CORPORATE TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN HERBALIFE AND HAI-O

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CASE STUDY

INTRODUCTION
1.1

History of Taxonomy
Taxonomy has been recognize as the study of scientific classification, in
particular the classification of living organisms according to their natural
relationships (Tilton,2009). The term taxonomy is derived from Greek words,
which it is a combination of a two words (taxis + nomos). Taxis refer to the
arrangement and nomos can be conjugated to refer as the science of classification.
It is believed that, the Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus (1707 -1778) was perhaps
the first one to use the idea of taxonomy to classify the natural world. Hence, the
taxonomy idea has become global applications in grouping and categorizing
knowledge into systematic manner, storage, and re-used.

1.2

Definition and Concept of Taxonomy

Lehman (2003) defined taxonomy as a subject map to an organizations content
which it reflects the organizations purpose or industry, the functions and
responsibilities of the persons or groups who need to access the content, and the
purposes/reasons for accessing the content. Therefore, a corporate taxonomy can
also be understand as a conceptual map, an information access tool, and a
communications and training device at the same time, providing history, expertise
and inside information that can assist every business activity. Naturally, as with
any other information access tool, taxonomy has to serve special requirements and
purposes before it is developed and exploited.

Sharma (2008) in his study concerned that unlike traditional classification that
static and has been prepared beforehand, corporate taxonomies are dynamic and
need constant refinement and update since organizations need to adapt to a
changing environment, competition, threats, etc., which force them to modify
their knowledge flows.

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Characteristics of Taxonomy

The characteristic of taxonomy can be known as many ways as accordance with ones
area. For example, a biologist has their own way to taxonomy, and so are the librarians.
However, when talking about business, a corporate taxonomy should have hit some
prominent characteristics.

It is a common language used by diverse stakeholders from business, IT and operations

teams.

It is a single, consistent, coherent classification system.

It is not limited to technology but a business and operations classification

Key things it defines are business processes, applications, infrastructure, operations and
service components of the enterprise

It is as individual as enterprise it lives in but generally speaking it defines architecture

reference models, major components and sub-components and standards associated with
them.

Good Taxonomy also defines interfaces and dependencies between enterprise

components
(Apte,2014)
1.4

Benefits of Taxonomies

Taxonomies are an important tool in balancing the contradictory forces of information

overload and the need for instant access to the right information. In its basic definition,
taxonomy is a structured set of names and descriptions used to organize information and
documents in a consistent way (Lambe, 2007). Knowledge taxonomy focuses on enabling
the efficient retrieval and sharing of knowledge, information and data across an
organization by building the taxonomy around workflows and knowledge needs in an
intuitive structure (Lambe, 2007; Malafsky, 2008).

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Few benefits of taxonomies are as follow:

Taxonomies can contribute to making explicit knowledge embedded in documents

available at the point of need.

Assist the mapping and categorization of tacit knowledge embedded in staff expertise.

Promote collaboration and sharing between units and departments of an organizations by

mapping and coordinating the sharing.

Putting knowledge into practice by making sense of the knowledge of the organization
and creating a common vocabulary and a common way of working.
(Jones,2011)
1.5

Supplementary Food

In this 21st century, supplementary food have become the important type of medication
that being consumed by the people around the world. But what is supplementary food?
Why does it being consumed every day?

According to Cherny (2015), supplementary food is understand as Food supplements

which can help you get the nutrients you lack from your regular diet. The supplementary
food also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement. This terms is define as a
preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients. The nutrients that is
discussed is vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids which may not be
consumed in sufficient quantities in a persons diet.

Based on WHO (2012), supplementary foods are usually required to supplement the
regular diet and contribute to an improved intake of the required nutrients. WHO added
that supplementary foods, particularly when they represent the main source of energy,
need to provide nutrients at levels that do not cause adverse effects in moderately
malnourished children when consumed for several months.
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There are numbers of reasons why the supplementary food is so important which
numbers of people are having insufficient nutrition for health. The lack of nutrition is the
calcium and the nutrition that contained in plants, vegetables, and fruits. The living style
of people nowadays also influence the lacking of nutrition in their bodies. So, therefore,
there are supplementary foods that being produced with numbers of research in order to
overcome the problem that being attacked the people nowadays for lacking in nutrition.
This supplementary food helps in fulfilling the missing amount of nutrition and it is also
helps the body not to lack of necessary nutrition.

