I have yet to reach this pinnacle of success, but I, surely, have been dreaming about it. What will I do in my first one hundred days? On one hand, some pundits say go into these first days and accomplish epic feats under the mantra of creating value. On the other hand, other pundits say go into the first days and absorb the sheer weight of the accomplishment without making any big moves.
I have started to imagine how my first one hundred days would look after a business acquisition. Like many other mid-career professionals at this stage of their career, I pulled from the heuristics of yester-years, much of which I gained from tribal knowledge working in industry; to help bring my first one hundred days into focus after creating space for thinking about it. I am posting this blurb after sharing, with a member of a holding company, about my experiences around knowledge transfers – or, moreover, technology transfers.
I started to wonder how others speak/write about knowledge transfers after my conversation prior. Sure enough, I found a blog written by Josh Brown and published by Helpjuice, a knowledge base software provider, that is, an app. A previously trained engineer having worked in hi-tech manufacturing, I am conditioned to look for mechanized ways to understand the world. In my world, a flywheel on How to Do Knowledge Transfer Effectively, as described from the blog, is akin to a moth flying to a nonburning bush on fire, so it gets my attention at the slightest glance of it. I share the opinion that if something cannot be described as a process, then, it is cumbersome to understand it. The blog also referenced an easy-to-read article/case about good knowledge transfer outcomes.
In fact, I would not know how my first days would look at the helm of my new business until I was closer to it or really at the helm of it and striking the right balance and context. I know that there will be days when I will make progress toward having “an effective transfer strategy [that] combines technology, culture, measurement and infrastructure in order to share knowledge across multiple areas” in the transition phase and beyond. I will realize before the ink dries on the page -- or, specifically, at the double-click of the electronic signature of the purchase agreement -- that I will have a new set of struggling moments to solve for my customers, my teams, my stakeholders, my family members, and my friends. I am not writing here to endorse any app per se but principles, systems and plans around knowledge transfers will be top-of-mind for me.
My experience has shown me that having a sense of what knowledge transfer is and how to apply it is a valuable exercise. It should help with assessing trade-offs having the right knowledge on hand. For instance, I know that Intel’s Copy Exactly! strategy for computer chip manufacturing was/is, in essence, about transferring knowledge throughout its manufacturing network. If continually done well, then, it can yield great outcomes for any size business (from the onset of the 1st 100 days, the 2nd 100 days, the 3rd 100 days, the next 100 days followed by the next 100 days and beyond and so on and so forth).
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