Toward a Phase-Model of Global Knowledge Management Systems in Multinational Corporations

According to Heinrich v. Pierer, CEO at Siemens, `an e-business year is only three months long. Ifyou want to be a leader in this fast-paced world, you must be faster than the others. Just being onboard is by far not enough'. The ability to be faster than others, however, is only relevant if it islinked to management of key assets in the pursuit of continuous competitive advantage. The keyasset of the present is knowledge and in the future it is likely to be continuous and timelyinnovation based on effective management of knowledge assets. Most firms today, however, lack aneffective Knowledge Management System. Although many companies have ManagementInformation Systems in place, this is only the first step in a knowledge-based company. Companiesthat understand and actively manage the process of designing, developing and advancing effectiveKMS' are likely to, in the words of Heinrich v. Pierer, `e-outperform competition and becomeleaders of the e-conomy'. Using examples from a number of large multinational companies thispaper proposes a phase model for the development of a global Knowledge Management Systemwith attention to pertinent policy and management issues in each stage.Keywords: Knowledge management system, phase-model, multinational corporation, managementactions