Executive Summary

This report looks into the Knowledge Management Audit carried out Monsanto. It traces the entire process of a Knowledge Management Audit right from identifying the need for knowledge management, to identifying the key elements, to using the appropriate Knowledge Management methodology followed by the result out of the entire process. The main findings clearly outlines that an Effective Knowledge Management Audit is one which identifies clearly the key elements involved and thus designs processes to build on through the key elements. The success of any such audit can be clearly measured as in this case for Monsanto if it has helped to improves processes in terms of effectiveness and efficiency

Contents

Executive Summary. 1

Contents 2

Introduction. 2

Background to the knowledge audit 2

Current Knowledge Position of the [case study organisation] 3

11

Recommendations 3

Conclusions 3

References 4

Creating Fertile Ground for Knowledge at Monsanto

Introduction

• The report will touch upon the processes involved in a Knowledge Management Audit .Taking the example of Monsanto it will be analyzed how a need identification is done, followed by identifying key resources and assets in place, with identifying gaps and then designing a framework to  eventually ensure efficient and effective knowledge flow. The report will try to link the various facets of the theoretical concepts involved in Knowledge Management Audit through the case of such an implementation at Monsanto. To appreciate the case and thus the report a thorough understanding of the concepts of Knowledge Management Audit is required.
• Knowledge Management as we all are aware of is an integral part of any growth oriented organization. It in fact forms the very crux of devising a Knowledge Management strategy to better leverage the assets present in organization. The very objective of this report is to understand the this entire audit through the lenses of its implementation in Monsanto.

Background to the knowledge audit

Current Knowledge Position of monsanto

Knowledge Needs: Every KM audit starts with an identification of the Knowledge needs of the given organization(Skyrme Associates). For some organization the motivation comes out of an impetus to equip their workers in smarter ways and for some to prevent the loss of customers to technically advanced competitors. In the case of Monsanto the need was to fuel growth(Junarkar & Brown 1997). If we look into the externalities involved Monsanto was in a rapidly growing global economy where in world class competitors where developing, growing and thus in a position to eat into the share of Monsanto. In order to maintain its dominance, the need of the hour for Monsanto was to grow rapidly. Thus, as evident in the case the knowledge environment in which Monsanto existed  i.e  the external context involved convinced the management that it needs to focus on knowledge. This management believed would help Monsanto to rapidly indentify and exploit business opportunities.

Internal knowledge culture: In order to bring about the flexibility required the management decided to go for decentralization with one of the decentralized units being primarily directed to look out for growth opportunities(Information Week). The mission of this new unit was to build upon and apply the knowledge base already present with the organization. However  if the organization’s knowledge base is allowed evolve at its own pace it will simply not be sufficient. Thus the management understood the importance of actively supporting the creation of new knowledge (through linking information and people and thus coding  information into knowledge), the  knowledge thus encapsulated into forms through processes that could be shared, and the knowledge thus shared throughout the organization. The management understood that fulfilling these objectives required careful  attention to  process, people and technology. The most crucial process was thus to understand and manage new knowledge creation and the management found the best framework through the model of Nonaka and Takeuchi(Beykon). The model as depicted by them believed that knowledge is created through continuous process of socialization, externalization, internalization and combination. The key for any organization was to lend support to  all of these processes so that the given organization always moves in an upward trajectory of knowledge creation. As all of the above processes  involve establishing connections among people and  sources of information, the objective of Monsanto has been to transform the company into a “connection-making machine.”  Capabilities in IT have been implemented to create knowledge repositories, cross-link each of them for easy navigation, and support decision-making. At the same time, people also connected more effectively through networks or “communities of practice. Thus the IT infrastructure has been so set up to capture both the structured and unstructured present within the organization.

Knowledge workers: The management of Monsanto believed that any knowledge management system is essentially about people management which in fact translates, as in any efficient Knowledge Management process, in equipping and encouraging people to generate knowledge in line with the future goals of the company. Thus a major emphasis at Monsanto has been to create communities of practice. These communities of practice provide a forum for sense-making thus creating value for individual member as well as for the organization as a whole. Thus varied  important “knowledge worker” roles are being recognized and formalized at Monsanto. These are knowledge stewards, topic experts, cross-pollinators, and knowledge teams(IAEA). All these roles help in creating of upward spiral of knowledge as evident from the model of Nonaka and Takeuchi.

