Introduction
Knowledge management is one of the best strategies used for information sharing. This strategy is aimed at delivering working experience and specific skills to other departments of the company (Mertins, Heisig, & Vorbeck, 2003).
Community of practice is considered to be the means of sharing information as it is defined as “a group of people who share c concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and experience in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 4). Jugo Juice is the organization which works on the basis of these principles.
Jugo Juice knowledge management
The principles of information sharing
One of the main problems the company faces is the spread of the information and skills in the chain of the juice bars. As it has been mentioned, the company works on the basis of franchising model, so each new bar should use the strategies and skills of the main one. Using the communities of practice, the company has managed to solve this problem.
When a new bar opens, the central office or its departments send a part of their staff to it. This technique helps save time and money on training programs for the vast majority of people as new staff is selected by the professionals who have been working in the sphere and know the main principles of business. In other words, these people will also deliver useful information for those who have never worked in the sphere.
The representatives from all departments of Jugo Juice and those who have bought franchise have meetings where they share obtained skills and the information about the achieved results (Jugo Juice, 2011). This is the main principle of information sharing, but it is not enough.
Ideas for improving knowledge management via communities of practice
Having good system of information sharing, there are still more opportunities to reach. Jugo Juice has a spread chain of franchising companies, so it should create a web site (blog) which should be protected with logins and passwords for the business partners. The managers should state the problems in business they have and ask for pieces of advice.
Each manager of the company should visit the blog and leave his/her comments if he/she has some specific ideas about the problem solution. Moreover, it can be useful to share some urgent information between the departments devoted to discounts, special problems, gifts, etc.
The main principles of the company and the models for business running should be located on this web site. The information should be updated every day. It can be useful to leave some specific practices the departments use and the results of them.
Knowledge and skills sharing via the Internet may be a good idea for the departments which are located far from each other. Even though the locations for franchising are selected with specific accuracy, the web site is a good opportunity fro fast delivery of the information and knowledge sharing.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that having a good knowledge management on the basis of community of practice, Jugo Juice should try o develop it anyway. The innovative technologies should be used in the working process as the basis for information and knowledge sharing as well as the means of problem solving strategy. Franchising model of business running and the opportunities it has makes the business stronger and opened to new ideas.
Reference List
Jugo Juice: Soon the rest of the world will feel as good as we do. (2011). Franchse Genius. Retrieved from https://www.franchisegenius.com/Jugo-Juice-Franchise/.
Mertins, K, Heisig, P., & Vorbeck, J. (2003). Knowledge management: concepts and best practices. New York: Springer.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard: Harvard Business Press.