The Knowledge Creating

Company
 Metaphor to Model

• To convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge means finding a way to

express the inexpressible

• Figurative language and symbolism are one of the most powerful management
tools available for managers for achieving the same

• At Japanese companies, this evocative and sometimes extremely poetic

language figures prominently in their product development strategy
 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• 1978 – Top Management at HONDA inaugurated the development of a new

concept car with the slogan - Lets Gamble!

• Giving the Civic and Accord models a facelift since the existing designs had
become too familiar

• Two things led to this strategy of Honda

– A new breed of post war generation consumers who were hungry for
newer designs in automobile
– Formation of a new product development team with an average age of 27
who came up with unconventional ideas about what made a good car
 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• The top management at HONDA charged the team with two instructions in
their pursuit of manufacturing the dream car

• Following were the two commandments:-

 To come up with a product concept fundamentally different from anything

the company had ever done before

 To manufacture a car which would be inexpensive but which also meant

that the product was not dirt cheap either.

• The above two instructions also made its way as the core mission statements of
HONDA
 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• The stated mission provides clear sense of direction and also alerts them in
case they deviate from their stated mission
.
• In the early days of the project, a smaller and cheaper version of CIVIC was
proposed which ultimately would have been a safe and technologically
feasible bet.

• However, the idea was rejected since it went against HONDA’s core mission
and philosophy of creating an altogether NEW car

• Hiroo Watanabe, the Project’s Team Leader coined a new slogan to express his
sense of the team’s ambitious challenge

• He termed it as the “Theory of Automobile Evolution”

 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• The slogan posed a very unique question which changed the dynamics of
automobile engineering – If automobile were an organism, how would it
evolve?

• The answer to Watanabe’s slogan came in the form of another slogan - Man
Maximum, Machine Minimum

• This captured the team’s belief that the ideal car should transcend the
traditional human- machine relationship
 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• All ideas and slogans which the team had come up with during the product
conceptualization stage converged in the shape of a sphere – A car which was
short in length and tall in height

• The rationale behind this shape was that the car built would be lighter and
cheaper

• Also, it would be more comfortable and more solid than traditional cars.

• The sphere would not only provide ample room for the passenger but also it
would occupy the least amount of space on the road.
 THE EXAMPLE OF HONDA

• To further count the positives, the design also minimized the space taken up
by the engine and other mechanical systems

• Thus the concept car - TALL BOY was born which eventually led to the
HONDA City, the company’s distinctive urban car

• The example of HONDA exemplifies the value of figurative language and the
its distinctive role
 The Language of METAPHOR

• Metaphor is more than its usual meaning of a grammatical structure or an

allegorical expression

• It is a way for individuals grounded in different contexts and with different

experiences to understand something intuitively through imagination and
symbols without need for analysis or generalization

• Metaphor is used for people to express what they know in newer ways than is
normally possible

• Also, it fosters direct commitment to the creative process in the early stages of
knowledge creation.
 The Language of METAPHOR

• Metaphor bases itself on the philosophy of TWO IDEAS IN ONE PHRASE.

• This means coalescing two different and distinct areas of experience into a
single, all inclusive symbol or image.

• The conflict ensued due to above philosophy jump-starts the creative process
since the employees try to define more clearly the insight that the metaphor
expresses.

• Indirectly, Metaphor acts as the first step towards making tacit explicit.
 The Language of METAPHOR

• HIROO WATANABE’s SLOGAN

THEORY OF AUTOMOBILE EVOLUTION

• Combines two seemingly unrelated ideas

 Automobile – Machine
 The Theory of Evolution – Related to Living Organisms

• The above discrepancy acted as an ideal platform for speculating the

characteristic of their concept car.
 ANALOGY

• Metaphor, in spite of triggering the knowledge creation process is alone not

enough to complete it

• Metaphor links unrelated ideas but ANALOGY provides a structured process

for the same.

• Analogy, by clarifying how the two ideas in one phrase are actually alike or
not alike, harmonizes the contradictions incorporated into metaphors.

• Analogy acts as an intermediate step between pure imagination and logical

thinking.
 THEORY OF ANALOGY - CANON

• Canon put ANALOGY theory into practice while developing their

revolutionary mini-copier

• Their designers knew that reliability was a pre-requisite for its product to
succeed.

• To ensure reliability they had to do something which no other firm had done
which would make their product stand out among their competitots.
 CANON THEORY cont’d..

• The biggest problem which was plaguing the copier industry at that time was
the maintenance of the photosensitive copier drum. At least 90% of the drums
were facing this serious problem.

• Canon designers suggested that the Photosensitive copier drum be made

disposable which would eliminate the huge maintenance overhead on the
copier drums.

• However, such a move necessitated the drums to be cheap and easy to make
else the product would badly fail due to its high cost.
 CANON- The Breakthrough

• Normally, Ideas are generated in an environment where people feel the most
comfortable.

• On one such day, Task force leader Hiroshi Tanaka ordered for some beer,
while engrossed in discussion with his design engineers over their problems
faced in creating the drum.

• During the course of the discussion, Hiroshi wondered

 what it takes to manufacture the beer can?
 How much would the aluminum can be worth?
 CANON- The Breakthrough

• These question led the team to speculate whether the same process can be used
for making the aluminum copier drums.

• The researchers explored the pros and cons for the above idea wrt how the
drum actually is and is not like a beer can.

• They eventually came up with a process technology that would produce

aluminum copier drums at substantially lower cost.
 A MODEL

• After Metaphor and Analogy comes the last step in the knowledge creation
process i.e. the power to create a MODEL.

• A model is much more conceivable than a METAPHOR or an ANALOGY.

• A model resolves contradictions and leads to a transfer of concepts through

consistent and systematic logic.
 A MODEL

• Looking at the high quality standards of the bread produced at Osaka

International Hotel, Matsushita was able to develop the right product
specification for its home bread-making machine.

• Matsushita would have been unable to produce the perfect kind of bread had
they not known about the quality standards of the bread produced at Osaka
International Hotel

• Also, the image of sphere lead HONDA designers to its TALL BOY concept
which ultimately resulted in the existence of the HONDA CIVIC car.
 Metaphor, Analogy and Model

• All the above three terms are ideal concepts which should be held as a
guideline for any business to function.

• In actual life, it is very difficult to distinguish one concept from the other since
the dividing line between any of the concepts is very thin.

• The same phrase or image can embody more than one of the three functions
 Metaphor, Analogy and Model

• The three concepts capture the process by which organizations convert tacit
knowledge into explicit knowledge.

• The organizations which are able to emulate the above processes in a

structured way go on to become some of the most successful organizations of
all time.

• Matsushita, Canon and HONDA are prime examples of the organizations

which followed the above model with due diligence and hence were rewarded
with stupendous success in their respective fields.
 Metaphor, Analogy and Model in a
NUTSHELL
• The flow of ideas through above three modules can be explained as follows

 Linking contradictory things and ideas through METAPHOR

 Resolving these contradictions through the power of ANALOGY

 Crystallizing the created concepts and embodying them in a MODEL ie

giving the concept its true shape