Sameer Agarwal

An IIT Bombay student (Sweta Mehta) contacted me recently for a project she was doing on Knowledge Management. I answered some questions for her, which I thought I ought to share here as well:

1. When did KM start in India?
   KM in some form or other existed ever since enterprises started! The whole process of filing documents is knowledge management in itself! The term knowledge management was probably coined sometime in the 1980s and organizations started formal programs on KM in the early 1990s. McKinsey and some other consulting firms were the front-runners in embracing KM. GE, HP, Boeing etc also boast of formal KM programs that started in early 90s. Of course India offices of some of the firms mentioned above also embraced KM around the same time, but amongst the Indian companies probably Infosys is one of the first Indian organizations to have embraced KM in the mid-late 90s. Airtel, Satyam, Wipro and lately Mind Tree have also been some of the Indian companies that have created an impact in the KM space.

2. What is the difference between Indian and international KM standards?
   Unfortunately there is no such thing as “KM standards”! This is bad because most organizations grapple with evolving a “KM strategy” but this is also a blessing in disguise since “one size doesn’t fit all”. Any successful KM program needs to be customized according to the culture, people and nature of work of the organization. So the KM framework of a consulting organization will be very different from the KM framework for a BPO. The ‘lack of standards’ actually encourages organizations to ‘think’ and evolve their strategy. Of course there are benchmarks available in terms of what other organizations are doing, and there are frameworks like the APQC road-map available to help one get started.

   To answer your specific question about the difference between Indian and international KM standards – well honestly, that’s food for thought and requires research. I’m not aware of any such research that has been conducted in the past. However, I do think that there will be a significant difference in global and India-only KM programs because of the difference in cultures. As I mentioned above, a KM strategy is/should always be based on the culture of the organization/the country it operates in (and hence the culture of such countries).

3. What is KM portal?
   The literal meaning of a ‘portal’ is gateway. So by definition, the KM portal is a gateway/starting point for the ‘knowledge’ available in an organization. There is debate around whether you should have a ‘separate’ KM portal, or if one org portal (intranet) should be good enough so as to not confuse people with multiple starting points – ideally (in my opinion) there should be ‘one’ integrated portal and several sites for various KM tools as needed.

4. How is Knowledge Management implemented?
   The first step is to define the KM strategy for an organization. Such strategy should be evolved on the basis of organizational priorities and should have the buy-in of senior management. Unless the top management is convinced that the KM strategy is actually impacting the organization you can be sure that the program will fail. Once you have a high-level strategy, then a multi-generation plan should be evolved in consultation with several influencers in the organization who can champion the program eventually. While creating the strategy it’s important to understand what the ‘people’ want out of the program and what ‘processes’ can be set that will drive/sustain/control the program. Once you know what you want out of your KM program then technologies/tools should be evaluated. Remember technology is an enabler and merely deploying technology does not mean that you have “implemented” KM. KM is a continuous journey – the strategy needs to be revisited and tweaked as required. And never forget that it’s the people who make or break a KM program, so have utmost focus on people, and think of ways of engaging them at all levels in the program – through rewards, recognition and whatever else it takes!

5. Who is the key person responsible for formulating the KM strategy?
   The Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) will typically formulate the KM strategy in collaboration with senior management. (CKO is merely a title – anybody who has the mandate to lead the KM program is responsible). It is important that the CKO understands the business well, is a good communicator, can network well with people at all levels and is senior enough to understand business drivers and people behavior.

6. How can KM implementation affect the organization and its stakeholders?
   The success of a KM program can be felt but not measured accurately. Unfortunately there are no accepted ROI models for KM. Typically KM professionals ask senior management to think about the cost of not doing KM rather than the cost of doing it and/or asking for ROI! Measurement can of course be done hypothetically – based on the assumed time saved by employees in finding knowledge/information and hence illustrating productivity benefits. Such models will however remain debatable and hence it’s best to not create an ROI model in the first place! KM is a continuous journey, and you do ‘it’ because you believe in it.

