People-focused knowledge management

Enterprise Problem-Solving
Enterprise Problem-Solving is performed by individuals, by teams,
and, still very rarely, by automated means that contain embedded
Problem-Solving methodologies.
Problem-Solving in the enterprise occurs in widely different cases,
as indicated in Table 6-4. The approaches are in some cases 
determined by the urgency and other aspects of the nature of the sit-
uation. In other cases, the Problem-Solving approach may be deter-
mined by the capability or mentality of the decision makers.
Repairing Relations with Unhappy Clients
Parity Customer Solutions, a customer relations software
provider that had grown rapidly, experienced problems with
several major clients as a result of insufficient customer support
made worse by a new software release that had disruptive reli-
ability problems. Richard Posner, Parity’s president and chief
operating officer, led the effort to find ways to ameliorate the
problems and, if possible, win back the confidence and loyalty
that Parity had enjoyed in the past.
The problems were quite clear: they had caused not only
clients’ inconveniences but in several cases economic losses as
well, although these were not large. Clients were unhappy, but
none appeared to wish to break their contracts or take drastic
measures. Nevertheless, Richard and his colleagues believed that
it would be inadvisable to let time heal the situation and instead
were intent on finding positive ways to fix the relationships.
After all, Parity’s expertise was customer relations, and that
needed to be reflected by its actions.
Richard pulled together a team of six top people from 
Marketing, Sales, Strategy, Customer Support, and Software
Development and Deployment. In the past, Parity had success-
fully repaired client relations by providing reductions in fees,
but there was a consensus that the present situation required
more drastic measures. What could they possibly do that would
Enterprise Situation-Handling
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P
eople
-F
ocused
K
no
wledge
M
ana
gement
Table 6-4
Characteristics of different Problem-Solving paradigms. Copyright © 1993 Schema Press & Karl M. Wiig.
Reproduced with permission.
Paradigm
Characteristics
Approach