About
Our mission: To inspire the design of human, social and intellectual capital development for individual, organisational and societal good.
An award-winning model and solutions that the press have called a "gamechanger"
a company dedicated to
the science of business
The company was started up by the University of Edinburgh in 2009, as a result of research into knowledge management, business agility and human resource development. Since then we have worked in 17 countries from around the world. K3 stands for knowledge to the power of three; the impact of knowledge upon the individual, the team and the wider world.
What makes alkAme different is that our work is based on a robust scientific approach to change; our underpinning benchmarking and change model winning an Emerald Literati Network Award. Quite simply, we understand the complex environment organisations find themselves in today and we help them make sense of their narrative. We aim to simplify and humanise problem identification and problem solving through the application of proven design thinking principles.
Our clients typically want to do a better job of anticipating change, innovating, improving productivity and/or improving their adaptive capability (the ability to react to change). They want to do a better job of making sense of their environment and they want to do it quicker than they have before. Our clients recognise that the environment is in a constant state of flux. They also recognise that if they don't sense and act to that change quickly enough they will fail.
The science of business involves looking at the whole problem. Complex challenges cannot be solved through traditional reductionist approaches. Complex challenges need tools that look beyond the immediate cause and illuminate the underlying or discrete cause of the problem. The award winning Knowledge-Core (K-Core) model does just that.
Our approaches do not only address today's problems. We keep an eye on your future, making sure that when things go wrong, as they surely will, you are better positioned than your competitors to bounce forward and preserve/develop competitive advantage.
David Griffiths, PhD, CMgr FCMI, FCIEA
Founder
Hi, I'm the founder of K3-Cubed Ltd. The company's evolution from "K3" (2009-2015) to alkAme is a result of my passion for progress.
I live in a small coastal village in West Wales, which I use as a totally illogical base for travel. I have lived in the US, Iceland and Scotland, but, except for Haliewa (North Shore, O'ahu), there is no better place to live.
I am driven by a desire to make a positive difference for people. To help people when they need it most. I strongly believe that you need to be willing to disrupt environments to bring about change and you can either create your own reality or have others create it for you. In the past I have been involved in successful and some not-so-successful projects/business ventures. I know the face and pain of failure, which makes the glow of success all the more valuable. This is part of the experience I bring to our projects, I recognise the signs of failure and can balance risk to ensure that change can be tolerated and is safe.
I hold a PhD in Knowledge strategy and management and an MSc in the Management of Training and Development, both from the University of Edinburgh.
The greatest compliment we are paid is when an organisation trusts us to guide them through turbulent times. It is a privilege I never take for granted. My work has provided me with wonderful experiences, from marvelling at the passion of engineers working at a coal-fired power station to watching knowledge flows on the set of Hawaii Five-O. I love what I do and feel lucky to be this trusted.
I Tweet under the username KMSkunkworks, which should give you an insight into how I think. A skunkworks "is an especially enriched environment that is intended to help a small group of individuals design a new idea by escaping routine organisational procedures. The research and development (R&D) workers in a skunkworks are usually specially selected, given special resources, and work on a crash basis to create an innovation." This sums up how we like to work here at alkAme.
I have been widely published in professional journals, with my practice-focused research on a new approach to Knowledge Management winning an Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence in 2012. In December 2011 I was recognised in a German report, “Visionary Knowledge Management: Trends and Strategies” as one of four key worldwide influencers in the Knowledge Management field. In April 2013, Mindtouch, based in the United States, listed me as one of the top 30 Knowledge Management influencers in the world (“Top 100 names to know in KM”) and in 2015 Attensa (USA) listed me as one of the top 10 global KM influencers. In 2014 our longterm Knowledge Management project with Indiana CPA Society saw the client recognised with a STAR Award for “Best individual program.” - Accounting Today, in reviewing the program stated, “The word ‘game-changer’ gets thrown around more than the word ‘dynamic’ at a Grant Thornton strategy meeting, but this really is a game-changer.” In 2015 I was announced as one of the five winners for the Chartered Management Institute, Management Article of the Year Award - the winner to be announced in February 2016.