STUDIU DE CAZ - RETAINING BEST PRACTICES AT

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE

By Donna McNammara

A. Prezentarea cazului

Spreading best practices globally takes commitment from a company’s

leadership in terms of encouragement, resources, and infrastructure. But
management can’t do it all. Employees also have to be willing to share
successes and be humble enough to learn from others who’ve seen success.
Here, Donna McNamara, VP of Global Education and Training, describes
how Colgate-Palmolive has taken these factors into account and how the
company is retaining its knowledge as a result.

Colgate-Palmolive’s global education and training strategy aims to result in the

retention and expansion of knowledge within its employees. The company
identifies its key priorities - those issues that are business-critical or those needs
that employees have expressed in terms of specific skills and knowledge - then
designs an approach to meet those needs. McNamara says, "Our knowledge
retention strategy didn't come about because we realized our key people were
retiring. Rather, our critical global business issues have always directed our
decisions and prioritized knowledge transfer."
For example, Colgate-Palmolive invests heavily in media, as it's a consumer
goods company. About five years ago, it realized thiat one person held the bulk
of its expertise in global media. To spread that expertise around the company,
Colgate-Palmolive identified the knowledge gaps between this subject matter
expert (SME) and others in the company, then set about documenting and
capturing the valuable expertise inside the head of the SME. McNamara
comments, "The knowledge base was, of course, quite large, so we decided to
approach the capturing process by focusing on the business challenges we were
facing and what specific skills and knowledge others would need. We went
through a continual process of identifying best practices in relevant areas."
The best leaders teach
It's one thing to capture and another to effectively spread that knowledge
around. Colgate-Palmolive doesn 't just rely on databases or manuals. Instead, it
encourages its SMEs to teach. "Our philosophy is that Colgate leaders teach. We
don't have a traditional training department to deliver training, nor do we have
outside consultants delivering training," says McNamara. "Rather, the people
who deliver training arc those who have been identified as experts and who have
applied to teach in addition to their regular responsibilities. It's respected and
sought after to be in the position of teaching others." In addition to the tacit
knowledge transfer that goes on as part of tuition, manuals are written to capture
key explicit knowledge. Colgate also relies on outside knowledge acquired
through benchmarking to supplement its own practices to improve them for the
next time.
The process of identifying courses and placing instructors varies in scope and
timing. It's not unusual for it to take a year, because in the process of
documenting and attempting to transfer expertise to others, Colgate-Palmolive
ofen uncovers ambiguities and decision points that need to have senior
management approval. McNamara comments, "The creation of training is often
the catalyst for confirming the best practices and then codifying them.
Decisions usually need to be made about what our principles are around a
specific subject. It acts as a checkpoint and a further reinforcement of Colgate's
values and best practices."
Ensuring global relevance
Colgate's global reach requires that it create a process for learning that's going to
work as well in Kuala Lumpur as it docs in Paris, France and Dallas, Texas. And
that's neither simple nor speedy. A team of recognized, global role models
usually develop the courses and put them through a series of pilots. Very often,
the company will run two pilots to ensure that die course communicates a
similar meaning and enconrages a similar level of engagement in different parts
of the world.
We're so rigorous because so much is at stake. These courses are our vehicle
for sharing best practices, forming the global mindset, and building the global
knowledge base that is the very heart of Colgate," comments McNamara. The
stakes are high and the investment large, so Colgate wants to ensure consistent
quality and be very clear about what skills it wants to develop and specific
knowledge it wants its employees to acquire.
Transferring knowledge
The classroom. isn’the only means-of spreading knowledge around the
company. Being a global company, Colgate-Palmolive encourages its employees
to take on positions in other countries as part of its knowledge transfer process.
Moving employees around for the last 50 years has helped Colgate’s employees
develop a global minuset anu improve the company from within by moving
expertise around. McNamara comments, "Whether we're opening a new
subsidiary or expanding a new product line, we consciously move talent. We
have two motivators for that. One is to meet the business need of moving
expertise to a needed location; the second is to help individuals acquire the deep,
contextual knowledge they need to continually move and contribute.” This
might play out by moving one individual from a smaller subsidiary to a mid-
sized subsidiary or from a three-product business to a single-category business.
It builds Colgate’s management capabilities and reinforces its corporate values
of Caring, Global Teamwork and Continous Improvement.
Integrating with KM
These values also drive its knowledge management group, who focus on
building communities of practice, documenting and spreading demonstrated
practices, and encouraging continous improvement reviews. The KM group is
now looking beyond its roots in the supply chain part of the business into
partnering with other areas, one of which is education and training.
The KM group and the education and training training department are
working together by implementing an e-learning strategy to migrate successful
practices in the supply chain area to other parts of the business. McNamara
comments,”E-learning will be an additional, way to meet our business
objectives. Luckilym, our chairman is very vocally supportive of education and
training. The priority setting process for our company involves senior people
throughout the world who consider business needs and employee needs when
marking decisions. That focus makes for well-thought-out programs and a drive
on the part of emplyees to make them happen.”
Running smoothly
Because sharing is an embedded element of Colgate-Palmolive’s 100-year-old
culture, retaining knowledge has been a byproduct of sharing, rather than a
stand-alone strategy. Several factors- holding training courses taught by its
leaders, rotating talent around the world, and providing connectivity throught e-
learnig-result in the preservation of the knowledge that makes Colgate-
Palmolive run smoothly despite a shifting workforce.

B. Întrebări:

1. Care au fost principalele cinci modalităţi de construire şi dezvoltare a

comunităţilor bazate pe cunoştinţe la Colgate Palmolive?
2. Care a fost principalul învăţământ pe care l-aţi desprins din analiza acestui
studiu de caz?