Role of Knowledge Management in enhancing mgt. decision making in Lab Report

Role of Knowledge Management in enhancing mgt. decision making in Toyota - Lab Report Example Corporate management is now handling a global-scale brand of management, requiring a different kind of strategy, much distinct from traditional management. Advancement in technology is fast; innovations are applied every minute. There is what we call Web 2.0, or web-enabled infrastructure allowing business-customer and business-to-business interaction. This spawns databasing or shared repositories. The internet has revolutionized business functions and introduced countless innovations in the globalized world. Toyota Motors is a knowledge-based, global firm, leading the world in the car manufacturing industry. It has been the world’s leading car manufacturer, with branches worldwide, but recently a controversy has hounded its worldwide operations and colorful past, probably putting its leadership in the car industry in question. Problems over the hybrid Prius’ quality lapses that included braking problems and sticking gas pedals forced a global recall of 8.5 million vehicles, 6 million of them from the United States. Questions have arisen: how will Toyota resurrect from the ashes of a tainted hybrid Prius? Will it ever become the once glorious company which started its humble beginnings from a troubled Japanese economy? This essay will delve on the company Toyota, as a whole, and the particular technical aspect of its success – the introduction of knowledge management. For all of its successes, knowledge management played a key role in Toyota’s rise to ‘stardom’. Toyota has been on the forefront of car making because of an effective strategic and operational management coupled with an efficient and competitive workforce. Their strategies involve innovations in production, marketing, sales and promotions, and branding. But to top it all, it has been able to handle knowledge management like it is a part of ordinary business. In the 1950s Toyota was only a