Knowledge management and the EBRD: designing a Knowledge Management Programme for the Office of the Chief Economist

It is early days in the life of Knowledge Management (KM) at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The Knowledge Management Audit, undertaken during six months of action research at the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) in 1998, provided the springboard to a knowledge sharing culture. The findings of the audit prompted an urgent need to apply KM initiatives. Accordingly, two knowledge repositories: ‘OCE Central Knowledge Store’ and ‘The Knowledge Tree’ were proposed and developed for OCE consideration. Their implementation is a big step forward for leveraging corporate memory at the EBRD. These initiatives are already flourishing and providing valuable knowledge sharing guidance to other departments in the Bank.