A

CASE STUDY
ON
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT

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 Once upon a time, in the Industrial age, machinery

determined what you could produce & sell. This is no
longer true. Today the most important asset is people &
what they know. But unlike machinery, people are
mobile, they up & leave – and when they leave an
organization, their knowledge goes with them. As
companies come to realize the value of their intellectual
assets, they put into place the initiatives that manage
these assets.
The most popular term for these initiatives is
Knowledge Management.
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 What is Knowledge Management….?

 “knowing what you know and profiting from it”.
-- Layperson’s term.
 “Information combined with experience, context, interpretation &
reflection. It is high value form of information that is ready to
apply to decisions & actions”.
-- Albert & Bradley-1997
 “In the new economy, knowledge is not just another resource
alongside the traditional factors of production – land, labor &
capital – but the only meaningful resource today”.
-- Peter Drucker
 Knowledge Management
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- Written, transferred & shared. - By nature, difficult to describe.

- Definable
- Protected under legal mechanism.
- Demonstrated but can’t codified.
- Resides with it’s holder.
- Transferred only through
Demonstration & ‘on-the-job’
training.

Knowledge Management means “ The strategies & processes of identifying,

capturing and leveraging knowledge to help the firm compete”.
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 The knowledge management process is geared

to : 

 Make all successes repeatable & sustainable;

 Recognize a mistake and never make it again;
 Never re-invent the wheel or duplicate an effort;
 Shorten the learning curve; and
 Make every decision at every level, with
awareness of the full knowledge base of the
organization.
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 Requirement
of effective Knowledge
Management

 Effective knowledge management requires a

combination of many organizational elements –
technology, human resource practices,
organizational structure and culture – in order to
ensure that the right knowledge is brought into
focus at the right time.
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4 ways to best develop & motivate knowledge

workers 

Know people’s strengths.

Place them where they can make the greatest

contributions.

Treat them as associates.

Expose them to challenges.

-- Peter F. Drucker
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Knowledge Management at Tata Steel

● In the late 1990s  Introduction of KM at Tata Steel

Knowledge Repository.

Knowledge communities.

In 2001  Introduction of KM Index.

In 2003  Tata Steel was recognized as one of Asia’s Most Admired

Knowledge Enterprises [MAKE].

Only steel company in the world to have received the MAKE award.
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 “ I am proud that Tata Steel is recognized for its

knowledge creating and sharing character and I
congratulate all the employees of Tata Steel.
This award, however, is only a milestone and must not
be mistaken for our destination. We need to make
knowledge the primary source of our distinction in an
industry where technology is increasingly becoming a
commodity”.

B. Muthuraman, MD, Tata Steel

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Asia’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise

 In 2003, Awarded by MAKE award.
 Only one mfg. company in India & only steel company in
world.
 The award was in specific recognition of Tata Steel’s KM
initiatives.
 Expectations from KM initiative of Tata Steel mgt.-
To play a key role in establishing intellectual assets.
To be an imp. source of competitive advantage for Tata Steel.
 Linked Performance Assessment Programme on the
participation of each individual employee in the KM
program by introducing KM index.
 It helps in benchmarking the employees participation.
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Asia’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise

 Tata Steel scored 1100 hits in 2001-2002 compared to

SHELL’s (2nd most admired company in Europe) 1000 hits,
even though Tata Steel’s registered users are 3000 whereas
Shell’s are 10000 users.

 Benefits of KM initiative to Tata Steel mgt.

Expert skills became available throughout the organization.
Increased productivity.
Increased job satisfaction.
Reduction in R & D expenditures.
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Background Note ( History of Tata Steel)

 1907- Tata Steel was established by J. N. Tata at Jamshedpur in
Bihar, India.
 1911- Commenced production with a capacity of 0.1mn tonne of
Mild Steel.
 1958- Capacity had increased to 2mn tonnes.
 1973- Took over some flux mines & collieries near Jharia, West
Bokaro.
 1983- Acquired the Indian Tube Co. Ltd. (A mfg. of seamless &
welded tubes).
 1991- Acquired the Ferro-chrome unit of OMC Alloys Ltd. near
Bamnipal in Orissa.
 1995- Asia’s first & India’s largest Integrated Steel Producer
(ISP) in the private sector.
 2000- 8 Divisions of Tata Steel had ISO-14001 certified.
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Background Note ( History of Tata Steel)

 In the early 1980’s- Tata Steel initiated a modernization
program (of 5 phases) for it’s steel plants by realizing the need
for modernization.
 By early 2000- Tata Steel had completed 4 phases of its
modernization program with an investment of @ Rs.60 billion.
 In April 2000- Commenced 5th phase of modernization program.
This phase focused on attracting, developing and retaining the
company’s most valuable asset, its people, under its Performance
Ethic Program.
 In April 2000- Tata Steel started its Cold Rolling Mill (CRM)
plant at Jamshedpur.
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Background Note ( History of Tata Steel)

 By April 2001- World’s lowest-cost producer of steel.
World Steel Dynamics (WSD) identified and ranked 12
companies as World Class Steel Makers.
Tata Steel stood at no.1 with a score of 131 points, ahead of
Usinor (France), and Posco (South Korea).
 In August 2001- Tata Steel announced a new program as
“Vision-2007”, aimed at making Tata Steel’s Economic Value
Added (EVA) positive by year 2007.
Achieved positive EVA in only one year after launch.
 In 2003- Tata Steel was the most profitable steel company in
India. (because of its strong B2C and B2B sales).
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KM Initiatives at Tata Steel

