The pre-assignment consisted of a case study and a series of questions. This case study was designed to give you a sense of the importance of knowledge within a business and how vital it is to manage this asset. It was intended to have you reflect on the drastic impact of knowledge loss and the importance of knowledge retention within an organization.
Case Study
As a refresher, here is the case study that you were asked to review.
Mary is the Lead Program Manager at International Training and Development (ITandD). Her company is a multi-national, global business. Mary has been with the company for 40 years and has been heavily involved in securing some of the company’s biggest sales. She has close relationships with many clients and knows what the clients are looking for. Although the company has policies and procedures in place, after 40 years of working with ITandD, Mary has developed her own approach and customers really seem to respond to her methods.
Mary will be retiring at the end of this year. While the company has known of Mary’s impending retirement, they have been sidetracked by the day-to-day activities of the business. It is now four months until Mary’s retirement and senior management is beginning to worry about the potential loss the company will face with Mary’s absence. Her knowledge is highly valuable to the organization and if nothing is done to try to transfer this knowledge, it will literally walk out the door.