^The APQC Blog

Heads up! The wheels of innovation keep on rolling, and you don't want to get caught under your competitors' wheels. One of the best ways to avoid getting run over is to look both ways before you cross the street. When you can see what is coming, you can make a more informed decision about your path forward.

APQC has started compiling its best KM case studies so you can find the examples you need in one place. Take a look at the collections below and learn what industry leaders are doing to make sure that knowledge gets to people when and where they need it.

To inform members working in human capital management, APQC reviewed recent CEO surveys and identified six top CEO priorities (in no particular order) for 2011:

Whew! A new APQC Collaborative Research study has just launched: Harnessing Enterprise Quality Measurement to Create Business Value. This summer, we’ll be investigating the ways top organizations measure quality. And with the hot, hot Houston summer upon us at APQC, there’s no better time to stay inside air conditioned meeting rooms to learn from the best.

Does your organization need a tune up to keep your purchasing performance in top shape? If you want to run a quick test to see how your organization is doing, check out APQC's interactive Procurement Tune-Up Diagnostic.

Enter your data on four key measures, and the diagnostic compares you to actual Open Standards benchmarking data. Red, yellow, or green indicates how your organization compares.

APQC President Carla O’Dell refers to communities of practice as the “killer app” for knowledge management. By bringing people together around common areas of interest, communities help organizations achieve a multitude of knowledge-focused goals, from capturing lessons learned and validating best practices to identifying experts and answering tricky technical questions.

This is a serious pet peeve of mine. Many business professionals think of business process management (BPM) purely in terms of the technological tools that enable it. Countless vendors sell “BPM” as though you can buy it in a box, hire a developer, and magically experience fully integrated BPM throughout your organization.

Budgets are like sharks. Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water… But APQC has found that the budgeting doesn’t need to be a tedious process. In fact, APQC research found that there are actually opportunities to streamline the budget process. And there are organizations that can complete the annual budget successfully with fewer employees and in less time.

How to Streamline the Budget Process

Again and again, APQC members ask for more direction and insight into the processes in APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF). Over the past several months, we responded by publishing in-depth definitions for 8 of the 12 PCF categories along with key measures used to measure each business area. The overwhelmingly positive response we received from you lets us know we are on the right track.

In 2011 organizations are shifting focus from a mode of preservation to one aimed at proliferation. Business leaders are cautiously moving growth objectives above cost-cutting goals. This gradual yet significant strategic shift will have substantial implications for the HR agenda. Based on findings from a recent literature review, APQC has identified six action items for HR in 2011.