As in Malaysia point of view, we can see dumping of numbers of supplementary foods in

the market. We can see Hai-O, Shaklee, Herbalife, K-Link, GNC Live Well, and others.
The main purpose of all of this supplements are working to replace all the nutrition that
ones body cannot absorbed or lacking at. This kind of supplementary foods comes in
ranges of products. They cover the people from head to toe. Before purchasing the any
package, the person need to get the advice first from the salesperson as this people know
better in which product is better for that pertaining problem.

1.6

Supplementary Food and Taxonomy

The list of supplementary food provide by both companies Hai-O and PhytoSienceare
very important as it give the information and also they provide the buyers with the
knowledge on what type of product that they need to take in order to overcome their
problems. Both of this website provide the users with the good knowledge in
understanding better about the product. This websites also provide the way of improve
your body performance and others. Therefore, a proper tool is needed to manage, store,
and disseminate all the important information and knowledge to their users and
stakeholders. Corporate taxonomy (CT) is an ideal tool that can be used in order to enable
their users and stakeholders to get access and navigated to their business product.

Corporate Taxonomy (CT) serves and provide classification and hierarchical order of
information and knowledge of the pertaining business entity, and this will enable the
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users and stakeholders to identify the locations of their needed information through facets
or sub-categories that being provided in the interface of website. As we know, when the
information are organized in the good manners, the searching time in browsing all the
information needed will be reduced and this will definitely help the users from
confronting the information loss. By having the means of CT, the users as well as the
stakeholders able to search for the products and the ways of getting better health. This CT
also helps to clear the view of the business of the companies.
1.7

Process of Developing Taxonomy

In developing taxonomy for an organization, there is a proper process that need to be

considered to ensure that the taxonomy are being produced can be successfully
implemented. According to Choksy (2006), there are 8 steps in developing taxonomy
which is:

Step 1: Select the Taxonomy Team

In this step, the information technology (IT), legal, compliance, and record
management (RM) must be in the Taxonomy Team. This is because, each of this
department play a big role in the CT project as they have different expertise that need
to be used in order to develop a good CT.

Step 2: Determine Role in Corporate Strategy

The taxonomy known as a tool and an opportunity as all the activities within the
corporation relating to documents. The motivation for the taxonomy can be tactical,
as with a departmental content management program, or strategic, as with making
proprietary business processes more efficient. Assign the resources, champions,
operational and IT leads, and team members who will be interviewed in the process.
At a minimum, a corporate representative from enterprise operations, RM, legal,
compliance, and IT should be present.

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Step 3: Determine Business Purposes and Requirements for Taxonomy

This step involves conducting a round of surveys and interviews with representatives
of the business units to determine what records-, document-, and content-related
problems exist throughout the organization.

Step 4: Gather and Review Pre-existing

In this step of the taxonomy creation process, the taxonomy team compiles a number
of pre-existing materials that will serve as inputs to the enterprise taxonomy. The
team also need to gather the taxonomy-related materials, pre-existing materials. Most
of the materials will be valuable in either creating or completing the taxonomy, but
none will substitute for completing the survey. Make certain to ask questions about
the context for the creation of the materials to understand what the material represents
and how directly it will translate into the taxonomy.

Step 5: Conduct Survey and Interviews

This step will handle the interview by individual and group to identify the elements of
the taxonomy which is necessary to create a taxonomy which come primarily from
the employees in each workgroup. More experienced employees, people who tend to
be the go-to individuals for finding things, and people with experience from other
organizations are also good candidates for interviews in the Step 5 round of surveys.
RM, IT, and compliance and legal must also be interviewed, but they provide issues
that affect the taxonomy, not the content of the taxonomy:

1. The records manager can describe the current programs, policies, and procedures
and can also describe the current situation with storage.
2. The IT managers can describe applications and storage management.
3. Legal and compliance can describe current compliance requirements and litigation
issues the corporation must address.

