Topic: How will KM help GDD mitigate talent loss and improve communication among departments?

NOTE: The following is the same scenario presented in Weeks 5 and 6. This assignment is a continuation of last week's assignment.

Harry Hartfield is looking over some new travel brochures and consulting a recent Google search. Retirement is only five days away and he cannot wait to see the Fiji Islands. Harry is currently the head aero-engineer at GDD, and has been in charge of purchasing and maintenance of the planes for the last 15 years.He's been at GDD for a total of 40 years, having worked his way up through the company to his current position, and has seen a lot of eco-friendly flying initiatives come and go. For the past four weeks, Harry has been training his replacement, Imogine Farthing, a woman in her 40s who is transferring from their London branch. Harry gets along with Imogine and thinks she will do well in the role, but he is apprehensive about her eagerness to purchase the new Boeing 777 cargo plane. Imogine believes it will go a long way toward improving their fuel consumption and air emissions in the run between Chicago and Singapore, but the cost of the new plane is three times that of the comparable Lockheed model. Harry believes the Lockheed model would save fuel costs over the old cargo plane they are using now, but will not achieve the same air pollutant emission reduction as the Boeing model. Harry acknowledges air pollution is an important concern for GDD, but he also knows from previous experience that these emission controls often make the cost of the plane higher and the fuel reduction lower than the company predicts. Imogine does not agree. Harry knows it will be her call, but wishes he had access to all the old reports he submitted when making similar decisions earlier in his career. Using that information as a base, andwith updated figures, he may be able to persuade Imogine to change her mind. During his retirement party, Harry discusses the situation with President Rockfish, hoping that Rockfish may know how to locate the reports. Rockfish says he will look into it, but isn't sure what he can do.

After his conversation with Harry, Rockfish chats briefly with one of his sales managers, Amid Jordan. Amid has been with the company for only three years and Rockfish is shocked to hear that he is also leaving. Amid says he's very sorry to go, he's been offered a job in Orlando with UPS, one of GDD's biggest competitors. Rockfish notes that UPS has been poaching many of his managers lately, and he's concerned about proprietary information and good talent departing the company. How can he stop people from leaving the company and taking their valuable knowledge with them?

Rather than being a festive occasion, Harry's retirement party is starting to depress Rockfish. His mood worsens when he joins a conversation between Harry and a shipping manager visiting from the Asia branch. She has come to the Chicago office to try to rectify a major glitch in the process used to get packages to Malaysia. It seems that, despite generally strong communications between the branches, packages are consistently running a day behind schedule. The shipping manager has determined that the problem is driver pick-up times in the United States. The Asia branch has been requesting that the time difference be adjusted by three hours rather than the current one hour adjustment, but the change is not being communicated to the drivers, and unhappy customers are now filing late-package claims.

Rockfish reflects on the fact that all three of these issues deal with knowledge and its value to the company. He's heard a lot about this point lately from Jane Clive, not to mention Joanna Bockman and her situation with Fredrick Helmut. Rockfish's mind is made up. He finds Jane at the party and tells her, "Okay, I think you are right about knowledge management. We need to put some processes in place ASAP, but you will have to explain it to the Board of Directors. They need to see how KM strategic value for the company before they will buy into the plan."

a presentation that addresses the major points for this week:

• Identify and discuss all issues of personnel loss from the scenario.
• For EACH issue you identify, suggest how KM might help stem the tide of good people leaving the company.
• Address the issue of production glitches / company performance described in the scenario.
  • Your presentation should include all of the issues presented to date to include Dawn/SECI model; Helmut; Harry and Imogine and missing files; Amid; Asian branch; cultural considerations and more.
• Make AT LEAST three recommendations for how GDD might employ KM practices to solve the problems described in the scenario.
• Explain why these recommendations would work. Be sure to consider the multidisciplinary nature of KM and how these recommendations might reach across the company to touch all departments and divisions.

