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World Class Market Intelligence - December 1, 2011

Building an Intelligence Culture to Change ‘Willing to Share’ to ‘Will Share!’: A Philips Healthcare Success Story

How do you form a culture of sharing information in your company? The GIA webinar on December 8, How Philips Healthcare Changed Their Intelligence Culture from 'Willing to Share' to 'Will Share!', provided some answers.

We ask Daniel Cho, Director of Marketing, Market Intelligence & New Product Introduction at Philips Healthcare and co-presenter of the webinar for his thoughts.

Daniel, there’s much talk about the importance of creating an ‘intelligence culture’. But why is sharing of information so important?

“No-one knows everything. If they do, honestly they are only dreaming. There’s the need to build linkages between experts of products to experts of customers and markets, for continuous sharing of the latest knowledge that leads to best informed decisions. People that think “knowledge is power” and keep it to themselves, will fall behind and so will their organizations. Most knowledge is gone with the wind. (If you are today an expert in Windows 95, good luck!)

Sharing also saves a lot of time. If 200 people spend 5 minutes reading the same article to pick up 5 points, 800 minutes of working time can be saved by 1 person reading it, and distributing the 5 points that only take 1 minute to read.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of knowledge sharing is avoiding making the same mistakes that someone else has already made. That easily saves millions of dollars for any large organization annually.”

Very compelling reasons. In your experience, why don’t people share then?

“Oh there are many reasons. Sometimes they don’t know who would need the information. Or they do not have the right media for sharing. Or – and this is a common one – they are afraid of other people possibly thinking they are stupid, or they simply don’t like publicity, not even within small teams. Some people may be afraid of potentially breaking some rules by sharing and getting punished for it. There may also be issues with time zones or language. Some people would share but don’t have the time. And finally, some people still think sharing of knowledge is not important (somehow they will survive).”

How have you created a sharing environment at Philips Healthcare?

“We have tried to make it easy to share by providing the platform, the media. Also importantly, we have worked to make it “safe” by reassuring people that no-one will be judged as being stupid or punished for sharing information. We have also tried to make sharing fun, allowing the freedom of publishing in any format and tone. In addition, we have made it socially rewarding, making sure people get acknowledged for their contribution, and that they get something back from sharing. Last but not least, we have sought executive support for the sharing behavior and made sure that it gets the recognition it deserves.”

The webinar recording is available in the Intelligence Best Practices Online subscription service

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