After several years of misfortune, General Motors (GM) was encouraged to file for bankruptcy. GM had really hit rock bottom. Several of their facilities closed and thousands of jobs were cut. The cause for the bankruptcy was due to years of losses, market shares decreasing, and a breathtaking drop in sales. The bankruptcy forced GM to make some major changes within the organization, (Isidore, 2009).
Knowledge Management System A knowledge management system has the ability to enhance several companies, especially GM. GM is a well-known company that has been around for several years. GM can profit from several advantages by using a knowledge management system. Some of those advantages include decreasing cost by eliminating the number of times the company must continuously resolve similar issues, decrease repetition of knowledge-based activities, raise up productivity by making knowledge accessible and user friendly, encourage employee personal growth, and establish aggressive favor in the marketplace, (Delen, Sharda, Turban, 2011, pgs. 509-510).
Valuation
In 2000, GM was on top of the world and put together a live Knowledge Management (KM) program. Initially, GM had the best of both worlds by having 138 best practice teams and 33 centers of knowledge working collectively with recognizable subject matter experts. The KM program was an outstanding asset for GM. The KM generated over 5000 best practices that affected quality and led to millions in cost avoidance. The KM program was at a very high peak in 2008, but GM took a down turn in 2009. GM shocked the world in 2009 by filing for bankruptcy. A defective strategy is what took GM down, but on the flip side, an organization’s strategy is definitely a product of the knowledge that dwells within its walls. GM failed to cultivate a more competitive strategy. From 2000-2008, the knowledge management program did not