Knowledge Leaders:The knowledge leader is played by the steward .His job is to identify the most important knowledge problem  facing the group and thus direct resources to tackle the above problem.

Knowledge resources and knowledge-sharing practices: The functions of knowledge workers in Monsanto are supported by knowledge teams, with the task of creating and maintaining

a “yellow pages” guide to the company’s knowledge, and thus acting  as points of contact for individuals seeking knowledge on  different subjects. These teams operate in a  proactive manner with a  creativity in thinking about Monsanto’s knowledge needs in their assigned topic area.Every request for information is probed further into why the required  information is valuable, the manner in which it is to be used used, and therefore who else might benefit from the same information. Thus the teams cast a wide net, covering external as well as  internal, quantitative

as well as  qualitative information, thus their composition is also diverse: each having people trained in information technology , library science, and relevant content areas. The teams are also geographically dispersed and self-directed.

A Prescription for Knowledge M

Knowledge gaps and process forward: The success of any KM methodology rests on indentifying the gaps in the processes employed and thus charting a way forward(OECD 2007). The management at Monsanto used a series of maps(Training Resources Group )  to understand the knowledge challenges  facing the organization at various levels. A set of, learning maps to educate employees about the strategic aims of the organization, information maps pointing to existing qualitative and quantitative information sources ,knowledge maps giving inputs into how information is codified and converted into knowledge, Balance-Scorecard maps containing financial and non-financial metrics in order to track the processes installed. Thus these maps help in information manipulation and co-ordination to suit the needs of the organization. This framework of maps is one that is used at Monsanto to drive the Knowledge Management process forward.

Knowledge audit Tools:

In order to access and analyse the current state of Knowledge management in a given organization necessary data has to be collected on the market i.e who would be users of the organizations products and services, what kind of customer segment the company is aiming at ,what are the assets that give the company competence and thus strength in the market place(The Knowledge Sharing Tools and Methods Toolkit 2009). Data also has to be collected about the collective expertise  and managerial skills available with the organization that is human centered knowledge, data also needs to be gathered about the processes involved in the organization standards, cultures and values i.e infrastructural knowledge, as well as data on the intellectual property rights present with the organization. Now for each of these critical areas the data needs to be collected in a manner so that some sense can be made out of it in order to devise strategy to implement Knowledge Management. Knowledge Audit Tools help us to overcome this situation. The various methods that can be used are as in-depth interview based on devised questionnaires, document analysis of partners collaborators ,suppliers(Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication). The information that is received is then analyzed through a Knowledge Audit Tool which is a in fact a matrix of checklist measuring either the strength of each of the above critical areas.

In the present case the organization uses an intelligent set of maps in order to achieve the given objective. These maps not only help to understand the assets both qualitative and quantitative but also help to keep a track of the processes involved .Out of all the set of maps used by the organization the one called “Information Map” is the most crucial as it helps to identify what are the key resources available in terms of both qualitative and quantitative. This infact forms the benchmark to devise further strategies .A proper audit of the key resources helps the company to identify its core-competency and thus aim at developing them to maintain market dominance. The kind of knowledge audit tool used is dependent on the process and the study undertaken. Although the structure of the metrics’ remains the same, the parameters on which the Knowledge Management in audited changes and thus becomes very specific to the purpose. Interestingly metrics can also be used to track processes as in this case Balanced Scorecard being used.

