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Knowledge Management

Practical Ideas & Approaches -
a 3perspective
Knowledge Management

Leveraging knowledge, explicit and tacit, internal and external, to increase productivity and innovation
3M's Vision

To be the most innovative enterprise and the preferred supplier
3M's Business Model
o Multi-business company knitted together by:
· Shared world-class technology
· Shared customers, channels, and brands
· Shared manufacturing
· Shared global infrastructure
· Culture of innovation
Leveraging Internal Knowledge
o Learning Center
o Communities of Practice
- Technical Forum
- Marketing Forum
- Executive Conference
o Internal Knowledge Repositories
o Intranet
o Notes Discussion Databases & Teamrooms
Internal Knowledge Repositories
o Technical Skills Database
o Technical Reports
o Technical Notebooks
o Records of Invention Corporate Archive
o Chemical Registry
o 3M Patents
o 3M Published Papers and Presentations

Leveraging External Knowledge
o Learning Center
o Communities of Practice
o 3M Libraries
o LIS Reference Services
o 3M Electronic Library

Enhanced Technical Awareness (ETA)
o Developed in response to expressed needs
- "Technical personnel shall know the worldwide patent and non-patent literature relating to their area of activity."
- "Help me better manage all my information."

Enhanced Technical Awareness
o Features
- Views based on abstract fields
- Meaningful keywords can be added
- Full-text searching is available
- "About" page explains database design and limitations
- Updated weekly (automatically)
- Editor selects relevant documents
Patents ETA
o Customized, shareable, up-to-date Notes databases of abstracts, full-text and images of patents
o A better way to retain, organize, access and share current awareness

Data Visualization
o Process of finding meaningful patterns in data and creating a visual representation
o Map is inherently easier to understand
o Large data sets can be explored quickly
o New insights can be gained

"A picture is worth a thousand words

Data Visualization Applications
o IP Assessments
o Competitive Intelligence
o Technology Assessments
o R&D Planning
o Benchmarking
o Patents, Tech. Literature, Internal Reports Newswires, Web Sites….