Case study:

GDD is a medium-sized global delivery organization that started in 1968 in Norfolk, England when four classmates at the London School of Economics, Joseph Knoll Windsor, Giles Hartford Weatherspoon, III, John Smyth Heathering, and (the American) Andrew Rockfish banded together to make their fortune. The then very young men found what they saw as a great opportunity in the decision of the Royal Air Force to auction off retired war airplanes. Having met in the school flying club, the men decided to invest together in the purchase of three retired British WWII cargo planes. The partners repaired the planes with the help of a retired pilot friend. Repainted white, the planes with their distinctive winged box design displayed on the tail engaged clientele worldwide.

Starting small, the ex-pilots took jobs wherever they could find them using their parents' military contacts to enlarge the business. Soon they had several regular customers, Europe and America. As the company grew, the four pilots decided to expand from just small parcels to a mail and document delivery service as well. They took the European market by storm with their introduction of the 2-day turnaround from Britain to the US East Coast. Encouraged by the growth, and anxious to return home, Andrew Rockfish decided with the consent of the others to expand the service to America in the hopes that it would draw a larger customer base from the new multi-national companies. The American market grew quickly. By the end of the decade, GDD had a nationwide presence.

The 1980s, however, saw the rapid growth of Fed Ex and UPS in the global delivery service. UPS in Germany started in 1976. After a few hiccups, the German post office was no longer a competitor. The overnight delivery promise put both firms on the map. It was GDD's position as number one that sustained its competitive advantage. GDD kept its customer base in national air cargo deliveries, but global overnight was proving to be more difficult. Expansion in the Asia Pacific to include Australia gave the company sizeable growth. America fought to hold its market share by moving into Canada by the end of the decade. The European branch remained competitive because their customers were not easily moved to change to large American giants.

In the 1990s GDD's Asia Pacific branch continued to expand the Asian and Australian markets. America was holding its own against the two big shipping giants Fed Ex and UPS, but new competitors like the United States Postal Service were also now picking up the private company overnight delivery market as well. DHL (a German company) had also come into the market and was focused on the business-only clientele. However, the company was too late in entering the competition. It did not prove to be the threat that the GDD leaders thought DHL might be.

The heavy competition brought a dip in sales in 2012 globally as competition with America's large firms put pressure on the company to keep up. GDD's fleets of airplanes for the three branches are aging; the need for capital investment is on the horizon. In addition to the strong competition, regulations, airport fees, and fuel costs are making profits shrink. GDD watched both Fed Ex and UPS create personal shipping stores to enhance their individual customer shipping experience meet with modest success. Now aging owners are looking for ways to grow the company. The Pan Asian market is still strong for the company as is the small business market for national sales in America.

The company is currently owned by the four founders who hold 60% of the stock equally, with capital investors holding the remaining 40%.

Current Company Vision:The delivery company to the business world.

Current Mission:To provide cargo and mail services to businesses around the globe with excellent service and direct simplicity. Employees will seek to foster a personal relationship with customers through the anticipation of their needs, understanding the logistic challenges facing their deliveries, and always finding ways to succeed in getting the customer served.

Services Offered

Package and Mail delivery

Current Fact Sheet

Headquarters	London, England
Worldwide web address	www.gddexpress.com
Executive Director of Corporate Services	John Smythe Heathering
2015 revenue	$2.245 billion
Employees	6,500 (3,000 U.S.; 3,500 International)

PACKAGE OPERATIONS
2015 delivery volume	1.750 billion packages and documents
Daily delivery volume	47,946 million packages and documents
DailyU.S.air volume	15.822 million packages and documents
Daily international volume	32,124 million packages and documents
Service area	More than 15 countries and territories; Every address in North America, England. France
Customers	750 million pick-ups, 1.6 million deliveries
Operating facilities
Delivery fleet	34,926 package cars, vans, tractors, motorcycles, including nearly 1,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles
Jet aircraft	80
Short-termed leased or Chartered aircraft	25
Daily flight segments	Domestic - 340; International - 615
Airports served	Domestic - 122; International - 246
Air hubs
	United States	Charlotte, NC (main Global Air Hub); Dallas, Texas; Ontario, Calif., Rockford, Ill.
	Europe	Midland, England
	AsiaPacific	Taiwan, Australia
	Latin Americaand the Caribbean	Miami, Fla., USA
	Canada	Hamilton, Ontario