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Step 6: Create Inventories

In this step, the team need to analyse the results of the survey and interview. The team
need to review the completeness of the survey. Review them also to ensure the
contents are in alignment with the business unit interview. Where findings are of
concern or interest, or if they point to an opportunity, create a table describing these.
Any gap must also be filled by asking the business unit or workgroup.

Step 7: Rationalize Classification

Through the interviews, surveys, inventory, analyses, and problem identification
sessions, the structure of the classification should be very clear. (For a visual
representation

of

taxonomy

structure,

visit

www.arma.org/pdf/journal/taxonomy.pdf) The taxonomy creator should avoid

creating more than four hierarchical levels:
a. Function
b. Process
c. Records Series
d. Documents

Step 8: Finalize Taxonomy

At this final stage, the departments need to review their components. Departments
make a final review of their classifications and submit final changes. This may
actually take several rounds of review. Most of the changes at this point are to fix
metadata and clarify descriptions. They need to create final Taxonomy and Thesaurus
and review if there is any defects. This will represent the fair representation of how
business is performed. Determining whether those terminological differences make a
difference or whether each references the same thing is part of the taxonomy process.
The thesaurus should be the list of approved terms with clear definitions of what the
terms mean and when the terms should be used.

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CASE STUDY

BACKGROUND OF HERBALIFE
2.1

Company Profile

Herbalife is an American multinational multi-level marketing corporation that

develops, markets and sells nutrition supplements, weight management, sports nutrition
and personal-care products. The company was founded by entrepreneur Mark Hughes in
1980, and it employs around 7,400 people worldwide. Herbalife reported net sales of
US$3.825 billion in 2014, a 21% decrease over 2013, and net income of $477.19 million,
a 16% increase over 2011. It incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its corporate
headquarters are there.
The company operates internationally and distributes its products in 95 countries (as of
July 2015) through a network of approximately 3.2 million independent distributors,
some of whom earn profit on product sales and additional commission from a multi-level
marketing (MLM) compensation structure.
Herbalife's products include protein shakes; protein snacks; nutrition, energy and
fitness supplements; and personal care products. The Formula 1 proteins shake a soybased meal-replacement shake, are the companys number one product and were one of
the first products it sold. Other products include products for heart health, digestive
health, skin care, and the new 24 sports line released in 2011. Some products are
vegetarian, kosher, allergen free or halal, and Herbalife provides testimonials and advice
from health professionals as part of their product marketing.

Figure 1 : Herbalife Domain

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Organization Structure

Herbalife has diverse organizational functions like human resources, marketing,

resources, and finance. However, the first level of Herbal organization functions is the workers.
They are divided into departments, which are inclusive of those mentioned above. The company
is also divided into different managements that include executive managers, top managers, and
operational managers. The other important level is comprised of directors and the CEO. This
means that the level of authority comes from the CEO to the top management before reaching the
employees.

Therefore, the principal function of Herbalife is Research and Development, which are
mainly operations. Therefore, the largest department within the organization is operations
department, which is comprised of other divisions like the R&D. The function of the human
resources department is making sure that the employees are organized according to their skills,
knowledge, and experience. Further, the finance department ensures that there is constant cash
flow in the operations department and from the receivable accounts, payable, and payroll. This
department ensures that the budget is well fixed to meet all the demands of the company in all
departments for smooth operations. The marketing department provides information in the
companys website. It also uses other modes of advertising. The products produced need to be
taken by people, thus the need to have a good marketing department.

This organizational function is very important in the company. The effort of this
department has led to the familiarity of the company all over the world. With the utilization of
new advertising platforms like the social media, the department has assisted in helping the
company grow to be one of the best in the supplements industry.

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CASE STUDY

Vision

Become the worlds premier Health & Wellness Company enriching the lives of people
who yearns to be wholesome.
2.1.3

Mission

To change Malaysian peoples live by providing the best nutrition and weight
management products in the world.
2.1.4

Corporate Objectives

They aim to achieve their corporate goals by:

Always committed to uncompromising product quality

Continue to innovate and provide utmost rewarding opportunity

Constantly provide excellent value-for-money products and services

Committed to create a caring, inspiring & a gratifying environment for our

members, customers, partners and staff.

2.1.5

Values

Our Customers
We are driven by the needs of our customers and inspired by their stories.

