Case questions: Global Knowledge Management at Danone

1. What are the most important knowledge-management challenges faced by

Danone?
a. What role does the companys structure and history play in these
challenges?
b. What does the company need to do well in order to succeed (make sure
you define what success means in this context)?
2. What is your assessment of the Networking Attitude initiative?
a. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
b. Why do you think that the Communities follow-up initiative was
successful, while the Whos Who initiative was not? What conclusions can
you draw from this regarding keeping a knowledge-based initiative going?
c. Would this work well in your current organization? Why or why not?
3. Why was the Networking Attribute initiative under the leadership of Human
Resources instead of Information Technology?
a. Do you agree with this decision?
b. What should the role of IT be in managing knowledge within an
organization?
4. What should Franck Mougin and Benedikt Beneti do next?
a. Which of the three options (go wider, go deeper, go richer) they are
considering do you recommend? Why?
b. How does CEO Franck Ribouds approach to leading Danone affect your
recommendation?

Case Questions: Balancing Access with Accuracy for Infant HIV

Diagnostics in Tanzania
1. What test, or combination of tests, would you recommend for initial roll-out in
Tanzania?
a. On what evidence are you basing this decision?
b. What are the possible risks of your decision? How might you mitigate
those risks?
c. How would you assess whether you made the correct choice?
2. In order to make a better decision regarding which test (or tests) to implement,
what additional information would you like to collect from the key Tanzanian
stakeholders (i.e., government, heath care providers, and citizens)?
a. How would you collect this information?
b. How would you assess the value of collecting the information, especially
against the time and effort cost of gathering it?
3. Assume that you can choose only one of the tests for roll-out. What specific
communication strategy would you use among key stakeholders to gain support
for this test?
a. With which group would you begin?
b. How would you explain and frame the advantages and disadvantages of
the tests?
c. How might your communication strategy change based on the test you
chose for roll-out?

Case Questions: In-Vitro Fertilization: Outcomes Measurement

1. If you ran an in-vitro fertilization clinic, what are the two or three key metrics you
would want to track (and why)?
a. Compare these to the key metrics about which a potential IVF customer
would care?
b. Compare these to the key metrics on which a national standards body
should focus?
c. In your own organization or industry, is there agreement among the
various stakeholders about the key metrics to measure success? Explain
why or why not.
2. Assess the online reporting environment for IVF clinics.
a. Why do you think data published by the CDC was viewed as more credible
than the data published by SART? Why do you think SART continued to
publish its own outcomes data?
b. The CDC eventually decided to accept SARTs data entered into the CDCs
existing online system run by Westat. In your opinion, was this a good
decision?
c. How would you reliably implement patient verification of their own data
(as mentioned in the case)? What are the problems with doing this?
3. What opportunities are there for developing better outcome measures and
reporting for the IVF field?
a. What specific data, if any, do you think Dr. Goldfarb should advocate
developing national standards for collecting and reporting?
b. Describe the problems with collecting some of the new types of data that
was discussed in the case. Is it possible to resolve these issues? If so,
what would you suggest?

Case Questions: Intermountain Health Care

1. Describe IHCs approach to their overhaul of Clinical Care Management.
a. How did it differ from their previous practices? From others in the
industry?
b. Why doesnt every patient care organization do things this way?
c. How would you rate the performance of IHC? Make sure you define what
you mean by performance.
2. What role does information technology play in IHCs management of Clinical
Care?
a. In what ways do they collect and analyze information effectively?
b. How does their single system approach (the PCMS) tie in with their overall
management strategy? What data collection problems does it solve?
c. In your opinion, does the PCMS dictate their delivery of health care or
does it support it? Explain.
3. Discuss IHCs information systems in relation to data, information, and
knowledge management.
a. Identify what constitutes data, information, and knowledge for IHC. How
do they interrelate?
b. What is the role of process in relation to data, information, and knowledge
for IHC?
c. If you were Brent James, what strategy would you use to convince
resistant physicians to subscribe to IHCs approach? To adopt PCMS?