This series of interviews will be recorded and stored in the organization’s library.

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An afternoon talk on KM in Bangladesh

Naguib — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:56:59 +0000

It was a nice winter afternoon at the Knowledge Center of Bangladesh Brand Forum, where I delivered my talk on Knowledge Management – Sustainable value creation through collaboration and knowledge sharing. A number of 25 people from various companies attended the talk with great enthusiasm and participation. I was amazed to see that majority of the audience came from HR background and not from IT and that to me is a good start to initiate KM in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) is a 2 year old organization intends to guide and council companies to promote their brand. At times, they organize events, award giving ceremony and conferences. The talk was organized jointly by BBF and Future Leaders, a management consulting firm in Bangladesh. The main objective of the talk was to create awareness among corporate professionals in Bangladesh about the concepts and benefits of KM.
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Story of this traveler….

Naguib — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:44:33 +0000

I was waiting at the Singapore Consulate, for the visa application. KM Asia 2009 is the target. While checking out some brochures on Singapore, my eyes got stuck on the wall. An A-4 size paper pasted on the wall, with a story written on it. “There is this businessman from Macca, who wants to travel to China……..he got all his papers and also the visa…..while checking in for flights in the Airport, the immigration officer told him, you cannot travel to China, as your passport doesn’t have 6 months validity. It requires min 6-months validity for you to travel to China…..the man was surprised and asked, but it’s not written anywhere in my passport….” (more…)

Managing Risks through Systematic Records Management Principles

Naguib — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:55:46 +0000

This course introduces international standard and best practices in records management. It outlines the core components of records and principles that need to be understood before implementing records management. It aligns recordkeeping to business processes and operational, financial and legal risk. It identifies and explores synergies between records management and risk, compliance management and quality management. It outlines core recordkeeping processes. It provides participants with an overview of the technologies currently available to organisations for records management and offers mechanisms to align current organisational realities with the type of software available.

Date: 24 & 25 Nov 2009
Venue: Park Royal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
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