06-RP-GE-SYP-26-A: International Productivity Conference 2007 on Knowledge Management
18–19 January 2007, Sofitel Central Plaza Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
Ladies and Gentlemen:
First of all, on behalf of the Asian Productivity Organization, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all the distinguished delegates to the International Productivity Conference on Knowledge Management here in the bustling but beautiful city of Bangkok. We organized this conference to mark two important events, the 45th anniversary of the APO and the 12th anniversary of the FTPI. Knowledge management, or KM, is not only one of the APO’s thrust areas but is growing in importance in this fast-changing and globalized world. That is why we decided to choose it as the central theme of our combined celebration. I very much hope that the coming two days will prove that our decision was right.
KM is not simply a fashionable new management trend. It is instead a logical consequence of developments occurring around us right now. Among them, the most significant development in terms of elevating the status of KM is, in my view, the growing importance of innovation as a means to achieve sustained economic growth in many countries.
In Singapore, a policy shift from productivity-induced growth to innovation-induced growth took place decades ago. The Republic of Korea has long prided itself on producing human resources who can lead industry to innovation and breakthroughs. Japan’s new government came out with the statement that it would make innovation the centerpiece of its economic policy.
In a way, it is inevitable for those high-performing countries to resort to innovation as a means to stimulate economic growth, as their population growth rates are dwindling and are likely to drop below zero in the near future. The Japanese fertility rate, or children born per woman, for example, registered only 1.26 in 2005, while the comparable figure for the ROK was as low as 1.08. Even more striking is a sharp declining trend in the fertility rates of middle-income countries in Asia. The fertility rate in Thailand declined sharply over the last half-century and in 2005 it stood at 1.7, which was lower than that in the USA, France, or Sweden.
In those countries the prospect of achieving economic growth by increasing the labor force is very dim indeed. It is no wonder that interest in innovation as a means for economic growth started spreading from high-performing countries to middle-income ones in Asia and the Pacific. Soon it will spread to developing countries as well. The days when incremental or continuous improvement preoccupied corporate managers are over. It is to innovation and breakthroughs that those managers have turned their attention. For achieving innovation, the most relevant tool is no longer quality control or quality management. It is KM in its broadest sense, which includes value creation or knowledge creation, that is the most relevant. Many theoreticians and practitioners have realized that creating knowledge by strengthening the ability to turn the tacit knowledge of their staff members into a tangible organizational asset is crucial for organizations.
Today and tomorrow we will have opportunities to listen to presentations by representatives from internationally renowned organizations on how they have been utilizing KM to achieve organizational excellence. Today’s first session immediately after this ceremonial session will be started off by the keynote speaker, Professor Ikujiro Nonaka, who will present his thought-provoking views on KM. You will no doubt learn a great deal from their experience and insight. Our staff members at the APO Secretariat also look forward to learning and benefiting from them, because the Secretariat itself has embarked on a modest experiment in knowledge creation. This may be a good occasion to share with you what we have done so far to cultivate a “knowledge-philic” work culture that allows our staff members to enhance their knowledge-creating capability.
The APO, which was founded 45 years ago, organizes about 100 seminars, training courses, and workshops as well as big conferences like this one every year in various places in Asia. It has a compact Secretariat in Tokyo with slightly fewer than 50 staff members. Although small in number, our officers are capable, active and diverse in the sense that they came from 10 different countries.
The first measure we took for KM was the creation of an appropriate work environment, both physical and virtual. We replaced most of the high partitions and filing cabinets in the office with low ones to make everything and everybody more visible. We reduced the number of operational departments from five to three, and reorganized the layout in such a way that distances among officers are physically closer. In doing so, we were conscious of the famous “30-meter rule” proposed by Professor Thomas Allen of MIT, which states that two persons whose desks are more than 30 meters apart have a communication frequency of almost zero. We transformed the newly created open spaces into formal and informal meeting spaces to encourage interaction among staff members. Finally, we made sure that the new physical layout incorporates IT support.
The second measure we took was the introduction of a new reporting system in which the officer responsible for an APO project is mandated to submit a report on its contents and to make recommendations to improve it. Previously, we had a reporting system but did not have a clearly defined format and it was not strictly enforced anyway. Now, however, the submission of a report after attending an APO project is compulsory. Moreover, guidelines on items to be reported were announced in which officers are asked to rate project results and explain the reasons for that rating. Dozens of reports under the new format have already been submitted which are full of new ideas and suggestions for operational and organizational improvement. With these results, I am confident that the Secretariat will be able to provide better service to member countries by offering projects that are more useful, focused, and relevant.
The third measure we took was to demonstrate the commitment of the management to the concept of KM. It is well known that the commitment of leaders is crucial to motivate people and to create a new work culture conducive to creating and sharing knowledge. We deliberately encouraged brainstorming sessions and IT-supported knowledge-sharing sessions among staff members. The fact that KM was selected as the theme for the conference to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the APO is itself the best testimony to our commitment to this concept.
I believe that KM is a key source of innovation in any organization. Knowledge is going to be the lifeline of an organization just like land, labor, and capital were in the past. So I sincerely hope that you all will benefit from your participation in this conference. If you can take back even one idea from the conference and implement it in your own organization to strengthen knowledge-creating capability, I will be more than happy as the organizer of this event.
Finally, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the FTPI for its tireless efforts, without which this conference would never have been held.
Thank you.
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