When discussing Knowledge Management within an organizational context – it would mean managing the collective information expertise in the form of employees and the organizational processes. This would encompass knowledge as an explicit business activity that reflects in the organization’s business strategy, policy and practice at all the levels.

Keeping in view the aforementioned, we define Knowledge Management as business activity that attempts to build a direct connection between an organization’s intellectual assets - be they in the form of employees (tacit) or in the form of record (explicit). Thus, Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of an organization trying to adapt itself, survive and competence in face of increasingly sporadic environmental changes. Essentially, it means encompassing organizational processes that seek a synergy among a combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies (http://www.eitpa.org/ ), and the creative and innovative capacity of it employees.

Hence in practice, Knowledge Management covers identifying and mapping intellectual assets within an organization, generating up-to-date expertise for competitive advantage, making vast amounts of corporate information accessible, sharing of best practices, and technology that enables managing all of the above including groupware and intranets. All this is crucial, because one of the most integral business activities is that of applying knowledge management at work.

Exploring Knowledge Management

As we further progress with the facets of Knowledge Management, highlighting a few well known management strategies serves as a better comprehending factor;

• Business Process Reengineering

• Change Management

• Benchmarking

• Risk Management

• Employee Recommitment Management

There seems to be a common thread among these and many other recent business strategies and an acknowledgment that information and knowledge are corporate assets, and that the businesses need strategies, policies, and tools to manage those assets. The need to manage knowledge is obvious, as discussions on intellectual capital have burgeoned.

Because knowledge has become the single most important factor of production and survival, managing intellectual assets has become the single most important task of business.

Knowledge Management: An Organizational Necessity

Knowledge management is a framework within which an organization views all its processes as knowledge processes. In this view, all business processes involve creating, disseminating, renewing, and applying knowledge toward organizational sustenance and survival. In essence, it means that Knowledge management focuses on ‘doing the right thing’ instead of ‘doing things right’. The underlying premise is that ‘best practices’ of yesterday may not be taken for granted as ‘best practices’ of today or tomorrow. Hence, double loop learning, unlearning and relearning processes need to be designed into the organizational business processes Knowledge management is necessary for companies because what worked yesterday may or may not work tomorrow. To remain aligned with the dynamically changing needs of the business environment, organizations need to continuously re-assess their internal procedures of business for ongoing effectiveness.

Importance of Knowledge Management

Considering the management dynamics today – the onus of managing knowledge requires utmost focus as most of the work is information based. Secondly, it is an undisputed fact that organizations compete on the basis of knowledge, since products and services are becoming increasingly complex. Hence the requirement for a life-long learning has become an unavoidable reality and thus Knowledge Management has become important because;

• Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising

• Downsizing staff creates a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods.

• Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business knowledge.

• The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished.

• Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge.

• There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies are trans-national sourcing operations.

• Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area.

In brief, knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur. As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage.

Organizational Responsibility: Ensuring Knowledge Management

Organizations that are competitively conscious need to effectively implement knowledge management systems. This includes enforcing a linkage between the archived organizational ‘best practices’ and the actions taken by organizational members based on that information. Parallel to this also includes unraveling linkage between actions taken by organizational members that serve as a continuous check and balance for renewing the archived ‘best practices.’ This is where the intellectual organizational creativity and innovation comes into the picture.

The aim of all this is to provide the highest level of satisfaction to the customer and thus increase the business of the company. And with the increasing complexity of the supply chain, supply chain management has also become about coordinating and collaborating with the different trade partners now involved in the supply chain.

Supply chain management is supposed to be undertaken by the high level management committee of the company. The employees have to willingly adhere to their decisions in order to bring about maximum efficiency in the supply chain.

