inventing new knowledge is not a specialized activity...

it is a way of behaving, indeed a way

of being, in which everyone is a knowledge worker’ (Nonaka, 1991).
Following this line of thought, and with reference to relevant literature and theory,
discuss your company’s approach to strategic management of knowledge and
organisational learning. Evaluate its use of strategic frameworks and tools, including
the importance of knowledge in strategic development; strategic marketing;
sustainability, competitive advantage; and managing strategic corporate change.

Introduction

Sekan Company limited is a business organisation established in 2001 which produces the

cocoa drink, and fresh natural fruit drink. It is located in Dome, a town near Accra off the

Accra –Pokuase Road. The work presents the firms approach to strategic management of

knowledge and organisational learning. It also evaluates the strategic frameworks and tools,

including the importance of knowledge in strategic development; strategic marketing;

sustainability, competitive advantage; and managing of strategic corporate change.

Effective management of knowledge is seen as an important element for firms desiring

sustainable strategic competitive advantage. Knowledge is considered as an actionable

information (Firestone, 2003).

Hence the management of knowledge concerns enhancing the capabilities of firms to

delivering profitability, capacity enhancement and competitiveness. It is considered as a

necessary and essential factor for firm maintenance and survival (Joe, Kim and Koh 2011).

Knowledge management is therefore a framework to designing a firm’s’ strategy, processes,

structures and strategies so that the firm uses she knows and creates economic as well as

social value for community and customers (Riege, 2007).

From the view of Riege (2007), knowledge management is the ability of a firm to identify

resources allow firms to create, recognize, change and distribute knowledge. Hislop (2013)

maintains that firms that effectively transfer and manage knowledge perform better and are

more innovative. To Hislop (2013) knowledge management envelopes any well considered

efforts to handle knowledge of firm’s workforce, through a wide range of

methods which envelopes the use of information communication technologies and also

through the management of social processes, the structuring of a firm’s ways and use of

culture and management practice.

According Firestone (2003), knowledge comes in two forms explicit and tacit. Explicit

knowledge concerns all form of artefacts like documents, books and policy manuals. Tacit

knowledge, on the other hand, are found in employees, experiences of customers, and

memories of stakeholders. From the view of Firestone (2003) tacit knowledge is hard to

record this is because it is built on experience, could be short-lived and difficult to document

in detail.

Organisational learning process involves creating, exchanging, and capturing the knowledge

in a continuous interaction. This is to say that Organisational learning is a never-ending,

closed loop of knowledge management transformation process. According to Odi (2003),

organisational learning (OL) is a means of critical analysis and self-assessment. According to

Nokana and Konno (1998) the interaction between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge

creates learning in the organisation.

Nokana and Konno (1998) made known that this knowledge, as categorised into explicit and
tacit implies that they are important to enhancing the development of a firm. Explicit
knowlgeer are those knowledge that can easily be presented and transformed in any way like
number and words which are easily observed. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, are more
concerned with what individuals do, experience, and how they feel. This knowledge is
virtually hard to duplicate.
In an organizational success or in her strategic development. According to Nokana and
Konno (1998), tacit knowledge is considered more as very vital to firm who entreat of
gaining competitive advantage in an industry. This is because it brings competitive advantage
to a firm since it not replicable and that it brings identity and some level of unique features to
the firm’s behaviour. In this respect, it is crucial to transform tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge. This is based on the level of knowledge formed and also on the ability of a frim
to share knowledge through the creation of learning organization. Changing knowledge from
tacit to explicit is knowledge generation as in four backgrounds as shown in figure below.
Figure 1: Traditions of knowledge source
From the illustration above, socialization implies changing a person’s tacit knowledge to
another. It helps people to share experiences in companies by sharing knowledge. This type
of knowledge is shared to people in a firm as there arise a new knowledge which gives
competitive advantage. In that, the unduplicated ideas of tacit knowledge are shared. This is
normally done through initiation of social rallies like meetings and parties where people are
able to disseminate ideas or information that eventually elevate the life of the company. The
externalization aid companies to use knowledge from other rival firms which are relevant.
However this knowledge is to be incorporated into the company’s system, whish are
effectively used and shared to gain competitive advantage. Conversely, internalizing
knowledge is critical. This is for the reason that it enables firms to communicate its own
knowledge to its employees. The employees are hence aware of the objectives and goals of
the firm. The other constituent of the combination make effort to bring both explicit and tacit
knowledge together . Thus to develop new set of knowledge that has the likelihood of gaining
competitive advantage and developing organizational success. Management of firms in this
respect, are to ensure that personnel are encouraged to share and meet their experiences so as
to meet organizational success using knowledge management. Practically, the creation and
management of knowledge is exhibited at my current work place, Sekan Company Limted in
Ghan. This is a company purely into beverages both natural fruit and cocoa beverages.
Management of this company enables the development of knowledge shared experiences and
responsibilities. This finally helps the idea of knowledge creation and also in gaining
competitive advantage by organizational learning.

