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346 Chapter 10

Box 10.1
An example: Accenture

Accenture and the Intellectual Capital Management (ICM) Group (International Knowl-
edge Management News, October 1, 1999) formed an alliance to help organizations iden-
tify and measure the value of their intangible assets, and use those assets to generate new
revenue. Services provided to fi rms included evaluating a company ’ s intangible assets —
patents, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, and all the knowledge or know-how of its
employees — and then recommending and implementing systems and processes to manage
those assets. Clients can expect to pay in the region of $25,000 for an analysis of their
intellectual property portfolios.
In 1995, the ICM Group cofounded the ICM Gathering, which included more than
thirty global companies dedicated to improving the way they manage their intellectual
assets and maximizing their fi nancial return. ICM views intellectual assets as ideas that
can be converted into profi t. Organizations are sitting on untapped wealth in the form of
hundreds of ideas that were never developed. Arthur Andersen and the ICM Group enable
organizations to fi nd these hidden gems and translate them into increased revenue and
higher market value. The alliance also will emphasize the link between research and
development and business strategy, as organizations need to look at where new value is
being created and focus the dollars spent on R & D. Organizations need to understand how
intellectual assets are created and managed in order to get the most benefi t from those
assets. R & D can help organizations identify future market direction and the competitive
landscape.

Box 10.2
An example: Chevron

In Chevron ’ s case, the guiding concept of KM has not been a buzzword, but a culture,
dubbed “ The Chevron Way. ” This concept, which provides an integrated framework for
the company ’ s objectives and principles, actively encourages the internal transfer of infor-
mation to make every employee ’ s life easier. For Chevron — like other oil companies — the
sharing of knowledge is a necessity. By using best practice sharing, Chevron can cut costs,
reduce production cycle times, and still grow in targeted areas.
That extends to ensuring that the projects the company undertakes are the most
important ones, and offer the best rate of return. Knowledge is applied to the entire busi-
ness, and sharing knowledge is no longer merely a performance issue — it is a reputation
issue as well. Knowledge directly affects every major company ’ s ability to win new business
and keep top employees.
One of the drivers for Chevron ’ s focus on sharing best practices throughout the orga-
nization was a series of benchmarking studies that showed Chevron ’ s management that