Chapter 11 Running Case Solution
1. What are the most important knowledge assets at Dirt Bikes? What functions and
2. What knowledge outside the organization is required by the company?
In this young but growing company, the students must recognize that DB is
trying to grow when the competition is strong (although mostly foreign). What
DB must do is to keep up with the current fashion in dirt and racing bikes in terms
of looks, price, keeping its products leading-edge in both styling and performance.
While students may identify a number of knowledge assets as the most important,
it must be clear to DB management and therefore to the students that the most
important must include knowledge of:
1. The current styles in the field, and the ability to separate genuine and
long lasting trends from short-term fads
a. Marketing, sales and design are all are responsible for creating,
2. Design—of the whole bike and all of its parts, including how to design
and how to translate a final design into manufacturing
3. The best manufacturers of the current components, in terms of
production ability, cost control, quality control, supplying finished
products, and knowledge of their specific fields and changes in those
fields
4. The ability to work with other designers and producers anywhere in the
world
a. Actually, almost everyone will need this knowledge
3. How could the following employee groups benefit from knowledge management:
Designers and engineers
Product development specialists
Marketing specialists
Sales department and representatives
Managers
Describe the kinds of knowledge management systems that would be most valuable for
each of these groups. What information would each of these systems provide?
There are many answers to this question because knowledge is so important in
this company. Here we are offering some answers. Offer others of your own, and
expect some students to present their own views.
Designers and engineers:
Web for research. Word processing for creating and storing knowledge. E-
4. Use the Web to research how the company could make better use of the Internet for
knowledge management. What Internet information resources (specific Web sites or
Usenet groups) would be most useful to Dirt Bikes?
5. Describe an enterprise information portal for one of the employee groups listed in
question 3. To what knowledge resources would it link? What would the home page of
this portal look like?