Our Products
Our commitment to the highest scientific and safety standards in product development
and manufacturing is an integral part of our mission for nutrition. We are the products of
the products.

Our Communities
We make our communities better places to live and work.

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Our Work
We make decisions based on facts, not hearsay. We work hard and hold ourselves
accountable. We strive for excellence.

Our Ethics
We do the right, honest and ethical thing.

Our Attitude
We make it fun simple and magical.

2.2

Corporate Taxonomy in Herbalife

Herbalife, one of the nutrition company that provide people to pursue a healthy, active
life since 1980 needed assistance ensuring their product information could easily be
found and delivered to technicians in the field, to contractors, and to important large
customers. The industry of food supplement has gotten as wide as much new similar
company has bloom. The impact is, Herbalife product has become quite difficult for
distributors and customers to know what Herbalife product line their various products and
services might be in. Hence, to overcome the issue of sustainability, Herbalife has
adopted their own corporate taxonomies in their website.

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Figure 2 : Categories in Herbalife website

Taxonomy strategies has been adopted to consolidate multiple taxonomies that has been
developed for separate product lines, and to integrate them into a content architecture to
be implemented as part of a new content management system. An important result of the
project was the recognition that the existed product solutions and the business
opportunity views needed to be reconciled and mapped to each other in order to solve the
problem. Based on Figure 2, there are five main taxonomy branches or facets were
recognize, that is ; General Information , Product solutions, Live healthy, Business
opportunity, Herbalife background profile. Each of the labels on the taxonomic
organization serves as a metadata for the content they organize (Rita, 2006).

Domain
Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

Level 3

Level 3

Figure 3 : Taxonomy in Herbalife

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The taxonomy described in this paper is a multi-dimensional classification scheme. Each

dimension or, taxonomy facet is a hierarchical list of detail taxonomy terms. Information entered
in a repository is categorized with many taxonomy terms which can later be used to access it.
The taxonomy provides a common way to search the information by people with different
viewpoints. Each facet has many terms which allow for granular categorization of information.

DOMAIN
Herbalife

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1

A Balanced
Diet

Live Healthy

LEVEL 3
Essential
Nutrients

Figure 4: Levels in Herbalife Corporate Taxonomy

Based on the Figure 4, it shows the taxonomy work in Herbalife website. It shows the process of
finding information about Essential Nutrients.The Herbalife is the domain, and as we go to Live
Healthy category, it is the first level or Level 1. As we go into the Level 1, there is Level 2 which
is the A Balanced Diet. Under level 2, the content expands and user will see the link of Essential
Nutrients. Every single click through the level will bring the customers to the information that
they need. Figure 4 illustrate the levels of the Corporate Taxonomy in Herbalife in the process of
navigating the Essential Nutrients.

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Figure 5 : In order to ease the searching process, Herbalife website also equip
with Site Map as taxonomies for website contents

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CASE STUDY

Process of Developing Corporate Taxonomy in Herbalife

Each product line and functional organization had already developed a hierarchy
with which to present their information as in Figure 3. There were documents about
equipment, processes, and chemicals. Some of these documents related to particular
organizational functions or locations. Taxonomy is a living document that changes as the
work within the company changes.

It is never final because organizations constantly change their processes and

organizational structures, sometimes due to mergers, acquisitions of new business units,
or expansion into other countries. A good taxonomy should be flexible enough to handle
changes so it never has to be recreated (Choksy,2006).

Stage 1: Determine requirement for the taxonomy

The first step in determining suitable taxonomy in Herbalife is to identify the
background of the business itself. This is because; having complete details about the
company will help potential customers convince themselves to try the products.
Information that needs to be clear and put in the website is included, such as scope,
purpose, values, objective, and target audience and other suitable information. Major
purpose of defining such details is to ease the customers to access the information in
systematic manner.

In this step, it involves conducting a round of surveys and interviews with

representatives of the business units to determine what records-, document-, and contentrelated problems exist throughout the organization, to be put in the website. In Herbalife,
the details about the company were located in About category. Thus, when user click on
the tab, all information related with Herbalife background, success stories, etc will
appear.

