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If Only Hp Knew What Hp Knows

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“If Only HP Knew What HP Knows . . .”

Thomas H. Davenport

Innovation in Action

About the author: Tom Davenport, professor of Information Management at the University of Texas, Austin, is best known for his research on how organizations bring about major innovations in their work processes. His 1993 book, Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology, was the first book to describe what has become known as “business reengineering.” More recently, Davenport’s research interest has shifted to the question of whether “knowledge work” is characterized by processes and amenable to process improvement. Last year, he published “Improving Knowledge Work Processes” in Sloan Management Review. He also has two …show more content…

Walker and Sieloff appointed Joe Schneider, an ISST staff member who also focused on Web-based systems, to organize the workshops. The first workshop was held in October of 1995. An outside consultant facilitated the meeting, and presented some proposed definitions and frameworks. About 20 people attended the first session; 13 were

from corporate units, and the rest from various business units. Joe Schneider asked participants at the meeting if they were aware of other knowledge management initiatives. From this discussion Schneider compiled a list of more than 20 HP sites where some form of proactive knowledge management was underway. Several of the initiatives are described below. Trainer’s Trading Post One knowledge management initiative involves HP educators. Bruce Karney is a member of the infrastructure team for the Corporate Education organization, part of HP’s Personnel function. Karney estimates that there are more than 2,000 educators or trainers distributed around HP, most of whom work within small groups and find it difficult to share knowledge. About two years ago, in response to complaints by the education community that “we don’t know what’s going on,” Karney began work on approaches to knowledge sharing for HP educators. He hoped to make the group more of a

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