Systematic Learning and the re-­‐use of experiences from already executed projects : Knowledge sharing through Knowledge Management in the Telecommunications sector

Abstract: The Telecommunications as an industry is a highly innovative industry with rapid development of technology. Companies operating in this industry have a extremely competitive environment and must therefore always have a better offer to customers than their competitors in order to survive. All the innovation and product development that is needed leads to a scenario where the ones that are best at this will have the benefit of being “firsttomarket”, thus having a competitive advantage. How a company could improve these processes has therefore become an important question to all and the following study aims to show that an explicit strategy for knowledge management is the way to go. In the competitive environment that exists one must learn from earlier production projects in order to always improve from time to time. Through interviews working as or has been projectmanagers within three companies in the telecommunications industry as well as a literaturere view conceptionalizing topics such as Projectmanagement, innovation, Organizational Learning and Knowledge management, the following was found. • Knowledge management(KM) leads to gains if implemented with a perfect fit to the company’s internalfactors. • KM may lead to smoother product development and faster, more accurate innovations. • A strategy for KM must regard to factors such as: o Organization – Leadership and management o Resources – human capital, culture and capital o Externalfactors • The pitfalls that hinders Organizational Learning to occur.