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Stage 2: Identify concepts within the taxonomy

Before the person can start identifying categories by which to classify the
organizations information, it will need to decide on and locate the resources to be
included. Once the organization has a good overview of the information that needs to be
classified, whether through the use of analysis tools or through combining the knowledge
of the various people in the project team, it will need to establish the structure of the
taxonomy.
Once the organization has a good overview of the information that needs to be
classified, whether through the use of analysis tools or through combining the knowledge
of the various people in the organization, it will need to establish the structure of the
taxonomy.

Stage 3: Develop Draft taxonomy

After identifying the concept that will be used, the organization can start developing
taxonomy draft by gathering needed information within the organization. For example, in
Herbalife, they will need to identify all products produced by them and categorized it in
certain category.

Stage 4: Review draft taxonomy with users and stakeholders

A significant challenge when defining taxonomy is to create a balance between the
breadth and the depth of categories. If categories are too specific in their description and
classification there is a danger that they will be too transient, and need changing as their
contents change. Therefore, the draft need to be reviewed to check its validity, and
whether users and stakeholders can use it to find information and understand what does
the website is all about.

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Stage 5: Refine Taxonomy

There is one thing that the organization should ensure that, while it is important to
represent the knowledge base, the purpose of creating the taxonomy is not forgotten. It
must be logical and navigable, and it should always be clear to users, as well as to the
project team, why a certain document or piece of information falls into a particular
category or group of categories (Woods,2004). Besides, taxonomy should not be
categorized broadly and not too narrow. Because too broad will hinder navigation, and
too narrow might confused users. A narrow taxonomy also forces uses to make a
navigation decision with too little information and to have to work through too many
layers before knowing if they are following the right path. The general consensus is that
breadth is better than depth as far as usability is concerned (Woods,2004).

Therefore, a set of guidelines needs to be established in order to determine, how

much level needed to present the contents in the site. A note to remember, it is not
necessary for one organization to flat out too much levels, but such guidelines will helps
the person to choose whether or when a single category needs to be divided into further
subcategories. In Herbalife website, the hierarchies of each level were categorized in
suitable terms, so users will be easy to search.

Stage 6: Apply taxonomy to content

Once the taxonomy has been structured, then it needs to be test. This is vital as to
determine whether they fit well into the structure, and whether all of their possible
purposes are covered by the taxonomy. It is also necessary for users to test the structure
with those documents in place, to see whether the users expectations of what should fall
into that category match the taxonomy, and to see how easily the user can navigate
through the layers of the hierarchy. Once this testing has been done the project team can
refine the structure; renaming any categories to ensure they are meaningful and
consistent. Testing and refinement is an iterative process.

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Stage 7: Manage, maintain, and review

Taxonomy is a dynamic thing, as it should be manage, monitor and review regularly in
order to ensure that documents are still being categorized in a logical and comprehensible
manner, and that the categories are still useful and current. In Herbalife, new products
might be developed as years goes by, and by that means the website needs to be updated
too. And the same process of taxonomy will rotate. An automatic classification tool will
be able to categorize documents as they enter the knowledge base, thus reducing the
responsibility that is placed upon the document author.

2.4

Limitations of Developing Corporate Taxonomy in Herbalife

Commonly, there are few limitations will be faced in the process of developing
taxonomy. This is due to the fact that its dynamic in nature, one should keep with the
latest trends, so that the website is not outdated, and making sure to invest a bit in the
interface to attract users to use the website. In Herbalife, there are few limitation has been
identify that might affect the usability, findability, the content, the categories of
information and any other issues that could be faceted from technical or non-technical
factors.

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2.4.1

CASE STUDY

Incomplete Information

Figure 6 : Lots of information but not specific

From observation, it is found that Herbalife website lack of importance

information such as the details structure of the organization. The leads in Herbalife were
explained in a paragraph instead of using charts.

Even though, the website was

developed for Malaysia, there are no such details related to who are the one leads the
Herbalife here. As according to Figure 6 above, there is many subcategories but none of
them would help users to find the backbone of Herbalife Malaysia.
2.4.2

Structure and Organize

In term of structure, all of the subcategories are not listed properly in the category

tab. Users have to click on the site map to refer if they want to view all elements in each
links. Besides, if were to compare Herbalife Malaysia and Herbalife International
website, we can see that Herbalife International provide much more details than
Malaysia. Some of the information cannot be displayed. This is one of the big challenge
of Herbalife in implying corporate taxonomy. Therefore, Herbalife Malaysia should fix
this problem and arrange the website accordingly.

