大学英语四级考试试卷.doc

大学英语四级考试试卷
I. prehension (30%)
Passage One
E-business requires instantaneous decision-making and KM (knowledge management) has a tremendous role to play in achieving this as well as quality feedback. Real-time business without proper knowledge and feedback information quickly turns into real-time unsupervised and valueless chaos. Lack of adequate knowledge flow and coherent real-time views of a situation inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. The infamous Barings Bank operated a real-time futures business without real-time checks and balances, and did not ensure adequate quality of knowledge flows from the trading floor to controllers and managers. It was too-much-too-fast coupled with too-little-quality-feedback and insufficient understanding. There was too little real-time knowledge at hand and it turned out a spectacular disaster.
The missing link was KM. No serious e-business effort should be undertaken without considering, planning and implementing a strong KM infrastructure. Real-time knowledge must flow from those who have it to those who must be able to make the right move at the right time. And there is no time to spare. E-businesses must be equipped with interactive workflow tools and real-time business intelligence feedback in a clear and understandable format. People involved must have access to all underlying documents at all times at a snap of their fingers. Otherwise, they will guess rather than make informed decisions.
Or worse, in fear of making a huge mistake, people will make no decisions at all. Take a home loan application process for example. You would most likely apply to a number of banks at the same time. They would pete on pricing, but the bank that can make your credit assessment first and most effectively, process the documentation and inform you on the progress every step of the way will get your business. The rest may be stuck with less demanding, more risk-prone customers. This may affect their overall profitability, and abil