Supply chain management decisions are made on three different levels- the tactical, strategic and operational levels. Strategic level involves long term decisions while tactical level includes medium term decisions while operational level is concerned with very short term day-to-day operational concerns. The problems that the supply chain system is supposed to address includes the following:

* Distributor Network Configuration: Quantities and locations of people involved with the entire process of the supply chain including the suppliers, customers, warehouses, production facilities and distribution centers.

* Strategies for distribution: Centralized, direct shipments, push and pull strategies, cross docking and third party logistics.

* Information: Integrating systems and processes through supply chain to share relevant and significant information consisting of demand signals, forecasting, transportation and of course, inventory.

* Management of inventory: Number and location of inventory and also covers raw materials, finished goods as well as work in progress.

The flow of the supply chain execution is always bi directional and basically manages and coordinates movement of material, information and finances of the supply chain. There are some key supply chain management processes that have been identified. They are:

* Management of customer relations.

* Management of customer service

* Management of demands.

* Fulfillment of orders.

* Manufacturing flow management.

* Management of supplier relations.

* Developing the product and commercializing it.

* Managing returns.

Other key business processes which are used as supply chain procedures and are a vital part of the process and include:

* Customer service management: Steps used by companies to build successful customer relations include focusing on mutually satisfying goals; establishing and maintaining customer relations; produce feelings of positivity and trust between the customers and organization.

* Procurement processes.

* Product developing and commercializing: This includes coordinating with customer relationship management to identify customer articulated needs, selecting suppliers and materials and developing production technology to integrate and produce the best supply chain flow.
* Manufacturing flow management processes.

* Physical distribution.

* Outsourcing and partnerships.

* Performance measurement regarding cost, productivity measures, customer service, asset measurement and quality.

Together with all of these the supply chain management system has managed to put into place an integrated supply and demand management within and across business firms.

The training is significant to consider the technology and management within the project. How we handle the project within its life-cycle plays a big role in how well the project comes out and hence proper training is needed for project management.

Let’s take the case of a software development project. A project is initiated only after proper justification is provided. For this to happen, there must be a genuine need for the outcome being desired to be project result. Project planning begins with understanding the requirements. The requirements in a software development project are set forth by the business analyst handling that client/relationship. The requirements need to be tested using cases. There is a variety of requirements analysis software available in the market. Once the requirements have been decided upon and documented properly, the next phase of project management begins.

Allocation of resources is a part of Project Management. And hence the cost centers are resources as well. Therefore maximum contribution can provided to make a good project by utilizing some or all of its resources. The resources can be managed by use of timelines which is an integral part of Project Management. The desired objectives can be attained by using project management template which is one of the preferred ways by many managers. The worksheet software application is used to design such templates. Hence to provide complete project management training it is essential to include hands-on training on worksheet processing software.

Two way communication plays an important part in project throughout it’s entire life. Managers find the feedback loop a great boon to understand the present status of the project. All future plans depend on the present status of the project. Hence a hands on training in proper use of communication tools in project management will be a huge advantage. This training includes much more than just mail software training. One must stress on the importance of timely checks throughout the duration of the project.

Resource allocation on project deals with allocation of resources including human capital, capable of doing tasks in a logical manner in order that the project objectives are met. Training in project management emphasizes on human capital management i.e., organizational behavior, costing and human resource management and includes sessions on quality, value engineering, and theory of constraints. These theories are not to be just read, but imbibed as a philosophy in every project. Hence, project management trainings must include tasks which involve application of the key take-aways from the sessions.

In recent times, many trainers have started using specially designed computer games to illustrate the project management concepts. these games involve the learner to use project management technology and focus on their approach to training project management concepts. The outcome of such game based training is quantifiable through course assessment. it can be summarized that training should also involve the learner to perform tasks using project management technology and not only traditional project management philosophies.

Management is the function that organizes the execution of today’s business. Leadership is the evolutionary mechanism that changes organizations to prosper in tomorrow’s world. If a species or individual animal bumps into obstacles, variations occur and new forms are selected from those variations. Leadership is a risk taking type of action that explores new frontiers and promotes new ways of behaving. It follows that, in a stable environment, good management is all that is needed to prosper; leadership in this context isn’t required.

