TABLE OF CONTENTS Ted Graham, worldwide knowledge management director
Nicole Doyle, Canadian knowledge management director
Hill & Knowlton (H&K) is the second largest public relations firm in the world and a subsidiary of the WPP Group, a $22 billion U.S. company. H&K has a significant global reach, with 2000 employees operating in 67 offices located in 34 countries. The company strives to leverage the intellectual capital of all these offices while operating in a decentralized culture with a razor-sharp focus on client needs.
Since 1999, H&K has been deploying its knowledge management programs to clients with innovative solutions via the Web, as well as developing an employee portal capability to share internal knowledge and best practices.
Every innovative change brings a change agent who has a far-reaching vision. At H&K, this person was Tony Burgess-Webb, a member of H&K s worldwide executive committee and of the NetComs practice, a practice within H&K providing clients with cutting-edge interactive communications via innovative technology: Internet, intranets, and extranets.
In early 1999, Tony assessed H&K s current approach to KM and existing intranet infrastructure and support processes. Employee surveys confirmed the intranet was functionally limited, as the knowledge sourced was irrelevant, outdated, and inaccurate. In addition, the value of the knowledge-based initiatives did not have strong executive alignment, as current users were discontented with the value and performance of the KM infrastructure.
Hence, Tony proposed a new and bold vision to Build something totally new. He began a leadership quest to share a compelling...
