In hyper-competitive environment, organizations are seeking to become more operationally efficient and effective in achieving their objectives through increased productivity, higher quality, and more knowledge-driven work processes & practices. Shareholders are demanding the highest possible value for public money & National Oil Companies (NOCs), are looking to significantly reduce costs, improve decision making, finding innovative ways to grow. With the ever increasing complexity in oil sector, NOCs are finding ways to organize ideas and information so that knowledge can be managed and shared apart from serving as repository to future generations. Megatrends are transforming industry, and navigating the future is increasingly challenging in a more complex global market. The oil and gas industry is facing a difficult environment today, with historically low commodity prices, among other factors. For today's knowledge-based work, NOC's need to learn from other's experiences i.e. vicarious learning, to improve their efficiency, productivity, work smarter by reducing the cases of reinvention of wheel & collaborate.
This paper illustrates a case of implementation of various Knowledge Management (KM) strategies, in an Indian NOC namely HPCL, and its impact on company's growth. In a hyper competitive scenario with ever rising pressures on time & cost in projects, the need for a ‘systematic templating’ of knowledge was recognized. This necessitated the introduction of Knowledge Management Centre (KMC). Projects & Pipelines Department (P&P) of HPCL introduced KMC that contributed significantly towards growth by adopting various strategies such as standardization, leveraging information system, competency enhancement, and improvements & innovations. These strategies gave savings in cost to the tune of 15M US$ in project apart from intangible benefits. HPCL has successfully created scalable foundation pillar of Knowledge, on which technology & people collaborate to provide sustainable competitive advantage.