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Application requirement

Herbalife website is operate by flash application support, therefore for some users that are
not aware of the need of installing flash, they cannot view some of the content in the
website. In future, Herbalife should include the reminder sign for users to make sure their
computer is eligible or not to run the website.

2.5

The Application of Corporate Taxonomy to Improve Herbalife activities

The power of taxonomies has been promoted by the growth in appreciation of the
importance of knowledge management, and also by the realization by many organizations
of how the classification of their content can bring additional potential for revenue
generation (Vernau,2005). Some of the obvious impact come from using corporate
taxonomy in Herbalife include:

Easier navigation, more efficient search

A good taxonomy should make it easier for users to navigate through large volumes of
information. The taxonomy should also improve the results from search engines, which
can exploit both the improved metadata (to increase the accuracy of a search) and the
taxonomy structure (to narrow searches and organize results). Together these
improvements can reduce the time that employees or customers spend looking for
information and increase the likelihood that they will find what they are looking for. A
well-considered taxonomy also increases the opportunities for the serendipitous
discovery of information (for example, information on similar projects or additional
works by the same artist on a music site).

In Herbalife, although all of the subcategories are not available in the categories tab, the
information that show is really the one that most visited by users. For example, listing all
of the products, and listing less health articles.

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Better user experience

More and more customers judge a company on the quality of the website and in particular
the ease with which they can find the information, services or goods that they are looking
for. A good taxonomy not only provides the basis for an effectively organized site, but it
also increases the maintainability and adaptability of the site. Instead of a gradual buildup of haphazard links and degradation of the navigational structures, changes and
improvements to the site can be done within common, shared and managed information
architecture. For instance, the interface that was used by Herbalife is quite attractive with
flash and dynamic web design.

Figure 7 : Interface of Herbalife

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Support for interoperability and integration

An increasingly important role for taxonomies is as a means to enable interoperability

and integration at an organizational and an application level. Many governments have
begun programmes to develop a common taxonomy and related standards for metadata as
part of their modernization programme. The same is true for organizations looking to link
up their various applications, processes and knowledge bases in order to improve
competitiveness and flexibility. Another good application of corporate taxonomy in
Herbalife is that it can be browse by using any internet browser, without having to worry
that the categories will be missing or misplaced.

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CASE STUDY

BACKGROUND OF HAI-O
3.1

Company Profile

As a business base company, the corporate taxonomy is the important aspect that need to
be taken seriously in any organization. This is because, by having the good and
comprehensive Corporate Taxonomy, it will develop trust and the users as well as
stakeholders interest in their organization. When we search or view any website from the
organization that are business base, we will see the way they construct their Corporate
Taxonomy are in hierarchical and we can directly understand what nature are they for.
Hai-O categorise the information based on product and services that being offered by the
organization.

By having the visibility of the Corporate Taxonomy, the user or the stakeholders will
have a clear and direct view on the business of Hai-O organization. As we have mention
that Hai-O is an organization that providing products and services to its users, they need
to attract the customers to use the Hai-O website. The naming convention or the
categorization of the product offered need to be useable and visible by the customers for
the navigation of the information.

Furthermore, the website that based on business will directly organized their information
in hierarchically which it will bring the user from the broad term to the narrow term in the
business aspects. For instance, in Hai-O website, there are 3 levels occurs to reflect the
ontology of its business entity. As for Hai-O website, we can see that they have adopted
the Corporate Taxonomy towards their categorising the information in their organization.

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DOMAIN

CASE STUDY

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

Figure 8: The hierarchical structure of taxonomy in Hai-O

Based on the Figure 8, it show the taxonomy work in Hai-O website. The Hai-O is the
domain, and as we go to Investor Relations category, it is the first level or Level 1. As we
go into the Level 1, there are Level 2 which is the Corporate Governance, and the Level 3
is Board Charter. Every single click through the level will bring the customers to the
information that they need. Figure 9 illustrate the levels of the Corporate Taxonomy in
Hai-O in the process of navigating the Board Charter.