7. Which companies in India have the best KM implementation process?
   The only recognized KM awards are the MAKE awards. Last year, Mindtree was the winner of the MAKE India awards. Airtel, Eureka Forbes, Infosys, Satyam were among the other finalists. You can find the details of the 2007 MAKE awards here (scroll down to the 2007 Indian MAKE Study Executive Summary).

At GE one of the things they train you well is making those impactful elevator pitches. Supposing you meet your CEO and he asks you how it’s going and you have 20 seconds at best to make an impression, what do you say. What are those right words, et al!

Lately I observed that such pitches reek of bull. Those same standard words, that fake assertive voice. Those fake smiles and laughters, that tapping on the shoulders, that little bow. Get real guys!

Champagne. Bouquets. Several courses of meal without the hassle of deciding what to order (that’s a big incentive to me!). Birthday cake. A linen jacket that I wanted for several months, or maybe years! All this without the slightest hint. Yes, that’s what Sakshi did on my birthday on Jun 9.

She insisted on picking me up from work to go to Taj Residency even though her office is close to that place and it just didn’t make sense with Bangalore traffic. The booking was for 7 PM but we were on our way at 5 so we decided to have a couple of drinks. Sakshi was careful in avoiding that ‘one drink too much’ for me despite my insistence, and without leaving a hint of what was in store.

So we arrived at around 7:20, and the restaurant I discovered that we were going to was called “Graze”. It is a beautiful, Victorian, poolside restaurant, that is quiet and niche. This was only the beginning of discoveries for the evening. Quickly I realized that the table was already chosen, and the servers already knew Sakshi. Whoa! Even before I could digest that, champagne came rolling, and I was already feeling royal!

Cheers, and then the flowers came. Then the first course. Then flowers and then the next course. Man it just couldn’t get better. Wait - there was a cake and a linen jacket for me as well!!

It was all so well planned. Right to the last detail. Completely based on what I like and what I don’t. So much thought to make your husband happy. God - I don’t deserve her at all! As Richa said, “I’m a lucky dog”!

Yeah that’s what I keep on doing I realize. Sometimes run faster to do better on the job, sometimes to keep up with family commitments, sometimes for this and sometimes for that. Lately (just been two days), I’ve been trying to run faster on the treadmill (maybe I’ll find my L-Spot!). And that’s making me mind run faster as well. Maybe I’ll not be late again, this time around with what I’m thinking! I hope I don’t lose the interest, build some focus and just do it!

I’m sure this is the question most tax payers have in mind over the proposed oil cess on income tax. Agreed that crude oil has touched $135 and the increase in the price needs to be passed on to consumers. But pass it on to the ‘consumer’, not the tax payer alone. Anyway, the price of petrol consists of heavy duties necessary for funding the government. Why can’t the duties be reduced? The budgeting would have been done keeping in mind an absolute number in mind. Now that the base has changed, why can’t the percentage of duty be reduced so as to maintain the same absolute number? Why is the government pretending to subsidize when the reality is that it gets greedy every time the base price changes (duties keep going up in the same proportion).

And, the big question is why can’t they just increase the price of the commodity for the consumer? Why burden the tax payer? Well I guess I know the answer - to appease the ‘poor’, majority voter! How long will we be penalized for creating wealth?

A lot has been said about the wisdom of crowds, and how the ‘crowds’ built Wikipedia. In fact, to a large extent this assumed ‘wisdom’ is the premise of everything that’s happening in the Web 2.0 space.

Josh Catone of ReadWriteWeb makes a good point of having some rules to get the best out of crowds in his recent post (as a follow-up to a similar post last year).

• Crowds should operate within constraints
• Not everything can be democratic
• Crowds must retain their individuality
• Crowds are better at vetting content than creating it

These rules may make a lot of sense because we all know the “herd behavior” and how “dumb” it can get at times. But like most other things in life, there is no best way of doing ‘it’, and surely “one size doesn’t fit all”. Now ‘that’ is an art more than a science, so know the rules, but don’t always play by them I guess…

It’s a Saturday morning, actually noon now and I’ve been waiting for the carpenter from Big Bazaar to come and install our dining table. The appointment was for 10 AM and they have still not arrived. Not sure why people can’t respect time. My cousin is in Bangalore and I need to show her around. I’ve given away my old dining table already and so can’t even afford to just go and let the carpenter come at some other day…

Why can’t people respect time? Other’s time? This is not about Big Bazaar, or Bangalore, or South India, or India. This is a standard behavior across India I guess - that’s why the IST (India Standard Time) is sometimes also known as the ‘Indian Stretchable Time’!

