Maximizing Business Success in a Dynamic Environment - Essay Sample

Introduction

Organizations are subject to forces such as diverse suppliers, sophisticated customers, international competition, and globalization within the business environment (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013). The internet, Groupware systems, and intranet, on the other hand, continue to increase the volume of data in the corporate databases. However, the most critical aspect of business success is its ability to take advantage of the external and internal business environment. With the tremendous flow of data and complexity of its semantics and structure, organizations have to take the real challenge and manage knowledge (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013). In addition to knowledge management, business intelligence, which is a set of techniques and tools used to accumulate and transform data into vital information, offers a solution to the growing problem of data overflow (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013). Businesses are using diverse technologies such as enterprise applications, social computing, cloud computing, and advanced intelligent systems to leverage information and knowledge for their effective usage in business organizations. Although not all businesses push for business intelligence within their organizations, knowledge management is central to organizational success. When corporations integrate knowledge management and business intelligence, they ease knowledge capture, organization, analysis, and sharing (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013). Despite the substantial number of drawbacks of knowledge management and business intelligence, the two technologies depict a variety of advantages that make them vital for every business success.

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Pugna and Boldeanu (2013) argued that as the competition among business continues to intensify, and the market environment becomes complex, enterprises have to learn how to improve their corporate decision-making efficiency. Knowledge management and business intelligence enable corporations to make informed and relatively functional decisions based on the information collected and analyzed by the systems. For instance, the systems collect information on consumers and suppliers, which enables the corporations to have a better understanding of the marketing environment and make efficient decisions at different levels (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013). Additionally, although information is everywhere, the knowledge needed by the organizations is hard to come by. Most firms have IT systems that generate voluminous data. However, they struggle to turn them into the information they require. Knowledge management systems and business intelligence enable organizations to consolidate data and provide the necessary performance indicators needed for business success (Pugna & Boldeanu, 2013).

The business data analytics also maximize the management of human capital within the organizations, which enable the company to attain a competitive advantage. The systems ensure employees maximize their skills and intelligence to get the right information at the right time and to the right people (Albescu et al., 2008). The technologies collect information on the customers, such as their preferences, their dislikes, and what affects their purchasing decisions. Such data can help the business to provide the right goods and services to the right people, at the right place and the right time (Albescu et al., 2008). The insights enable companies to study the trends and understand the customers in the market, allowing businesses to stay a step ahead of their competitors (Albescu et al., 2008). Similarly, business intelligence and knowledge management enable organizations to identify new opportunities that would never be realized. The systems enable employees and employers to study the market trends and identify the unknown opportunities for future ventures that can allow the organization to foster its competitive advantage (Albescu et al., 2008).

Nevertheless, data mining tools are expensive; they can cost more than a million dollars for large companies. The time needed to implement the tools is quite long as it can take more than one year to implement the technologies, which is disadvantageous for companies that have limited finances (Muhammad et al., 2014). The company implementing the use of knowledge management technological tools and business intelligence has to offer additional training to the employees, which further increases implementation costs (Muhammad et al., 2014). Some employees and clients also find it hard to share information, thus impeding knowledge management. The data analysis systems are also prone to data breaches (Muhammad et al., 2014). Any errors within the software can expose the business’s sensitive information, which could harm the company, employees, and customers.

Large corporations apply different strategies to manage knowledge and keep ahead of their competitions. For instance, World Bank envisioned a company with efficient knowledge management to enable the company to attain efficiency and effectiveness within the organization (The World Bank, 2018). The main focus of the organization is facilitating information, discussion, personal thinking, and knowledge synthesis. The current knowledge management strategy within World Bank is in its active phase, and it entails offering knowledge to practitioners, including partners, stakeholders, and clients when they need it (The World Bank, 2018). The World Bank has created a knowledge management framework whose constitutes include creating a culture for knowledge sharing, mixing of knowledge management tools and technologies, enhancing connectivity among clients, staff and partners, and acquiring incentives to support knowledge management across the financial institution (The World Bank, 2018). The knowledge management process in World Bank entails knowledge discovery, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing and knowledge application.

Furthermore, Starbucks integrates business intelligence and knowledge management to ensure the efficiency of its operation. The company uses the business intelligence platform to accumulate data from Atlas, which is essential in acquiring insights into geographical parameters such as traffic patterns, population density, consumer demographics, income levels, and the type of businesses in the localities of interest (Singh, 2019). Business intelligence data guides Starbuck on the regions to expand its coffee chains. Starbucks also uses Web 2.0 to facilitate their knowledge management. The technology is a social element that enables the company to collect customers’ feedback and ideas, which helps Starbucks to gain insights into the client’s needs and expectations (Bhandar, 2009). The company also uses social media to encourage customers to share their knowledge through platforms such as Facebook.

Knowledge management and business intelligence are the backbones of every large corporation. The efficient integration of the technologies into business organizations can drive corporations to success and enable them to attain a competitive advantage within the local and global markets. Therefore, every business must take the initiative to venture into knowledge management and business intelligence to achieve long term success.

References

Albescu, F., Pugna, I., & Paraschiv, D. (2008). Business intelligence & knowledge management: Technological support for strategic management in the knowledge-based economy. Revista Informatica Economica, 4(48), 5-12. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6612652.pdf

Bhandar, M. (2009). Knowledge management at Starbucks: What next? National University of Singapore. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228321625_Knowledge_Management_at_Starbucks_What_Next

Muhammad, G., Ibrahim, J., Bhatti, Z., & Waqas, A. (2014). Business intelligence as a knowledge management tool in providing financial consultancy services. American Journal of Information Systems, 2(2), 26-32. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajis/2/2/1/

Pugna, I. B., & Boldeanu, D. M. (2013). Integration of knowledge management and business intelligence initiatives in a collaborative intelligence framework. Accounting and Management Information Systems. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257036372_INTEGRATION_OF_KNOWLEDGE_MANAGEMENT_AND_BUSINESS_INTELLIGENCE_INNITIATIVES_IN_A_COLLABORATIVE_INTELLIGENCE_FRAMEWORK

Singh, A. (2019). Retail chains-Starbucks: Data analytics and Business Intelligence. Data Science. https://datascience.foundation/datatalk/retail-chains-starbucks-data-analytics-and-business-intelligence

The World Bank. (2018). Knowledge management at the World Bank. The World Bank Brief. https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/knowledge-management-at-the-world-bank