Bob Armacost, an Iknow Engagement Director and former Head of Knowledge Management at KPMG and Bain, spoke at KMWorld’s Knowledge Management and Enterprise Solutions Conference on November 4, 2015, in Washington, D.C. The title of his presentation was “Improving the Bottom Line through Collaboration.”
Knowledge is increasingly taking many different forms, it has a shorter “shelf life,” and it needs to be shared and learned more rapidly than ever before. This drives the need for stronger capabilities to help people connect and collaborate with others quickly, both within and beyond formal teams and with external customers, suppliers, and partners. In most organizations, collaboration has become much more important than content to transfer and apply critical knowledge, and it has changed what knowledge is for many organizations. Organizations have rushed to invest heavily in new tools, including social collaboration, yet for most of them, their hopes for dramatic business impact remain unrealized. Organizations rarely align the collaboration approach to the business strategy, and don’t think fully about the critical cultural and governance considerations.
In his presentation, Armacost shared insights and best practices for developing and sustaining a winning collaboration program, based on the experiences of many leading firms. The presentation covered building and selling the business case, aligning it to core business needs, and driving successful program implementation.
Armacost said, “I am honored to have been invited to present my thoughts on Enterprise Collaboration to this group of knowledge management and business executives. Collaboration is the lifeblood of knowledge sharing in any organization and organizations are challenged in building the necessary capabilities to realize lasting value.”