^The APQC Blog

The theme of APQC’s 2018 Knowledge Management Conference—Digital, Smart, and Engaging—was a nod to both the technology shifts influencing the KM space and the continuing need to think about KM through a human lens and motivate employees to document, share, and reuse knowledge. The balance between people, process, and technology has always been a tricky tightrope in KM, and many organizations are working to understand how that balance is changing in light of new tools and capabilities.

Key Takeaways from the Conference

Last September I posted a blog: “What is Blockchain?” At that time, only 6 percent of people who took our poll on blockchain rated themselves as extremely familiar with it. Since then, the global conversation about this distributed ledger technology has evolved, and many organizations have begun conducting pilot projects using blockchain. In fact, almost every APQC member I talk to is engaged in some form of digital transformation, with blockchain increasingly being mentioned.

What comes to mind when you hear the name “Elon Musk”? APQC—right? Just kidding. Even though Mr. Musk has no affiliation with APQC, you could be forgiven for thinking that he does, since both he and APQC are such vociferous proponents of robotic process automation (RPA).

My colleague, Perry D. Wiggins, has recently authored another entry in CFO Magazine’s Metric of the Month column discussing Shared Services. In serving as the CFO for the APQC and in the many finance leadership roles in industry that Perry had before joining the APQC, he has seen many of these practices in action as well as the research on their benefits.

As many of the readers may be aware, APQC was foundational in the establishment of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), and helped to develop the concept, criteria, funds, and ultimately secure Congressional approval for this award in 1985. Since that award’s establishment, more than 100 companies have won this prestigious award.

Digitalizing HR is a hot topic promising many benefits for employers and employees. In a recent email interview, Stuart Smith of Conduent, explained to me why there’s so much excitement around digitizing rewards. 

 “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
― Abraham H. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being

In my last blog post, I wrote about the ripple effect of Toys R Us’ bankruptcy filing and subsequent liquidation plans, reported last month. For consumers, including many of my parent friends, the question that is top of mind is which stores have the best discounts during the closeout.

We’re roughly a quarter of the way through 2018 and from what I can tell so far, this year isn’t too different from last year. Everyone is still ad

dicted to their smart phones, the weather is still crazy, and the Houston Rockets are still the best team in professional basketball. Yep…hardly anything’s changed. But don’t tell that to someone who works in process management!

In the CFO Magazine’s 2018 Metric of the Month article, APQC’s CFO Perry D. Wiggins shares how top performing finance organizations are dramatically faster on the cycle time to monthly close. They are achieving these gains by better data governance, common data definitions, and standardized charts of accounts. They standardize the monthly close and move tasks to optimal times.