Developing Knowledge to Achieve Greater Efficiency

Core Practices:

• Implement R&D efforts to increase productivity and reduce costs through development of appropriate technology.
• Use and expand market research methods to conduct a down-market needs analysis.
• Employ market research and business planning activities to develop more efficient supply chain models.

Mobilizing Resources to Achieve Greater Efficiency

Synergies:

• Mobilize resources that directly support knowledge development (e.g. access to R&D facilities, intellectual property rights, skilled professionals).
• Use and expand business valuation practices better to take into account the hidden costs of resources (e.g. "free" resources might be inefficient because expensive to maintain, etc.).

Tensions:

• Be wary of resource providers who want to pay for implementing solutions without bearing the development cost; they might be fine to support scaling of existing well-tested activities, not development of new innovative ones.

Managing Culture to Achieve Greater Efficiency

Synergies:

• Promote work ethic among social clients and internal stakeholders.
• Promote a mindset in support of knowledge sharing.

Tensions:

• Be mindful of the fact that promoting a more competitive business attitude might impede efforts to promote knowledge sharing.

Engaging Stakeholders to Achieve Greater Efficiency

Synergies:

• Leverage stakeholders’ knowledge and skills by promoting the concept of “user-led innovation,” that is giving stakeholders the right and ability to innovate at the grassroots level in order to benefit from your stakeholders’ unique mix of skills and knowledge.

Tensions:

• Be mindful than promoting greater stakeholder engagement might require limiting top-bottom interventions in process development, at times taking a more circuitous route involving stakeholder-driven trial and error processes.