Importance of knowledge in strategic development;

With respect to Sekan Company limited, knowledge management has helped the firm to

strategically build the company. It has helped the company to understand the resources of the

company and as well helped in clearly communicating the role of knowledge in creating

value for the company. This has helped integrate activities over time and have led to a

generating benefits to the company. This is because it has helped the organisation map out

strategies to plan and also enable the firm’s capacity on competitive advantage. Now through

the management of knowledge and organisational learning, Sekan has being able to capture

and also transfer internal knowledge and best practices from one employee to the other.

The fundamental evidence of knowledge management in Sekan Company and her learning is

that best practices of yesterday’s business are not taken for granted as best practices for

today or the ensuing days. This is to say that in strategically developing the company, Sekan,

in her learning, and relearning processes redesigns her organisational business processes to

learn from their past and use it to remodel their activities for the future. Hence equip the

company to constantly align with the changing needs of business environment. Hence to

achieve our set strategic developmental goals, the company have appointed a senior executive

in charge of knowledge management who supports, understand and also assist design

operational needs of the firm as the firm rec

Importance of knowledge in strategic marketing

The management of knowledge and organisational learning is also vital to strategic

marketing. In Sekan Company limited it is the means that help the company to effectively
manage and also well use professional talents. It is important to note that Sekan Company

Limited’s strategic marketing is marketing knowledge which depends entirely on the

dynamic market. As such management personnel of the company adjusts tactics and

strategies every time by depending on the management of knowledge and organisational

learnings of the firm.

Knowledge management helps in marketing knowledge dissemination in the company. It

assist in sharing the organisations marketing information or knowledge among its employees

or marketing officers. As such when there is no organisational learning or knowledge

management there occurs inaccuracies in marketing knowledge dissemination and

consequently insufficient efficiencies. Hence when there exist knowledge and a sense of

organisational learning processes it eliminates the barriers to the distribution of knowledge

processing and also its respective solutions to weak linkage in the application, development

and dissemination of knowledge.

Most often in accurate distribution of marketing knowledge leads to failures in marketing

decisions. With the knowledge of this, Sekan Company Limited have made conscious effort

to find , adopt and employ systematic and efficient means of communication so as to enhance

and promote efficient marketing decisions. This is because, once she identified in the

dissemination of information the company had cognitive problems especially due to the fact

that there were inadequate policies covering the dissemination of marketing information. In

addressing this challenge, Sekan established a system of policies and this gave

infrastructures which handled or covered the values of the company, regulations and

corresponding policies, efficient knowledge dissemination, and established knowledge

management support systems. In this respect, Sekan have identified the essence of knowledge

in strategic marketing of its products. To Sekan , the essence of of knowledge in strategic

marketing is that it helps

Know Sekans buyers characteristics or features; it helps create customer satisfaction; it also

helps divide Sekans Company’s market into segments, helps the company Strive for high

knowledge market share; also it helps treat intermediate buyers and also employ all possible

technologies and information to improve decisions.

Importance of knowledge in sustainability,

According to Ruggles (1998), sustainability means continued viability. To Ruggles (1998),

understanding the concepts of knowledge management helps a company to certify the

sustainability of its operations. With respect to Sekan Company limited, the ability of the firm

knowing the essence of knowledge management in sustainability helps the firm to efficiently

managing her technical skills, developing her managerial competency, safeguarding her

institutional memory and also developing her information technology.

Considering the technical skills of Sekan Company limited, the ability of management to

manage the technical skills of the company is to know the basic and required skill of

employees, train and also document all technical procedures and performances executed in

the company.

The application of knowledge management in Sekan shall help to obtain, retain and also

motivate employees of the firm. Retaining talents and human capital reduces cost in hiring

new personnel and also in training them. According to Porter and Kramer (2006),

By effective knowledge manage a firm like Sekan can identify solutions to problems and this

shall enable the company gain competitive advantage over other firms since it is able to

sustain and develop its knowledge which enables the firm to continue it operation in the

unforeseen period of time.

