Knowledge management 1

Knowledge Management in the Field of Hospitality
A recent yet powerful trend emerging in business is the gathering, leveraging and the
management of knowledge as a corporate asset and this can only be done with the
concentrated efforts of all staff of a hotel, orchestrated by the head of Human
Resources.
Think about it:
 How many times have people made mistakes and learned how to overcome
them, only to have many others make the same mistake - because the
knowledge was not shared?
 When a person leaves the organization, how long does it take to get a new
entrant up to the same level of productivity? Studies have shown that it takes
six months at an average, not forgetting the cost implications too.
 How much more effective would the organization be, if the employee
expertise were captured, organized and made available to all? This is, indeed,
an area where the rules of competition are being redefined.
This will require efforts from the training department as well as head of departments
in a hotel and inculcated as a habit in all employees. Knowledge sharing can range
from the quite simple to the quite complex. However, the essence lies in the
functionality of the system that has been set out. This system should ideally be easy to
use, indicating where a person should go to, if they need more information or have
questions.
Over a period of time, if the system is practiced diligently, these learning
organizations can create new products and services more efficiently, respond to guests
faster with higher quality, and finally, promote more people rapidly, thereby retaining
their talent. This knowledge management is therefore, directed towards the
employees, while not forgetting the guests-the primary focus.
Today, the think-tank’s vision of the hotel of the future must redefine its mission;
knowledge will replace location as the key to competitive advantage. Hence, the aim
would be to develop knowledge of the guest as well, by seeking, collecting and
sorting the right data and sharing it across the business. The important issue will be
for the industry to retain control of the guest data and opportunities for building the
relationship with the guest. Developments such as callcentres and outsourcing of
reservations underline the need for hotels to ensure that guest information remains the
property of the hotel company.

The hotel of the future must focus on RevPac (revenue per available
customer), which means, identifying its high-spending guest and concentrating its
marketing efforts on retaining their lifetime loyalty; maybe even going a step further
and customizing the stay to each individual guest. All this is only possible if all
employees share the needs of the guest as also the feedback received from them with
all concerned.
Tomorrow’s hotel manager will need to be more business-savvy, with emphasis on
bottom line and efficient use of resources. Integrity center leadership and problem
solving ability will need to replace the ‘my way’ or the ‘highway’ approach to
management. Training will become more guest focused to be able to gather as much
information for the customization process. This training will focus and encourage a
free flow of ideas; insights and knowledge based on trust, nurture and facilitation.
However the challenge and perhaps the answer to many questions does not lie with
knowledge alone. Even perfect knowledge won’t change our behavior. Knowledge is
not the power –it is the ability to act upon that knowledge that is the power.
Discussions and planning sessions around knowledge management often devolve
into exhortations to capture and leverage the organization’s knowledge assets. The
centre of this world is an organized effort to actually do something with knowledge.
It is certainly distressing to see individuals who embody years of corporate
knowledge keeping it close to their chests. Yet there are no crisp and clear solutions
to the problem of corporate amnesia. Even when there is a willingness to capture and
share knowledge, processes to do so are not always available.. Do our employees
have any incentive to share what they know or are they employed to buy, sell, make,
design or manage? How would things be different if they were employed to
exchange knowledge, mentor others or ensure that expertise is catalogued and
stored?
Organizations must think strategically about their network of value-creating
relationships - a network that would include the employees, customer and the vendor.
Organizations have a deep reservoir of intelligence and creative potential freely
available and ready to be tapped. The question is, ‘Do we know how to access,
locate, treat, and utilize the available intelligence for the common good? How do we
ensure that the vast deposit of "intellectual capital" that is enfolded in the experience
and perceptions of the organization, is translated into new learning, enhanced quality
of work and work environment, and creative new products and ideas?’ Imagine if we
managed knowledge as well as we managed our business.
There are two key reasons to expect the management of knowledge to become an
increasingly important issue. The first is the imperative to accomplish more with less
in the wake of downsizing and restructuring; the other is the need to strengthen
relationships with customers.
If we can arm our people with more knowledge, they can provide faster and better
quality service to our customers. Our people are the carriers and receptacles of
knowledge. They possess something for which they have spent untold hours listening

and talking. Their brains are the repositories of an accumulation of insights about
how "things work here" - something that is often labeled with the vague expression
"company culture." Their heads carry a share of the company’s total knowledge
making them shareholders of the most important asset we have - even though it is not
clearly shown up on any financial reports.
Managers must be knowledge leaders who are fully versed in the tools of the trade.
Knowledge managers must also ensure that the enterprise has the proper technology
at its disposal. Below given examples will highlight how leveraging knowledge can
benefit the organization.
Knowledge Management for employees
Leave policies and leave management has always been unclear for both the
employees and management. Frankly, disharmony at work place is also created
through lack of understanding about leave procedures.
Think of a scenario wherein all employees have access to the intranet for their
leave balances (one dedicated computer or the department computer). This
leave management software programme should be able to generate individual
employee leave balances and employees can gain access through individual
passwords assigned to them. The software explains the policies as well as the
peak and low business periods to enable the employees to understand the
business needs. The form will then be submitted for approval. Each manager
will check on leave applications received daily and process based on business
trends and needs since the software would generate the number of employees
on leave and with designations to avoid any shortage of staff due to leave and
hence avoid any discomfort to our customer in terms of service delivery.
Annual leave plans may also be made based on this.
Knowledge Management for customers
Apart from capturing data verbally from the customer by the sales personnel,
hand held devices like Palm Pilots used by assigned members of the staff and
management could capture data from customer enquiries on their rounds. This
Palm Pilot will generate answers to queries from guests and may be utilized by
a 3-day old employee or an old employee. The idea is to log in the number of
times similar questions that have been asked by customers and thereby
introduce products and services, which would essentially be a response to these
customer queries.
Organizations who have been successful in capturing this customer data have
not only satisfied customers but have managed to convert them to raving fans.
The challenge lies in ensuring these efforts cover both internal and external focus. In
other words and as mentioned earlier, knowledge management must emphasize not

only internal collaboration, but knowledge sharing with suppliers, partners and
customers as well.

Knowledge management 1

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