Promon highlights importance of Intellectual Capital at Brazilian National Quality Award Foundation Seminar
- 03/31/2005

Presentation will describe Promon’s experience in knowledge management and innovation


Promon is a Brazilian company dedicated to designing, integrating and implementing projects and business ventures for key infrastructure sectors such as oil & gas, power, process industries, mining, metallurgy, steel civil works, information technology and telecommunications.
Promon’s business model is based on the idea of a community of professionals. The organization’s independence is assured by the fact that its employees are its sole stockholders.
As a knowledge organization, Promon relies on the competence and creativity of its professionals to deliver the solutions its clients need. At the end of 2004 it had more than 620 professionals, 86% of whom were university graduates. Some 400 owned stock in the company.
“Keeping a community of highly qualified professionals permanently motivated to create innovative solutions for its clients is a challenge the organization tackles with enthusiasm, because it recognizes that this community is its key resource and makes a major contribution to society,” says Antônio Vellasco, Promon’s director of systems and administration.
Promon acquires knowledge through the projects it implements and through communities of practice, as well as by participating in outside events, training its professionals, organizing project control events, and cultivating relationships with clients, partners and suppliers.
“We aim to develop organizational initiatives in knowledge management in such a way as to foster the dynamism inherent in communities rather than relying solely on outside initiatives,“ says Vellasco. Based on these principles Promon has created communities of practice linked to its competence centers, ranging from engineering and project management to supply chain management and construction, erection & assembly.

Formalizing Knowledge
Knowledge is formalized through the Promon Encyclopedia, standards, a library of lessons learned and best practices, and project documentation, among many other media.
The Encyclopedia contains policies, guidelines, instructions and information applicable to the entire organization. It is designed to establish and standardize processes, ensuring that the organization functions in accordance with its principles and philosophy. The Encyclopedia is implemented in a Web environment and accessed via the Promon portal.
Lessons learned fuel continuous improvement of operating processes and are applied to the development of knowledge management mechanisms based on identification, treatment and recording of relevant knowledge (intellectual capital) in structured forms that can be retrieved at will for use and/or dissemination.

Knowledge Dissemination
Information and knowledge are disseminated via the Promon portal and internal events such as Mastigando Idéias, Tecnology & Engineering meetings, and community symposia, among others.
The mission of the Promon portal, which became part of the Promon network in 2003, is to be the main channel of communication between the organization and its professionals. It is informed by a strategic vision geared to the fullest possible development of the communication potential available so as to act as a tool for changing the company. The portal is also aligned with the strategy of raising Promon’s competitiveness by delivering knowledge management tools based on basic elements to facilitate document location and sharing (via a corporate taxonomy and search engine), and location of professionals available for immediate sharing of ideas.
Mastigando Idéias (“Chewing Ideas”) is a monthly lunchtime event at which professionals from across the organization come together to share experience and disseminate knowledge on any relevant subject. This may be specific to one area (e.g. telecommunications technology or a course attended by someone) or germane to several departments (e.g. best practices in project management). Thus the program is an effective way of furthering knowledge dissemination inside the organization.
The success of this and other initiatives inspired Promon Tecnologia and Promon Engenharia to organize Technology meetings and Engineering seminars respectively. These also aim to foster knowledge dissemination and discussion of ideas within each company on a range of topics, from markets to management via technology, corporate affairs, work in progress, and lessons learned.

Innovation
Promon is preparing to launch its latest knowledge management project called Innovation Recognition & Rewards Program (PRIN). The PRIN aims to create a climate that fosters innovation and creativity by encouraging and recognizing professionals who develop creative or innovative activities or suggest new ideas that potentially or actually contribute to positive results for the organization.
Based on a mechanism called “spontaneous detection”, the program allows any Promon employee to come forward with his or own innovation, innovations created by others or projects in which they share authorship, thereby encouraging all professionals in the organization to participate in teamwork.
The goal is to include professionals engaged in day-to-day work on projects, commercial and administrative activities or management, thus encompassing the entire workforce rather than only senior managers.

Organização Promon
The Promon Group comprises an operating holding company, Promon S.A., and four operating companies: wholly-owned subsidiaries Promon Engenharia and Promon Tecnologia; Trópico, a joint venture with Fundação CPqD and Cisco Systems; and UTE Bahia, a thermal power plant implemented in association with Ecoluz.
The group also includes Fundação Promon de Previdência Social, Fundação Cultural Promon and Instituto Razão Social, maintained in association with Instituto Camargo Corrêa and Gerdau.

For more information, please contact:
A4 Comunicação
Carolina Stefanini
carolina@a4com.com.br
(+55) 11 3088-4122