People-focused knowledge management

Issue 3. Asterix needed to be more innovative in introducing com-
petitive features.
Immediate Action 3-1: Review R&D projects to expedite those
that support Asterix’s strategy.
Longer-Term Action 3-1: Consider making available selected
features at no cost on new trucks.
Longer-Term Action 3-2: Revise the R&D project plan for the
next several years with new priorities.
Longer-Term Action 3-3: Create a framework for a flexible,
forward-looking strategy.
Issue 4. Features needed to be created and tested in close collab-
oration with customers.
Immediate Action 4-1: Engage customers to review and test
product features.
Longer-Term Action 4-1: Create strategic relationships with
suppliers and customers.
Issue 5. Asterix sales staff had insufficient understanding of their
truck’s economic performance.
Immediate Action 5-1: Make life-cycle cost projections for
several customer scenarios.
Longer-Term Action 5-1: Reevaluate pricing changes, cost
reductions, and new product offerings.
Longer-Term Action 5-2: Reorganize spare parts logistics to
maximize geographical availability.
As a result of this program, the nine immediate actions and nine
longer-term actions were implemented with broad involvement of the
whole Asterix enterprise.
General Aspects
Situation-Handling Aspects. Asterix’s management discovered that
the company faced a serious problem. Its chairman resolutely
undertook high-competence information gathering and Sense-
making activities to quickly make sense of the situation, which
presented problems that centered around five issues. That pro-
vided the insight needed to understand the problem sufficiently
well to identify remedial measures. Correcting the five problems
required numerous actions (nine immediate and nine long term)
that were implemented.
Enterprise Situation-Handling
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