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This article illustrates our concept of knowledge networks for growth, i.e. social networks that support companies’ growth strategy by their ability to share and create knowledge. We adapted the framework of intra-organizational networks to set up networks in three different growth areas: growth through the acquisition of external knowledge and its integration through merger and acquisitions; the support of internal innovation processes through the coordination of the innovation activities of independent business groups or units, and, lastly, growth through the integration of customers’ tacit knowledge in the internal innovation process.

The article first discusses which growth fields can be supported by special knowledge management activities and which prerequisites they require. Thereafter the reasons for knowledge networks being the correct choice with which to support companies’ growth strategy are elaborated on. Simultaneously, the organizational forms of communities of practice, communities of interest, project teams and formal knowledge networks are compared according to certain characteristics.

The next section describes how knowledge networks for growth function in practice. Three examples, derived from our research, illustrate the respective cases of a customer integration network, a post-merger integration network and an innovation coordination network. The examples are discussed according to the general components of knowledge networks and point out certain obstacles linked to the specific growth fields investigated. The section concludes by pointing out important components and their adaptation that might make the difference between success and failure.

After a hundred years of market control in Germany, the electricity market is currently characterized by partial market deregulation and, consequently, the utilities have to cope with increased competition. To remain competitive, a major growth factor can be stimulated through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that encourage synergies as well as providing access to new geographical areas. The companies RWE AG and VEW AG followed this path to growth and merged. After the merger both companies were reorganized and divided into several business units.

The challenge of a merged company is to overcome the barriers related to a merger and bring together the employees in order to formalize a knowledge transfer in the relevant strategic business fields. This process is called “Knowledge Integration after M&A”. To implement the process, the company needs a comprehensive tool with which to integrate its employees’ knowledge. The goal of the project was to test the MERLIN methodology that had been established for intra-organizational knowledge networks in a new business field, adapt it for the new field of use, implement the knowledge network, and accompany it during the set-up phase.

The background to this case study describes RWE Net’s historical background and the urgency with which a formalized knowledge transfer was undertaken. Thereafter the approach - the various steps of a knowledge network setup - is described. This is followed by conclusions regarding a network’s developmental steps. The case is concluded with the lessons learned and the most important general recommendations.

In general, a company has to overcome two environmental challenges. First of all, customers drive a company’s business through their demands and their preferences. They can demand much from a company, since changing to another vendor is quite easy in a buyer’s market. Secondly, technology-intensive companies face a swiftly changing competitive environment characterized by shortened product and service life cycles as well as by knowledge-dependent products and services.

In order to overcome these challenges and ensure organic growth, a company should launch customer-required product and services and become more customer centered, thus increasing customer loyalty. And this requires a better understanding of customers. It therefore follows that customers’ requirements can be better fulfilled by directly involving them in the innovation process.

The main purpose of the bilateral project between the HP support and the researchers of KnowledgeSource was thus to develop a model that would support the integration of both explicit and implicit customer knowledge, i.e. it would enable constant bilateral knowledge flows between the customers and the company in order to improve products and services.

HP’s historical background is described, followed by the internal and external challenges that the company faces. Thereafter the approach to the suggested solution - the steps leading to the building of a knowledge network - is described. The case is concluded with the most important lessons learned and general recommendations.

Strong competition, market maturity and improvement in R&D practices led to the re-evaluation of strategic policies in many industries. These issues also caused a shift of emphasis from the conventional bottom-line sources of growth, aimed at increasing efficiency and profitability, to their re-combination with a top-line growth source, which ensures long-term competitiveness through innovations.

At Unilever, the focus on knowledge and innovations has a solid background, since knowledge management has been actively practiced in the company for the last 10 years and measurable results have been achieved. Currently, Unilever’s five-year strategic plan announced in 2000 is “a series of linked initiatives designed to align entire organization behind ambitious plans for accelerating growth and expanding markets”. This is to be achieved by “focusing on Unilever’s leading brands and supporting them with strong innovation” (“Path to Growth”, 2000).

Considering the company’s rich experience in the area of innovation, the innovation network fits ideally into the current initiatives. It links local communities of practice, focused on the tacit knowledge dimension, with the innovation process management (IPM) program aimed at the coordination of the innovation initiatives across the company and dominantly focused on providing information and explicit sources of knowledge.

The tasks of the innovation network are to increase the transparency of existing innovation initiatives and increase the credibility of the company’s innovation strategy through the direct involvement of employees in the process of selection and prioritization of projects.

The importance of the network for the company strategy, the high level of portfolio coordination that it is granted, and its structural links through the organizational matrix with units that are responsible for their own financial prosperity, imply the possibility of hidden agendas. These hidden agendas make the work of network more challenging, but simultaneously indicate that there is a real value at stake and that the professional management of the innovation network could produce real value for the company. Finally, we made some suggestions on the ways how this value could be monitored and quantified.

The Bézier curve can be constructed either as a weighted sum of control points or by the process of scaffolding. These are two very different approaches that lead to the same result. A third approach to curve and surface design, employing the process of (also known as or ), is the topic of this chapter. Refinement is a general approach that can produce Bézier curves, B-spline curves, and other types of curves. Its main advantage is that it can easily be extended to surfaces.

The Bézier curve can be constructed either as a weighted sum of control points or by the process of scaffolding. These are two very different approaches that lead to the same result. A third approach to curve and surface design, employing the process of (also known as or ), is the topic of this chapter. Refinement is a general approach that can produce Bézier curves, B-spline curves, and other types of curves. Its main advantage is that it can easily be extended to surfaces.

Adapting the methodology for your business requires gathering data from your company and, particularly, from the specific area where you want to set up the network. These templates include guidelines for identifying the goals or tasks, and rules for the adapted network. They serve to clarify motivational aspects, success factors and barriers. The suggested order of the guidelines is aimed at fast and precise data gathering to enable the construction of the network.