Knowledge Networks for Business Growth
Description
Companies are constantly searching for new ways of creating higher profit and a larger market share. Growth seems to be the most appropriate tactic for surviving economically in difficult times. New instruments and methods as a support to a company's growth strategy can be essential in gaining a competitive advantage. Knowledge management is one of the answers to this challenge. It can support strategic goals such as the improvement of efficiency, the minimization of risk and an increase in innovation, but also has inherent potentials which have not been leveraged yet.
The first part of the book contains three case studis which illustrate the idea of knowledge networks for growth. The step-by-step methodology of the second part shows the reader how to build up and maintain these networks . The templates in the last part of the book ease the adaptation of networks for the reader's own company or his or her specific business needs.
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Content
2 Supporting Integration after M&A through Knowledge Networks within RWE Net (p. 33-34)
Grzegorz Gurgul 1, Ellen Enkel1, Kordula Schulte2 and Carl-Heinrich Kruse2
1Research Center KnowledgeSource, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
2RWE Net
Abstract
After a hundred years of market control in Germany, the electricity market is currently characterized by partial market deregulation and, consequently, the utilities have to cope with increased competition. To remain competitive, a major growth factor can be stimulated through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that encourage synergies as well as providing access to new geographical areas. The companies RWE AG and VEW AG followed this path to growth and merged. After the merger both companies were reorganized and divided into several business units.
The challenge of a merged company is to overcome the barriers related to a merger and bring together the employees in order to formalize a knowledge transfer in the relevant strategic business fields. This process is called "Knowledge Integration after M&A". To implement the process, the company needs a comprehensive tool with which to integrate its employees’ knowledge. The goal of the project was to test the MERLIN methodology that had been established for intra-organizational knowledge networks in a new business field, adapt it for the new field of use, implement the knowledge network, and accompany it during the set-up phase.
The background to this case study describes RWE Net’s historical background and the urgency with which a formalized knowledge transfer was undertaken. Thereafter the approach – the various steps of a knowledge network setup – is described. This is followed by conclusions regarding a network’s developmental steps. The case is concluded with the lessons learned and the most important general recommendations.
Knowledge Integration after M&,A in RWE Net
Conceptual Background
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) provide an opportunity to gain growth and are a means through which to extend a company’s workforce, internal abilities, and product range within a short time. M&A are not new phenomena, the first boom in mergers and acquisitions having occurred at the end of the 19th century. The rate at which M&A fail indicates that many problems pertaining to post-merger integration management are still unsolved, with some researchers even considering mergers and acquisitions a license to kill companies (Jansen, 2002). Acquiring and merging firms have indeed led to the discovery that the transfer and utilization of knowledge through these means can be a difficult task. This transfer and utilization of knowledge is contingent upon the successful integration of the acquired or merged unit – a process that very often fails outright. And although knowledge management has gained significance within the field of management and in academia since the nineties, it has almost no significance within the field of mergers and acquisitions.