DOMAIN
Hai-O

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1

Financial
Highlights

Investor
Relations

Figure 9: Levels in Hai-O Corporate taxonomy

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LEVEL 3
Board Charter

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As from my point of view, financial information in each business company are the
highlight subject or issues. So, Hai-O Organization already make the information easily
retrieved by managing the taxonomy for the easy navigation for the stakeholders as well
as for the user/customers. As we can see from the hierarchy, the team developer make the
navigational of the information easier as they only provide 2 level of the facets. This will
helps in reducing the information loss for having so many level in one domain. As far as I
am concern, having numbers of level was not a big problems, but, there will be an impact
towards the user/customers that might facing the information loss as they need to open
and being navigate to many levels.

Hai-O organization website are provided with the Site Map at the top of the website page
as a taxonomies to support the website contents. This ensures that the common
vocabulary are being used for searching and indexing the information or the documents
throughout the organization website. The availability of the Site Map improved the
access to the information which it shows the structure of the taxonomies in the website
and classifying the information which helps in navigation of content and facilitates more
effective search of the location on the relevant information or contents.

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CORPORATE TAXONOMY DEVELOPMENT IN HERBALIFE AND HAI-O

Figure 10: Site Map of Hai-O website

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3.2

CASE STUDY

Process of Developing Corporate Taxonomy in Hai-O

There are several factors that are important that Hai-O has taken seriously and formally in
designing and do the process of developing the Corporate Taxonomy in Hai-O. This is
viewed from the facets, levels, and others aspects. From the observation from the
Corporate Taxonomy in Hai-O, it consist up to three (3) levels. All of the aspects that
taken care are the main factors and important during the Corporate Taxonomy Process.
The process of developing the Corporate Taxonomy for Hai-O are as follows:
Stage 1: Determine requirement for the taxonomy
The first stage in developing Corporate Taxonomy in Hai-O is to determine the
requirement for the taxonomy. This is define as determine the main purpose of the need
of having a Corporate Taxonomy for Hai-O. It includes the scope, purpose, objective,
target audience which is to be used for the Corporate Taxonomy. As for the crucial of
having the Corporate Taxonomy is to enable the users to access to the domain and subdomain which is the information in a directional mode.

The business representative, information manager, a taxonomy specialist and the experts
in this field need to be in this process as they are people that understand the constraints
and opportunities which the taxonomy will be implemented. This is because, every
business have its own nature so the people that are based from the organization will
definitely will help in the creation of the ontology. Having a representative who
understands content governance, such as an information manager, is important.

Stage 2: Identify concepts within the taxonomy

The concepts of drawing the taxonomy is important because Hai-O need to classify the
concepts and list down all the information that they wanted to implement in the
taxonomy. After the concepts being draw, the need of analysing the terms need to be

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done through interview. This is important so that the taxonomy structure are being
comprehensive from the general to specific terms.

Stage 3: Develop Draft taxonomy

The taxonomy draft are being develop from the content and concepts that being done in
the previous stage. The Level 1 can be develop which will be structured into the major
categories. Hai-O is basically provide the information on the product and its business
activities, so, the key taxonomy for the domain will be selected in which the simplest
language as possible which it will directly represent the business entity of the
organization. The profile of the audience or users that will use the taxonomy need to be
taken in as for the findability purpose.

Stage 4: Review draft taxonomy with users and stakeholders

As this taxonomy are being developed for the usage of the people that are interested
towards the organization, the taxonomy need to be review and analyse by the end user
and the stakeholders. The review also known as the pilot test which the taxonomy
concepts that have been drafted are being tested by the user as well as the stakeholders.
This is to make sure all the elements of corporate taxonomy which is visibility,
findability, usability can be implement in using the taxonomy.

According to Bordoli (n.d.), this involves either completing the matrix of types of content
or mapping them with metadata, or defining word tag characteristics, ensuring either that
metadata characteristics can be determined automatically by the system(s) as content is
uploaded to them or that the user needs to define metadata characteristics from a
predefined set of choices.

