knowledge management
i
IO What'sNewS Issue 12' December 1
considered by them to be 'in-
house' service providers. This
means we will have to climb
to an even higher level of
knowledge management and
skills which can also be
shared with our customers.
...continued from previous page
Bernard Walschots: When we
were focused almost
exclusively on the Dutch
domestic market, personal
networks were often
adequate. Now we have
internationalized, you really
need a systematic approach.
We have to take the ad hoe,
haphazard personal
networking systems of the
past and systemize them into
a more structured platform
so that the bank can utilize
more readily and efficiently
the knowhow and expertise Hung Tran
that is all over this bank. If
we can do that, then we can become
much more competitive when it comes to
winning customers and winning business.
WNS:We're talking here primarily about the
supply side of knowledge management -
what about the demand side?
Hung Tran: Wait a minute, we still
haven't defined what knowledge is. All
we have said so far is that it is
something most people keep in their
head and give to their personal network
almost on a rationed basis.
Frans van Bijsterveld: For me, in our
particular business, it is a very broad
concept. It covers information and
subsequent knowledge of a whole range
of things - knowing a market situation,
knowing the country risk involved,
knowing the fiscal climate, knowing
which products might go well there,
how pricing of those products should be
handled and how they evolve. Knowing
about potential financial engineering, how
to construct solutions for clients.
Knowing the industry dynamics so that
you can advise customers how to position
themselves. All of that and much more - it
is intelligence, it is analysis, it is skills, it is
expertise - everything involved in your
ability to deliver solutions to customers
constitutes 'knowledge'.
Bernard Walschots: And it's knowing
about combining information and
sharing it as well. If you take any ten
individuals with some experience in one
particular area of our business, then just
think how much more potent those
individuals would be if they got together
and input all that knowledge. It would
take the way we work, the solutions we
can come up with, to a much higher
level. That is what knowledge
management is to me.
Hung Tran: I agree, you have to bring it
to the transaction level. At present, we
have, say, an excellent analyst working
on the third floor, an excellent
relationship manager working on the
fourth, both know a lot, but there is not
yet a connection between the two, so
you cannot get to a final analysis of
what that customer needs.
Frans van Bijsterveld: That's one of the
reasons I prefer to call research a
product rather than a support tooi. By
product, I mean something you can sell.
I know we're not talking about research
here, but you can't get round it as an
essential input for knowledge
management systems.
WNS:Can we look at the demand side?
Hung Tran: As I
see it, there are
two dimensions
here - supply and
demand. But both
represent internal
processes within
the bank. We
supply
information to
other colleagues
in the bank and
they 'demand' it
from us, usually
to do a customer
transaction. Now
I believe we have Frans van Bijsterveld
to start adding a
third dimension here and that is the
customer. The most successful banks of
the future will be those institutions
which can be internalized by their
clients. By that I mean customers are
becoming increasingly critical of their
banks. In the future, they will only do
business with those banks which are
kinds of products, including knowledge.
It goes back to what we were saying
about this two-way street with
customers. I could envisage a situation I
where a client's systems are integrated to
some extent with those of the bank so
that they have similar access to our
databases and vice versa.
WNS: So we have to get ourselves
a mindset compatible with
sharing very quickly?
Frans van Bijsterveld: Yes. But
remember, this will not be a
one-way street where we give
customers knowledge for free
and they benefit exclusively
from it. It will become a
two-way street. Clients have so much
knowledge and expertise, and not only
about their own individual part of the
value chain. We also have a whole lot of
knowledge and expertise. Put the two
together, and the potential
is huge.
Bernard Walschots: Can we go back a
moment to knowledge management
processes. We've been talking about
people, people with knowledge, people
accessing it for other people, i.e.
customers. But let's not forget that IT
also opens up other distribution channels
- for products, but also for knowledge.
Hung Tran: I agree with Bernard here and
share his view that the future will see a
greater variety of delivery systems for all
