Knowledge Management at Whirlpool

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"One of the biggest challenges of developing innovation skills with knowledge management was the needed change in culture. Connecting people with the need to know to people who have the knowledge or to the knowledge in the KM system is essential"

-Gil Urban, lead director of global e-enabled organization services for Whirlpool Corporation.

"I know of no other company that has embraced the challenge of innovation as completely and successfully as Whirlpool. Starting with the goal of making innovation everyone's job, every day, Whirlpool has worked systematically to embed the innovation gene in its employees, its executive ranks, and in every management process." ¹

-Gary Hamel, founder of Strategos.²

In 2011, US-based home appliance major Whirlpool Corporation (Whirlpool) was ranked #6 on the "World's 10 Most Innovative Consumer Products Companies" list released by Fast Company3. This was the second consecutive year Whirlpool had been named to the list. Globally, Whirlpool was recognized as an innovation leader for embedding innovation across the company and for launching breakthrough products that satisfied unmet consumer needs. Despite the global economic recession, Whirlpool generated more than US$3.6 billion in revenue from its innovation efforts in 2010. "As we celebrate our 100th year in business, we are proud to be named one of the World's Most Innovative Consumer Products companies.

Whirlpool believes innovation is a sustainable competitive advantage for our company and that this recognition reinforces the importance we have always placed on making innovative products consumers want, need, and deserve," said Jeff M. Fettig (Fettig), chairman and CEO of Whirlpool.

In 1999, the then CEO of Whirlpool, David R. Whitwam (Whitwam), launched a worldwide effort to embed innovation as a core competency throughout the organization as he believed that innovative thinking came from everyone and everywhere. He felt that Whirlpool could gain sustainable competitive advantage in the white goods industry⁴ by focusing on innovation. The key objective of Whirlpool's innovation strategy was to help every single employee think outside the box and come up with exciting products that delivered real value to consumers and generated revenues for the company. To instill innovation as a core competency, Whirlpool made significant investments which included redesigning business processes, training thousands of employees, building a Knowledge Management System (KMS), and changing the culture of the company. According to Moises Norena (Norena), Global Director of Innovation for Whirlpool, "We pursue innovation as the engine of growth. It is a very intrinsic part of our strategy. Ten years ago Whirlpool decided to change focus from an engineering-driven company to a customer-focused company and the way to achieve that was though innovation. Innovation is a part of strategy in that sense and is also a capability. It is a part of our business process and is the way we increase profit margin and drive growth."...

Introduction Contd... - Next Page>>

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1] Nancy Tennant Snyder and Deborah L. Duarte, Unleashing Innovation: How Whirlpool Transformed an Industry, (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, August 2008).
2] Founded in 1995, Strategos is a US-based strategy consulting firm specializing in growth through growth strategy development and strategic innovation.
3] Fast Company magazine is a business magazine that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes 10 issues per year.
4] The white goods industry includes refrigerators, washing machines, and consumer electronics.

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