KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT READINESS ASSESSMENT IN MARKETING AND SALES DEPARTMENT OF PT AGN FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

• Main Author: Ardhiani Samodro, Vania
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/62851
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

As an essential industry that realizes buildings and other physical spaces, the construction industry is still thriving despite the trend of electronic-based business in this era. The growing complexity in the industry pressures companies to keep improving in order to stay relevant within the competition, therefore companies have to continuously evaluate and improve its performance. PT Australindo Graha Nusa (PT AGN) has a vision to become the biggest local electrical equipment supplier in Indonesia. However, the sales revenue for the last few years had not been optimal. An observation made by the management on the marketing and sales department shows that the process and people aspect of sales activity, especially for project-based sales, need improvement. Knowledge management (KM) has been extensively researched for its relation to organizational performance, which functions as an enabler for high performance (Andreeva & Kianto, 2012) and the management has started looking into related tools to benefit from KM. However, KM itself has never been implemented or introduced in the company. The next step that the management wants to take is to see the readiness of knowledge management in the marketing and sales department. This research aims to determine the current level of KM readiness in the marketing and sales department of PT AGN especially for the project sub-division and propose a KM-related strategy to help the company in achieving higher KM readiness and improve its performance especially for project-based sales. This research uses quantitative and qualitative data to measure the KM readiness level and design strategy for improvement. The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) KM assessment tool is used to measure the KM level through questionnaire. The result shows that the marketing and sales division of PT AGN has reached the Refinement level of KM maturity, which means that knowledge management practices have been implemented and continuously being evaluated and improved. However, there are still several aspects that can be improved to reach KM maturity. Based on the assessment result and supplementary data collected through interview, key activities for improvements are determined, which becomes the basis for the solution design. The proposed improvement plan consists of creating policies and written rules, improving management support for KM programs, utilizing IT for KM activities, and creating systematic knowledge process.