INLS 285 - Information Use for Organizational Effectiveness

Information Case 4 - Organizational Knowledge Strategies

DUE: December 4

A knowledge strategy is an organization's effort to bridge the gap between what it knows and what it needs to know in order to move from what it does to what it wants to do. Knowledge strategies are usually defined formally, but sometimes are communicated informally.

Choose an organization that has implemented a knowledge strategy, either successfully or unsuccessfully, over the last few months. Some examples of organizational knowledge strategies include an NFL team that employed what they hoped would be a winning strategy to win a division championship, a political organization that set out to win an election, a manufacturing firm that attempted to reach a new market, etc.   Your task will be to research the news media, organizational publications, and academic literature for information about the information that the organization used to develop the strategy, the kinds of information and data gathering methods they are using to monitor performance, and how this information caused them to succeed or fail. You will summarize your findings in a 2-5 page paper.

Some examples:

1. My favorite example is the case in the 1980's when the Coca-Cola Company abandoned its top-selling cola formula for a recipe it called New Coke. They made the change in the formula because of information they had that Pepsi Cola was closing the gap on sales. Coca-Cola was still the best-selling soft drink in the world, but its lead on other soft drinks was not as large as it had been. The new formula was sweeter and smoother (lower carbonation) and tasted more like Pepsi. This strategy was a flop. What the company failed to pay attention to was the immense product loyalty among drinkers of Coca-Cola and huge outrage from those customers. They had information about how customers felt about the product, but failed to understand its significance. Consequently, New Coke was a flop and the company was forced to bring back the original as Coca-Cola Classic. Much has been written about this case, including an explanation of why corporate executives were not fired. The knowledge strategy they used to achieve the goal of keeping the soft drink number one was flawed and costly to the organization.

2. In 2004, the CBS television network, dismayed by Nielsen ratings that indicated its viewers were on average older than those on other networks, canceled several television shows simply because they attracted older viewers. Sponsors of television shows want to target the segment of the population most likely to buy things, the 21-49 bracket. They have replaced the shows they canceled with shows that are targeted at younger viewers, based on the information they have collected from Nielsen. In some cases, they canceled shows that were critically acclaimed, and they have even shaken up their news team to appeal to younger viewers, particularly women.  In 2006, CBS was ranked number 1 by Nielsen. Was the strategy successful?

 3. In 2002, the official U.S. Army headgear became the black beret. According to Rod Powers, the decision was announced by Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki on October 17, 2001.  "Shinseki said he wants to use the sense of pride that the beret has long represented to the Rangers to foster an attitude of excellence among the entire Army as it moves forward with its sweeping transformation effort to a lighter, more deployable, more agile force." Others have suggested that the more dapper look will help in recruiting. How will the army know if the strategy is successful?

Your paper will assess the effectiveness of the organization with respect to its knowledge strategy. Organizational effectiveness may mean something different to each organization, based upon its goals. Any knowledge strategy is designed to make organizations more effective in some way. A knowledge strategy can be modest ("we want to find out what our defense is doing wrong and fix it") or ambitious ("we want to go to the Super Bowl").  It is important to identify the role of information in these strategies - what the organization is gathering, analyzing, and using as input to processes or actions. Is the organization succeeding because of its knowledge strategy? Is it failing because of it? What information is available that the organization is not taking advantage of and how might it use that information? Is there information collected that could be analyzed differently?

Your source for identifying such an organization might be the business section of a local or national newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, business-related Web sites, etc. Please remember to include citations of the sources you use at the end of the paper. Direct quotes should be properly noted.