(Les Di@logues Stratégiques® N°36 - 10/02) By five years, the French Poitou-Charentes region hopes to play a significant part in European knowledge economy. The international knowledge management centre (KM) set up in the Futuroscope techno centre will make it possible. This ambitious programme is led by Didier Moreau, both Director of "L'Espace Pierre Mendès France" in Poitiers and managing Director of the Poitou-Charentes delegation for Knowledge Industries. Véronique Anger : Why create an international knowledge management centre in Poitou- Charentes? Didier Moreau : The regional programme for the development of "Knowledge Industries", which comes within the scope of 2000 Lisbon Summit(1) reflects the Region's political will to develop through "Intangible Economy". Therefore, creating knowledge-based added value and wealth in an international and European context, which keeps developing, is currently at stake. Besides, the region "Poitou-Charentes" intends to rationalize the financial and human means devoted to NTIC by its businesses. I draw your attention to the fact that this plan, which is the result of two-year work, meetings and research, has been introduced by the Region's former president and current French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. VA : Will have the Knowledge Management Centre a "physical" existence or will it be only a virtual place, accessible on your region's website? DM : Not only for administrative and financial practical reasons, but also to optimize contacts' quality, we want to make of this centre a physical reception place dedicated to information, shows and exchanges. You certainly know the famous "serendipity" of Baron Serendip, who was able to make interesting and valuable discoveries by accident…Well, we also believe that physical meetings are generally more enriching because they arouse unpredictability. We have chosen the techno centre of Poitiers: Futuroscope. Just an hour and a half away from Paris, we have at our disposal a real forum for scientific, technical and economic skills, which already concentrates several consulting departments in KM for companies and local communities. VA : What are your priorities? DM : This plan includes three complementary programmes: 1° Developing local heritage: i.e. developing the branch of industry specialized in digitizing, producing, publishing and advertising the Poitou-Charentes heritage. 2° Training and education: we want to turn Poitou-Charentes into a European leading place as regards the educational use of NTIC (R&D, e-learning, e-documentation, quality services…). 3° Improving competitiveness: through this programme, the Region wants to inform and train SMEs in methods and knowledge management tools (Internet, TIC) in order to encourage innovation, spread knowledge and develop local know-how… The purpose is to improve companies' competitiveness. VA : There is reference to a "European Institute for Knowledge". What is its function? DM : The programme is divided into several development projects including the European Institute for Knowledge Economy, which has been supported and developed by Richard Collin(2) for several months. This institute, which will mobilize researchers and economic, administrative decision-makers and politicians from the end of this year, will be supported by a foundation that is associated with a network of public and private partners, i.e. firms, universities, financial companies, institutions…which are involved in Knowledge Economy. It also has the support of the European Community. The institute, which is supposed to be a production and think tank with a precise development programme (including the creation of a "Euronext" indicator of intangible capital), will be thus the laboratory and advertiser of KM-based innovations. (1) L'Europe wants to impose as the World's leading society in Knowledge Economy (2) Expert in KM and i-KM's associate managing director To discover (or read again) Les Di@logues Stratégiques® : "Diversity sustains collective intelligence" Pierre Lévy (Janvier 2002) "Capitalisation of knowledge in the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young company" Jacques Collin (Octobre 2001) "E-Learning, key element of the future internet" Joël de Rosnay (March 2001) "Econonomic value : the issue at high stake in intangible society" Charles Goldfinger (December 2000) Managers' opinions and expectations about KM. Study on Knowings by IBM Global Services During KMforum 2002, International Symposium on Knowledge Management and Skills Development, which was organized on September by MM group , the French editor Knowings, in collaboration with IBM Global Services, conducted a study aiming at better understanding managers' strategic views and expectations about knowledge management. Here are its broad lines:From productivity to competitiveness. According to managers, the current success of KM is essentially based on factors of competitiveness (i.e. higher competition, accelerated innovations, multilocalisation, net work). KM seems to lever competitiveness up and therefore enables companies to adapt to the new paradigm of modern economy. Human capital development: a priority. "Human resources" have gained in importance. This fund of skills must be protected and developed by mobilizing skills, exploiting experiences and accelerating learning process. Practices focused on core skills. Current practices are mainly directed towards companies' core skills. Considered as true levers of skills, their aim is to protect, better exploit and develop their funds of knowledge. Communities: KM's basic think tanks. This trend towards companies' communities' actions can be noticed in both manager's priority actions and in answers to open questions. From Intranet to e-cooperation. KM tools continue to spread as their efficiency is more and more recognized. Among most common tools: intranets and monitoring tools. Knowledge data, e-cooperation portals and applications also benefit from strong development. The end of pioneers' era. The number of companies involved in KM development has considerably increased, especially in R&D, production and sales activities (1 out of 3 companies). Among the 57% of managers who say to be "ready" for KM, 15% even say to be "ahead" in this field. We are entering into "the leaders' era". Managers' commitment is strong, business-oriented projects come into being, tools are increasingly used and therefore return on investments can be better identified. In other words, KM is passing from experimental to operational stage Source : Knowings. Complete study on: http://www.knowings.com/enquetekm2002 Three definitions to better catch the meaning of KM "KM enables a human organization to share learning and knowledge in order to generate factors of differentiation, sources of competitiveness. Its strength lies in NTIC tools. It also provides any type of organization with a human aspect, by giving shape to the concept of enterprising companies." KMforum "KM is a network of organizations and technologies whose purpose is to create, collect, organize, stock, spread, use and transfer corporate knowledge. This knowledge must be materialized by internal and external documents but also through intellectual capital and colleague's or experts' experiences." Club Informatique des Grandes Entreprises Françaises (CIGREF). "KM refers to the management of companies' individual and corporate knowledge with aim of getting clear vision of their skills and knowings. The purpose of this process is to optimize work quality and therefore to encourage the evolution of these funds of knowledge. Intellectual management is considered as a capitalizable good that should be exploited and that represents both a strategic and competitive advantage." Business Interactif (Panorama of KM solutions). |
Creation of an International Knowledge Management center