This portrayal isn’t the popular one where leadership means being the head in a group regardless of what’s going on in the environment. As well, management has been cast on the rubbish heap since the late 1970’s following the initial wave of Japanese commercial success in the West. We wanted a scapegoat for our failure to compete with the Japanese, and management was fingered for this role. Jack Welsh, Tom Peters and other gurus asked more leadership and an end to management, which they saw as stifling innovation. The reality was that a lack of competition created a complacent attitude AND lackluster management. It was the way management was practiced that was the problem, not anything to do with management as a function. We simply asked to upgrade management for a new fact.

Being hierarchic naturally and inclined to worship heroes, we tend to regard the person in charge of our group as a leader. But complexness demands specialisation and executives ask to execute multiple characters that depend upon the unique demands of their position. Whenever their primary function is to maintain quality, low cost and good customer service while motivating employees to perform to their potential, then they’re performing the management function, not showing leadership.

Management is like investment. Managers have resources to invest – their own time and talent also as human and financial resources. The goal or function of management is to have the best return on those resources by getting things done efficiently. This doesn’t entail being mechanical. The manager’s style is a contextual issue. With highly skilled and self-motivated knowledge workers, the manager can be very empowering. Where the workforce is less skilled or motivated, the manager may need to monitor output more closely. By saying that management is a function, not a type of person or role, we better account for self-managed work teams where no one is in charge. Managemenet simply makes the best use of all resources even when we manage ourselves. Hence management doesn’t necessarily entail a dictatorial, controlling overseer. Skilled managers method to coach and motivate diverse employees. Getting things done through people is what they do.

The aim of management is to deliver results cost effectively in line with customer expectations and profitably, in the case of commercial organizations. It is not only leaders who can be inspiring. Inspiring leaders act us to change direction while inspiring managers motivate us to work harder.

Management is a critical function thanks to the complexness of advanced organizational life. The need to coordinate the input of so many diverse stakeholders, experts and clients requires enormous patience and developed facilitative skills. Excellent managers know how to add the right people together and, by asking the right questions, draw the best solutions out of them. To facilitate well requires managers to work very closely with all relevant stakeholders.

By contrast, the leader can be a bit of an outsider. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. promoting desegregation on buses to the U.S. government from the sidelines, the leader can induce people to change even with no direct involvement or authority over the people who are needed to take the hoped for action.

Managers do not just continue in progress operations ticking over. They also manage complex projects like making a modern movie or putting the first man on the moon. Leadership is only required to sell the tickets for the journey or to resell it periodically if resistance develops, but management drives the bus to the destination.

Portfolio management is the business of a senior management team in the companion. They’re occasionally addressed a “product committee.” Portfolio management offers directors a better understanding of price, risk, and capabilities of a business. The portfolio management attempt need be aligned with the business concern strategy. The consequence is measured with the help of performance measures. Enterprise portfolio management and project portfolio management are the main types of portfolio management. Enterprise portfolio management uses selection of investments dependent on business needs and value as settled on by the enterprise architecture. Project portfolio management employs a structured approach to arrive at decisions about a set of portfolios.

Asset allocation decision is an important part of any portfolio management program. Asset allocation decides what proportions of a portfolio will be invested in various asset classes. Asset allocation is of two types - active and passive. Active asset allocation is based on market views.

Portfolio management is a handy tool in making planned decisions and determining costs. It also helps underwriters to group investings into diverse categories including blue chip, open-end investment company, and bonds. An effective portfolio management promotes development of organizations and other places of business. It helps organize the necessary resources and produce maximum turnover. Portfolio management binds activities, resources, and policies together.

A lot of professional portfolio management plans are available for both individual and institutional investors. With the aid of extensive customer profiling process, they help the client catch out the most appropriate asset allocation and investing design