Importance of knowledge in competitive advantage;

Spender (1996) maintains that the development of knowledge allows business organisations

to gain competitive advantage. This is because it serves as a foundation for competences and

capabilities. To Spender (1996) ability of a firms to create a knowledge base is considered as

a basic process of developing competence. From this view is it understood that firms depend

on their knowledge base to transform raw material to finished products or services. This is to

say that knowledge serve as an input to enhance production and serve as an output in the

process of service delivery. It is important to note that business entities Companies do not

simply react to a competitive environment. They however make conscious effort to create

knowledge-based competitive advantage so as to contest their competitors.

Knowledge may assist a business organisation to gain a competitive advantage. However, to

maintain this competitive advantage, managers are to develop frameworks which aids

continuous processes

to absorb knowledge and also continuously enhance relationships with customers in order to

be competitive.

From the views of Sanchez, Heene and Thomas (1996), knowledge management helps firms

to be competitive through keeping good relations and records with her customers

In this respect, it is noticed that Sekan have good relations with her customers. This implies

that the company have contact of her customers, have knowledge on her customers and this

gives her a competitive advantage over other companies who do not have the needed

information on available customers in the industry. Sekan has the ability to manage

knowledge effectively and this have given her coordination ability , and superior managerial

cognition which gives her competitive advantage.

Knowledge management in Sekan Company Limited has caused core competencies to be

stronger than before. This has also sustained competitive advantage over other firms in the
industry. In Sekan Knowledge management is considered as the organisation and

development of intangible asset in the firm. This is because production and economic level of

Sekan Company limited deeply relies more on her human capital, invisible competences and

brainpower than her physical assets (Quinn, 1992).

According the management of Sekan Company Limited, they cherish the function of every

employee. This is because every employee possess some level of knowledge of her human

capital. These personnel use these knowledge in relational activities and building

infrastructure to meet the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. In the recent operations

of Sekan , it was noticed that company has , through her strategic management of activities,

emphasized on the training employees and also letting them document all the “what is” and

“how is” in the execution of businesses. This have ensured sustainability of operation in the

company and in effect given the company competitive advantage over other firms in the

industry.

Importance of knowledge in managing strategic corporate change.

It is important to note that firms that do not have effective strategies for development are

more prone to fail in the course to managing corporate change. According to Lynch (2005),

as firms grow, their experiences and culture also change especially in their processes, habits,

systems and identity. As such if the firm does not effectively communicate this changes, the

firm’s culture stagnates It is therefore important for companies like Sekan Company Limited

to adopt a strategic corporate change procedure to meet the needs of customers and

employees when changes occur. This is to say that the company is to clearly spell out its

objective and mission. As a result, it is important for Sekan to develop organizational change

strategies to certify professional development in the company. As a result the company has
fully developed its institutional experiences, and human resource so as to reduce staff

turnover but enable sustainable corporate change. In view of this, the company have

instituted policies and measures to ensure that there is smooth transfer of knowledge and as

such there exist effective knowledge management. To Sekan , the essence of this knowledge

in managing strategic cooperate change is that it has helped the company rotate employees at

the lower levels. These employees are the key to the success of the firm. This is because there

know key information of each unit in the firm. Hence they serve as institutional memory. In

rotating these employees, the company make them document every procedure and steps used

in the undertaking of activities in the production process of the firm. As a result even it one

employee leave the company information is sustainably kept. In this respect, strategic

corporate change is well managed.

At the management level, Sekan conducts meetings and training of managements to help the

management of the firm to maintain the cherished culture of knowledge in the firm.

Conclusion

Every company has a vision of being competitive. Being competitive is founded on having
and efficient human capital. Employees of firms are generally considered as the real assets of
a firm. This is because they are the actual custodians of knowledge and apply this knowledge
through experience to make a company competitive and as well gain competitive advantage
over others.
With this in mind, company use these human capital to outwit other firms in the business
environment. Managing knowledge hence goes together with learning and this produces
competitive knowledge which varies with its application to situations.
Knowledge management strategy is therefore to correspond to a firm’s means of innovations
and also creativity which shall enable the firm meet its competitive advantage. This is to
imply that have a strategy to managing knowledge in a learning to enhance organisational
learning is critical to the development of a firm. These strategies in managing knowledge are
to be created or designed to advance competitive advantage, sustainability, corporate change
and also marketing. This work therefore considered the application of the principle of
knowledge management and organisational learning in Sekan Company Limited. Emphasis
were made with respect to advancement of the operations of Sekan in having competitive
advantage, sustainability, enhancing corporate change and also advancing the marketing
strategies of the firm.
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