Recommendations

Looking at the way Monsanto’s efforts at knowledge management are

achieving results it goes on to vindicate how a well designed holistic process can achieve success(UN library,Nairobi) . Monsanto has a considerable presence in developing countries where its genetically modified seeds and crops are being introduced. However being developing in nature these countries are ridden with problems of bureaucracy and insufficient market knowledge. The  company can look into creating a Knowledge Management Process for all its operations across developing countries(Monsanto). This will help to cash upon the learning in one country to help the operations in another country. Moreover the company could also take a collaborative step forward in creating a Knowledge Management process for the users of their crops i.e. farmers themselves thus it will help to earn goodwill and thus help them become partners(Triple Pundit). The implications of these two implementations would be immense, which would not only help the company reduce costs and save capital expenditures but would also help to generate positive brand image that will help them in expanding their operations in these developing nations.The recommended Knowledge Management process for farmers can also be undertaken by the CSR wing of the organization and can cover wide range of information ranging from information in weather conditions ,crop nutrients as well as on improving soil productivity.

Conclusions:

The case puts across a beautiful method Knowledge Management implemented at Monsanto. Following the case right from the start we can clearly see how systematically the entire process has been implemented right from needs assessment to setting up of metrics’ to measure the progress of the processes. The due diligent approach of the organization in making sure that a decentralization is brought about in order to facilitate the entire process shows the commitment of the management in order to implement the Knowledge Management. It is also noteworthy they way information repository and knowledge teams are created  to usher in the change. The roles of the team members and their  approach is also commendable.

Probably due to the organization’s holistic approach in tackling the issue, their efforts have borne fruit as well. Rather than relying on a single point agenda of -knowledge-sharing incentives,  or groupware— the organization  is drawing on a whole gamut  of people-, process-, and technology-related changes.

The topmost priority in terms of people has been to recognize and formalize roles of all kinds of “knowledge workers.” The work on process has been, first, to focus on knowledge creation, and then to define methods in which individual knowledge becomes an organizational asset. And the focus of technology efforts has been to impose better organization on knowledge and enable connections among people and information.

To the happiness of all using these initiatives, Monsanto is growing profitably, and our success in particularly in the exploding field of biotechnology(Monsanto Africa). Thus this case gives an amazing insight into Knowledge Management in all its practicalities and of course the good result out of its sustained efforts. The high point of the case being the tools involved and used to devise a framework in order to implement this KM methodology. The learnings from the case can be utilized to devise KM processes for other organizations as well.

References

Skyrme  Associates [online] Available at

<http://www.skyrme.com/kmroadmap/audit.htm>  [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

Junarkar,B &  Brown ,V  (1997) “Re-assessing the Enabling Role of Information Technology in KM”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 1 Iss: 2, pp.142 – 148

OECD 2007 [online] Available at

< http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/14/40456141.pdf> [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

Information Week [online]  Available at

< http://www.informationweek.com/653/53iukno.htm> [Accessed on 17^th May ,2012]

Beykon [online] Available at

< http://beykon.org/foto2010/42.pdf> [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

IAEA [online] Available at

< http://www.iaea.org/nuclearenergy/nuclearknowledge/> [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

Training Resources Group Inc [online] Available at

< http://www.trg-inc.com/resources/knowledgeaudit.ppt>  [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

The Knowledge Sharing Tools and Methods Toolkit 2009 [online] Available at

< http://www.kstoolkit.org/Knowledge+Audits> [Accessed on 17^th May ,2012]

Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication [online] Available at

<http://www.aijc.com.ph/KM_site/docs/Guide%20for%20Conducting%20a%20Knowledge%20Audit%20-%20part%20of%20module%204.pdf> [Accessed on17th May,2012]

Project Management Tips [online] Available at

<http://pmtips.net/knowledge-audit/> [Accessed on 17^th May ,2012]

Balance Scorecard [online] Available at <http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/AbouttheBalancedScorecard/tabid/55/Default.aspx> [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

Monsanto [online] Available at

< http://www.monsanto.com/ourcommitments/Pages/empowering-farmers-in-gujarat-india.aspx> [Accessed on17th May,2012]

UN Library ,Nairobi [online] Available at

< http://www.unlibrary-nairobi.org/PDFs/PhenKM.doc> [Accessed  on 17^th May ,2012]

Triple Pundit [online] Available at

< http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/04/monsanto-pays-reparations-developing-world-terminator-seeds/>[Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

Monsanto Africa [online] Available at

< http://www.monsantoafrica.com/products/farmers_guides/yieldgard.asp> [Accessed on 17^th May,2012]

LC74