Is it just about time, or about keeping commitments? We as Indians are very vocal (and often righteous) about keeping some commitments, like marriage - whether or not they are convenient. Why can’t we keep other commitments? Time commitments? Verbal business commitments (like “I agree to buy/sell at this price”, or “I agree to give you a raise if you do X” etc)? Why?

There are a million and one passwords that I have. Bank accounts, Credit cards, Demat account, Trading account, Computers, Mobile Phone, Email, Social Networking sites, you name it… Sometimes multiple passwords for the same thing. For example, a bank account comes with an ATM PIN and a telephone PIN and an internet banking ID and a regular internet banking password and a transaction internet banking password; and then there’s your account number and your IFSC code and all that jazz!

Phew.. How much are you supposed to remember man! Programs like OpenID are trying to solve this but am not sure how widely used they will be. One often hears about biometric passwords but again such a setup hasn’t seen any ‘integrated’/networked commercial success yet to my knowledge. I’m sure it will happen some day but till that happens one will but need to create some sort of a register (paper or digital) to note all these numbers and passwords down I guess. Of course such a register comes with the BIG risk of theft. Guess it’s a trade-off between relying on your memory or your locker!

I keep thinking of these little ideas every now and then. Thought it will be a good idea to share them on my blog and also archive them to track how much I imagine! So here goes the first in the Imagination series!

Imagine. A mobile phone application that allows the user to click a text snippet as a picture, analyze the language and allow translation options. I imagined this while having popcorn yesterday. The Act II pack has instructions in three languages but I was wondering how someone who only knew Kannada for example would be able to make out anything. With an application like this, all the end-user will need to do is click a picture of any text snippet (there will be some bordering options maybe) and voila, you’ll know what it means! How handy will this be for electronics purchased from Singapore that typically only come with Chinese/Japanese instruction booklets!

Maybe such a device already exists. I’ll like to know.

Watching a sport on TV is like watching pornography. It’s not the real thing. Now come on, I’m not suggesting that watching  a sport can ever equal ‘playing it’ (or did you read ‘doing it’!), but I think it’s much better than seeing it on TV. Even though you don’t get such a good view of the ball/players (one can hardly make out who’s who even from VIP seats) and the analysis that you get on TV, still in my opinion nothing beats the live experience for the energy, the madness, the magnanimity and the scale!

Sakshi and I watched the IPL match in Bangalore yesterday. Of course the Royal Challengers lost, but since they were playing Delhi Daredevils it was not all that bad - after all I’m from Delhi and spent almost all my life there! The cheerleaders were really rocking. On TV you miss the real action (cheerleaders dancing) that happens between the overs due to advertisements! And. There was beer and food (for a Rs 2,725 ticket). What else could you have asked for?

In fact Shaan was also performing yesterday, but we missed him by an hour or so it seems. We had booked the tickets online and I had no clue what time he was performing. The match had to start at 8 PM, so I planned to reach by 7, and I did, but Shaan was gone by that time. Parking was of course a pain. And then we had to walk down almost half a kilometer to pickup the tickets (wonder why they couldn’t courier the tickets in advance) and then walk back the same distance to enter our box. It rained between 4 and 6 and we were keeping our fingers crossed. Thankfully the rain stopped just in time, saving the match and our 5.5k!

We had originally planned to take our camera and shoot some, but were told that it’s not allowed. However we saw a lot of people with cameras and wondered how they managed to get their little things in! The match was not so interesting, but we were anyway not expecting any fireworks given Bangalore’s performance in the IPL. Sehwag and Gambhir played really well and so it was some ‘paisa-vasool’!

Net-net great experience.