It’s great fun to hear Hubert Saint-Onge speak again, after many years. One of the early champions and advocates for KM, Hubert has been busy working and applying KM to the acquisition process.

He talks about how introducing collaboration tools, spaces, and online knowledge sharing, it’s possible to shorten the time (due diligence time was cut in half by the use of collaborative spaces) required. He worked to ensure that knowledge is carried through each phase of the merger (from due diligence, through transition, to completion). Increase value by reducing duplication while preserving and building on the strengths of both companies.

One of the key principles is that any company is either an acquirer or a target, or both. It’s therefore important for a company to develop the capabilities needed to leverage the strengths of each. Reaching back into his early work on KM, Hubert brings a value-creation approach that contrasts with traditional approaches based on expense only ($$), or growth only. The objective is to transform both companies, not to augment just one.

It is all about exchanging knowledge, building high levels of trust across both companies, ensuring that people feel respected and working in partnership.

The talk is taken from Hubert’s new book which, like his previous book, has wonderful models. Hubert has a gift for providing visual models that reflect his thinking. And, I suspect, like his book Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage (with Deb Wallace) will have sufficient models to help others learn how to both do and think as he does.

If KM is dead (or dying), I like to think that it is only because practitioners (like Hubert) are taking the principles, values, and concepts from KM into specific business disciplines.