Kishore Palaniraja
Fall 2015 – INFM 612: Management of Information Program and Services
Case #1: SIA Corporation
1. What are some of the social, political, and economic forces that are influencing SIA’s
decision to become a learning organization?
SIA Corporation (SIA) chief knowledge officer Jerry Seibert acknowledged the need for
management change. He realized that SIA would not be able to stay competitive in the
insurance industry by simply doing business the old-fashioned twentieth-century way. The
need for the new management and to become a learning organization is in response to the
following factors:
a) Global Economy. The increasing globalization of the 21st century economy opens up new
markets as well as welcome more competitors for businesses like SIA. Face with stiff
competition, local and international competitors alike, SIA has to shift its business
strategy from product-focus to a customer-focus one. That is, while in the past SIA
business growth came from product diversification by acquiring smaller companies and
growing their product line to 30 separate business units, SIA must service its expanded
markets and meet customer needs to fuel the company’s growth in the coming years.
A customer-focus strategy would entail that customer touchpoints must be quick, easy
and address basic inquiries to maintain/increase customer retention. Hence, a
collaborative learning organization, where employees have access to open information
and be knowledgeable about a variety of products, is more suitable system that support
the customer-focus strategy.