Current Asset Sustainability Commitments

GDD currently has under contract the purchase of one new cargo aircraft with a financial commitment of $2.6 million. In addition, four older model planes are being retro-fitted with the newest, more fuel-efficient modifications. Measures are constantly taken to lower flight speeds, optimize flight paths, clean aircraft engines regularly and use technology to increase the precision of aircraft departures, arrivals and taxi times.

Ground Fleet cars, vans, buses are currently dependent on gas and diesel* (*over half) ... Electric vans are being evaluated at this time for purchase.

State-of-the-art knowledge management technology was purchased in 2015 to reduce route costs and scheduling conflicts to minimize expenses.

Current Business Philosophy

GDD has determined its long-term goal planning pattern. It will now look forward to two years as a change in business strategy is imperative to keep growing. The need for innovation and competitive edge ideas are the focus for the next two years. Sustainability both for a profit and the planet is foremost in the minds of the leadership. The development of "green" friendly delivery strategies will be the main emphasis. Carving out a sustainable niche market is also important.

Current Asset Sustainability Commitments

GDD currently has under contract the purchase of one new cargo aircraft with a financial commitment of $2.6 million. In addition, four older model planes are being retro-fitted with the newest, more fuel-efficient modifications. Measures are constantly taken to lower flight speeds, optimize flight paths, clean aircraft engines regularly and use technology to increase the precision of aircraft departures, arrivals and taxi times.

Sustainability both for a profit and the planet is foremost in the minds of the leadership. The development of "green" friendly ground delivery strategies is the main emphasis.

Ground Fleet cars, vans, buses are currently dependent on gas and diesel* (*over half). Electric vans are being evaluated at this time for purchase.

State-of-the-art knowledge management technology was purchased in 2015 for the North American division that reduced route costs and scheduling conflicts. Expansion to the remaining divisions will be executed in the next 18 months or sooner if possible. Currently, a companywide tacit knowledge mentoring program is in the planning stages and IT is working with planners to devise ways to store this information in the Cloud especially in terms of making it user friendly for those with less technical savvy.

Innovation and Adaptability

Development of organizational structure and culture changes are being made to introduce more collaborative decision making as well as bringing the divisions closer together in the area of shared resources and communication. The emphasis is to encourage the exchange of ideas, an environment that fosters new ideas and makes change easier in their implementation. GDD understands that innovation must always be focused on the customer. Customer innovation workshops run by GDD has helped to bring new customers into the business. New ideas of future logistics are being explored to help identify new processes that will fit customer needs and their individual growth potential. GDD seeks to expand the workshop initiative with other collaborative ideas for the future as customers are very interested in how the supply chain affects their own competitive edge.

Globalization

There is a consideration of expanding to Africa to develop a lower-cost hub connecting Europe and North American flights. The selection of the best country and potential development and cost feasibility will be evaluated. The process will start soon to see its money-making potential.

Current Corporate Culture

GDD has always considered its employees to be like family. They value their input in the business and seek to empower them whenever they can. The current company culture is a hybrid clan and collaborative. The growth of the company and the need for structure and communication to keep global deadlines have caused the Directors to move towards a collaborative culture. They hope that the family feel of the clan culture will not be lost hence the hybrid.

Organizational Structure:

This company has a geographical division structure. However, within each division is a functional structure with logistics focused on getting the parcel or mail delivered in the fastest possible way. Communication and decision making rather than being kept at higher levels is being given to the lower levels to make decisions that affect core operations.