Part one
Relate B2B to the four P’s of marketing (product, price, placement, promotion)
B2B is an abbreviation for Business-to-Business, which stands for commercial transactions between businesses, for example between a wholesaler and a manufacturer or between a retailer and a wholesaler. B2B is used in marketing therefore has a strong relationship with Porter’s four P’s of marketing. B2B exchange is the business transaction that takes place between two businesses without the involvement of a consumer. B2B demonstrated the four P’s in the following manner. The four P’s are the basics of an effective marketing plan that people conducting business transactions ought to understand. For an effective B2B transaction, the involved parties must have an idea of the product demanded in the market, the price of the product, the target market (placement), and the promotion strategies. B2B marketers make use of unique business models that works best for their business transactions and the four P’s model works perfectly (Hutt & Speh, 2013, pp. 148-150).
Part two
Consulting organizations are more interested in knowledge management (KM) in order to increase their areas of operations to create room for more customers. Knowledge management is essential for assessing and providing analytical needs and implementations requirements to clients in order to offer business solutions. KM helps consulting organizations form a link between technology solutions and client’s need, hence; providing better advices and best solutions (Lamont, 2013).
The Knowledge management cycle used at Infosys Technologies was aimed at converting each employee’s knowledge into a firm asset. The process involved encouraging employees to provide details about their experience in different areas such as technology, software development, and oversea duties. This move was made in order to improve the operations of the organization through creation, capturing, refining, and sharing of ideas and information (Efraim, 2010).
Knowledge creation:
This was an endless process adopted by Infosys Technologies that included creation of new idea. The ideas created included the writing of experiences by employees and sharing these experiences in hard-copy form so that every employee receives his or her own copy. In addition, the experiences were posted in each employee’s email, placed in bulletin boards, and other communication channels used in the firm.
Knowledge capture
This was the process that involved storing and recording, and preserving knowledge in acceptable formats for easier access by other employees. In this regards, each employee’s experience was stored in a hard copy while the management maintained softcopies in the company databases. In addition, a corporate intranet was developed to make bodies of knowledge and change them into HTML format for easier accessibility by other members. Moreover, a central knowledge portal (KShop) was created and maintained by local groups that provided capacity for knowledge sharing.
Knowledge sharing
This forms the process of scattering knowledge among people. The right knowledge sharing process determines the effectiveness of a KM cycle in an organization. At Infosys Technologies, knowledge sharing occurred through employee’s engagement in case studies, downloadable software and reusable artifacts. According to Efraim (2010), organization culture plays a major role in effective knowledge sharing. Infosys Technologies allowed local groups to maintain their own content on KShop in order to favor each employee to eliminate discrimination of any form.
Refining
Infosys Technologies was very effective in applying the knowledge gained. The KM was very functional in early 2000, but the employee’s participation was low. The organization introduced a reward scheme that increased employee’s involvement and contribution to KM. employees who contributed more to KShop gained knowledge currency units (KCUs) that could be exchanged for cash. The reward system was beneficial because it increased employee’s contribution to the growth and development of the organization through introducing new ideas, and innovations. Compared to the old reward system, the reward scheme made the organization improve its productivity incurred less costs.
References
Efraim, T. (2010). Introduction to Electronic Commerce for Ashford University, 3rd Edition.
Pearson Learning Solutions.
Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2013). Business marketing management: B2B. Australia: South-
Western, Cengage Learning.
Lamont, J. (2013). Consulting firms play a key role in context of KM. KMWorld Magazine.
Retrieved June 24, 2014, from:
http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/News/News-Analysis/Consulting-firms-play-a-key-role-in-context-of-KM-14825.aspx