 In 1999- KM program was started at Tata Steel.
 Basic aim of KM program- To tap the abundant knowledge
base in the form of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge that
was lying unused, and make it available for use across the
company.
 The KM process was started by bringing together a group of
people from different dept. within the company with the support
of top management rather than hiring people from outside.
 Knowledge repository
Active participation of all employees.
Repository was placed on the corporate intranet.
Employees shared their experiences of successes and failures in
implementing various projects in company.
 For effective KM, Tata Steel integrated the KR at the
division/dept. level with the main KM repository.
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KM Initiatives at Tata Steel

Authors
Internet Feedbacks
Journals, Knowledge Problems
Vendors On-line
Experts User
Training

Knowledge
Manager Knowledge
Repository

Knowledge

Communities

Fig 1: Knowledge System

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KM Initiatives at Tata Steel

 Knowledge communities
Formed one year after the Knowledge repository.
A forum of like-minded people to meet and share their
experiences.
It was not a problem solving platform, but to learn from
one another.
They may took up a problem and solved it by
brainstorming.
Not aimed at short-term gains, but were an investment for
the company’s future.
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Phases of KM Initiatives at Tata Steel

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Revamped Strategy

 Problems in successful KM implementation 

Poor connectivity.
Access technology was not standardized.
Irrelevant contributions were made to the knowledge
repository.

 Ravi Arora (Head-KM at Tata Steel) said : “Worse,

there were cultural problems with technology phobias and
attitudes such as,
“This is another method to downsize” &
“Why should I share my precious knowledge?”
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Revamped Strategy

 In May 2000, Tata Steel 

Adopted a refined strategy for KM.
Started organizing seminars on KM.
Identifying & recognizing some successful KM efforts.
Hired McKinsey consultants for advice on communities
of practice.
 Communities of practice 

Capturing the tacit knowledge of experts.

Improving the quality of knowledge repository.
Encouraging usage of the repository.
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Revamped Strategy
 Members of communities 
Champion.
Convener.
Practice Leader.
Lead Expert.
Practitioner.
 In 1999-2000  Only 100 feedbacks were received.
 In 2000-2001  Only 240 users felt that the available
knowledge was useful and could be applied in their work.
 Basic needs such as :
To improve the quality of knowledge.
To inculcate the habit of browsing, so that they can acquire
the knowledge stored and use it.
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Revamped Strategy
 With this objective in mind, In Jan 2001 
Introduction of “KM Index”.
To measure the performance of the system.
To reward successful KM initiatives.
Each officer was expected to score minimum of 130
points on KM index.
 In 2001-2002 
70 Points– making a valuable contribution to the
Knowledge Repository.
30 Points– assigned to one-time feedback, interaction or
collaboration with the author of another KP.
30 Points– assigned for the application of a KP from
site.
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Revamped Strategy
 In early 2002 
Introduced a stringent monitoring system for KM.
Employees started browsing the KM pages more
frequently.

 On the cultural front,  employee attitudes transformed

from –
“I am an expert, I don’t need new knowledge”
 To one of a continuous quest for knowledge like –
“I need help”.
“ I can also help”.
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Revamped Strategy
 Toincrease the effectiveness of KM, Tata Steel made
two major changes in organization 
1] Performance evaluation of employees was linked to KM.
– Stared using a balance score card :
 To monitor the performance of employees.
 Divisions in the KM process.
 For taking corrective measures to improve the
implementation of KM.
2] Launched a formal rewards & recognition system for
KM. – The CEO rewarded the :
 Best performing employee
 Best team
 Best knowledge community.
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Benefits reaped from KM

Benefits of KM

Utilize
Reduce Increase Create New
Existing
Costs Revenues Knowledge
Knowledge

Fig 1: Benefits of KM
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Benefits reaped from KM

 In addition to above benefits, Tata Steel reaped other
benefits too, such as :--
Increased collaboration, conversation and interaction among
employees.
Expert’s skills are available throughout the org.
Increased job satisfaction.
Increased productivity.
Knowledge was available quickly and easily.
Innovations were encouraged.
 Other indirect benefits were :--
Reduced the loss of intellectual capital.
Reduced expenditures on R&D, as new ideas were generated
from within the org.
Reduced the duplication of ideas being used across the org.
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Future of KM at Tata Steel

 In the future, Tata Steel plans :--
To link e-learning with the KM repository and KM
communities.
To devise an intellectual capital index.
To network with retired employees.
To develop employee skills for better externalization of
knowledge & integration with the customer’s knowledge.
 According to Mr. Arora, “The key to business
modernization in the 21st century is not just through the
expenditure of huge sums of money to create physical
assets, but orienting people -the greatest asset – towards
meeting the opportunities and challenges of the future”.
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Future of KM at Tata Steel

 TataSteel seemed to be well placed to achieve its

mission which was redrafted in 1998 :--
“ Tata Steel enters the new
millennium with the confidence of a
learning and knowledge - based
organization”.
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References

 www.tatasteel.com
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 Thank You