Sixth Knowledge Management Roundtable

Convened on August 31, 2000 at Computer Sciences Corporation
Falls Church, Virginia

Resources:

Organization List
Agenda
Participants
Kent PPT
(Please contact to ICASIT for slide Presentation)

Brief:

In the spirit of Knowledge Management, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC, http://csc.com/) hosted Kent Greenes, CKO and Senior Vice President of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC, http://www.saic.com/), for his presentation at the sixth event in the Knowledge Management Roundtable series.

Held in conjunction with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), George Mason University's International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology (ICASIT), and the Internet Technology Innovation Center, the KM RT seeks to broaden the application and advance the effectiveness of KM practice in regional organizations. CIT (http://www.cit.org/) seeks to increase the Commonwealth's economic competitiveness and quality of life by advancing the development of Virginia as a technology state and by creating and retaining technology-based jobs and businesses.

As part of its efforts to achieve these results, CIT initiated activities to position itself as a participant in the diffusion of KM in the business community. A grant to ICASIT (http://www.icasit.org/) helped initiate a shared KM culture among organizations in Virginia by identifying organizations in Virginia interested in KM and convene the first KM Roundtable that was held in March 1999 (KM Roundtable, March 1999, KM Roundtable, June 1999, KM Roundtable, September 1999,KM Roundtable, February 2000 and KM Roundtable, May 2000.

With this event, six meetings have been held since initiation of the KM RT 21 months ago, and an average of 43 individuals have participated in each event. Based upon attendance at this meeting at CSC, some 180 practitioners representing 80 organizations are now involved in the KM RT program. (Organization List).

The August 31 meeting (Agenda) was attended by 85 participants (Participants). This included 48 from large and small private sector organizations; the university (8 member), nonprofit (3 members), and government (7 civilian and 19 military members) sectors were also represented.

Virgil Frizzell, Director for Industry and University Collaboration with the Internet Technology Innovation Center (http://www.internettic.org/) provided a brief history of the Knowledge Management Roundtable and introduced the Professor Stephen Ruth of GMU's School of Public Policy.

Ruth, who also serves as Director for ICASIT, presented an overview of the university in the overall KM milieu. The university contributes because of its several roles in the community: a community of practice, a center of excellence, and a center for the diffusion of research. Professor Ruth introduced Carol Bothwell, CSC's CKO.

Ms. Bothwell welcomed the participants and presented a short, but appropriate in light of Kent Greenes' presentation, goal for KM: to significantly improve an organization's ability to change rapidly.

Kent Greenes has worked internationally in a variety of engineering, management, and technology roles in the science and energy industries. Kent is one of the pioneers of practical KM in the business world, and has been recognized by Tom Stewart as the world's leading moneymaker in KM (June 1999 edition of Fortune Magazine).

Based in La Jolla, CA, Kent joined SAIC in May 1999, as CKO and senior VP. His role in this diverse, scientific research and engineering company is to harness the power of learning across the organization and its subsidiaries and to develop new business opportunities based in the emerging knowledge economy.

In his previous position as Head of KM for BP Amoco, Kent created an internationally recognized World Class KM practice. Kent holds a BS in geoscience from Kent State University and a MS in geophysics from the University of Arizona

Kent presented a talk entitled "E-Knowledge: Learning Faster than the Speed of Change." The talk E-Knowledge presented:

• The Business Case for KM
• The Need for Speed
• A Proven Approach
• E-Knowledge Techniques
• KM & E-Business

Summary:
In today's rapidly changing business environment, those organizations that can adapt quickly in the accelerated marketplace will be the ones that excel. The key to exploiting rapid changes in a field such as E-Commerce is the ability for an organization to learn fast and apply their learning to radically improve their performance and change the competitive playing field. The application of effective KM processes holds the key for creating the organizational competency for learning at the speed of change.

Kent shared some proven approaches to delivering radical performance through fast learning. Through the use of some compelling examples and multimedia (not presented in the linked illustrations), Kent provided participants with some thought-provoking concepts and practical tools to help them enter and excel in the fast-paced Digital World.

For those who could linger after adjournment, Bill Graham of CSC presented a demo of CSC Sources, the firm's collaborative environment of people, processes and technology, where CSC professionals from all over the world share ideas and experience around business topics. You may obtain an overview of this asset at http://www.csc.com/solutions/knowledgemanagement/ds/sources.shtml.