Key Takeaways

•  Buckman Labs, Hewlett Packard, Chrysler, American Management Systems, Xerox, Chevron, and Shell are some examples of businesses with an internal Community of Practice (CoP).
• Xerox is one of the popular and earliest known examples of a business with a CoP.
• Shell reportedly saved over $200 million in its Exploration and Production unit with the help of its internal Community of Practice.

Introduction

Xerox

• Xerox is one of the popular and earliest known examples of a business with a CoP.
• Verna Allee, in an article published in 2000, traced Xerox's CoP to the 1980s.
• Fred Nickols states that the impact of CoP "on customer satisfaction and the business value to Xerox was invaluable."
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Buckman Labs

• Buckman Labs is an example of a company that adopted CoP.
• While the exact year Buckman Labs created its internal CoP is unavailable, Harvard Business Review reports about its successful CoP in January 2000, which suggests that Buckman Labs CoP was formed before 2000.
• A success attributed to Buckman Labs CoP is that it reduced "the average time taken to resolve a technical query from a customer from three weeks to three days."

Shell

• Shell is an example of a company with an internal CoP.
• While the exact year Shell created its internal CoP is unavailable, Harvard Business Review reports about its successful CoP in January 2000, which suggests that Shell's CoP was formed before 2000.
• Shell reportedly saved over $200 million in its Exploration and Production unit with the help of its internal CoP.

Hewlett Packard

• Hewlett Packard has an internal CoP made up of product-delivery consultants.
• Hewlett Packard's CoP is referenced in articles published by OD Practitioner and Havard Business Review in 2000, which suggests it's older than the year 2000.
• According to Ideas For Leaders, Hewlett Packard's CoP successfully created and introduced "a new service catalogue that listed the entire range of project management services offered by the company, and a quick start methodology for project management teams."
• Harvard Business Review states that the success of Hewlett Packard's CoP includes "standardizing the software’s sales and installation processes and establishing a consistent pricing scheme for HP salespeople."

Chevron

• Chevron has an internal CoP that is made up of social performance practitioners.
• Verna Allee listed Chevron as one of the companies benefiting from an internal CoP in 2000.
• According to Chevron, members of its CoP "discuss how the company’s expectations on human rights extend to resettlement issues, discuss relevant international standards, and share lessons learned from their practical experiences."

American Management Systems

• American Management Systems (AMS), later acquired by CGI Group, had an internal CoP. 
• American Management Systems' CoP traces its origin to a number of initiatives that began in 1993. 
• An article published in KM World in 1999 states that CoP was one of the factors that helped spur innovations at AMS.
• Harvard Business Review's 2000 article also mentions AMS as one of the companies that benefited from its internal CoP.

Chrysler Corporation

• Chrysler Corporation, which later merged with Daimler-Benz AG, had an internal CoP called Tech Clubs.
• Chrysler's CoP was established in the 1990s and was made up of experts from its various cars platform.
• The company's CoP was critical in helping Chrysler "successfully make the move to platforms, a change that cut R&D costs and car-development cycle times by more than half."

Research Strategy