Stage 5: Refine Taxonomy

Corporate Taxonomy is a classification that can be alter or change upon needs as this
taxonomy is dynamic. The need of changing the onthology based on the review that
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being done on the previous stage. During the previous phase, there will be review from
the users as well as the stakeholder which will bring towards the refining of the
taxonomy. But, in order to refine the draft, there are policy as well as procedure that need
to be taken in so that the taxonomy are not being change falsely. Hai-O need to make sure
that if there is need of changing or review their taxonomy, they need to follow the policy
and procedures.

Stage 6: Apply taxonomy to content

After the refine taxonomy stage, this is the stage where to applying the taxonomy into the
content which have functional elements towards the content. The outsiders need to have
information on knowledge on using the corporate taxonomy structure and understanding
of the classification and concepts.

Stage 7: Manage, maintain, and review

As we know, there is a gatekeeper or the IT people that will manage this corporate
taxonomy. So they are in authority to control, manage, review and maintain the contents
of the taxonomy. This is because, the contents contain metadata that acquired the expert
which expertise in managing this corporate taxonomy. Governance will show the way on
make sure the taxonomy are following its policies and procedures for the future review
and changes. Hai-O need to ensure that the terms or taxonomy that being implemented
are subject to change according to flow.

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3.3

CASE STUDY

Limitations of Developing Corporate Taxonomy in Hai-O

Although Hai-O are using limited taxonomy in their website, but, somehow, they are
limitation that will affect the usability, findability of the knowledge and information.
Below are limitation that faced by Hai-O.

Limitation 1: Sub-Domains not being display on the Level 2.

Sub-Domains that is not

being displayed

Figure 11: Sub-Domains not being display on the Level 2.

From the observation, there is a level where the information is not being display accordingly.
This will lead to invisibility of the knowledge for the users as well as the stakeholder. As an
example, the users and stakeholders are searching for Shareholdings, but they will not see the
taxonomy as the taxonomy are not being taken into the Level 3. This will make the findability
precision failed for the people. This limitation happen not only for this taxonomy, but there are
numbers repetition of sub-domain that are not being displayed for the user visibility.

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Limitation 2: Duplication of sub-domains

The taxonomy terms that being used for different level are the same. Hai-O need to figure out
other taxonomy terms that can replace the Level 2 classification so that the users and
stakeholders are not being confused and loss their information.

Figure 12: Duplication of sub-domains

Limitation 3: Product Brands are being categorised together.

The nature of Hai-O business is business in supplement food and herbs. But, they does not
divided the taxonomy for the supplements to form a new level. This will make the user or
stakeholder difficult to search for the pertaining supplements for their usability. Hai-O should
divided the Product Brands into new level for the ease of navigation.

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Figure 13: Brand Products in Hai-O

3.4

The Application of Corporate Taxonomy to Improve Hai-O activities

The emergence of Corporate Taxonomy really make the website functions as it promote
the visibility, findability, searchability, usability towards the taxonomy or terms in the
website. It is also contribute to the application of Corporate Taxonomy to improve in HaiO activities. The discussion as below:

a. Enhance and improve product brand and service quality

Through the visibility of the corporate taxonomy displayed by Hai-O, this will
enhance and improve theirs products brand and service quality which they need can
reduce the cost in promoting the product as the taxonomy already being displayed
through the website features.

b. Easier navigation, more efficient search.

Based on above statement, this is the main purpose of implementing the corporate
taxonomy in order to improve Hai-O activities. Having the taxonomy will surely give
either good impact or vice versa. The successfulness of the taxonomy are measure
form the easier navigation which will lead to more and efficient search. Based on the

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observation from Hai-O website, overall the taxonomy implementation helps the
usability and visibility of the corporate taxonomy.

c. A better user experience.

From my point of view, when I am looking and browsing to any website, I am
searching for the website that provide me with a simple and effective taxonomy
which will lead me to what I wanted directly without wasting my time. So, browsing
to Hai-O website surely give the users and stakeholder better experience in getting
information that they need from this organization website.

d. Encourage knowledge sharing

Hai-O website really encourage the knowledge sharing between the customers and
their stakeholders. This can be seen as the taxonomy provided are listing about the
information and knowledge about the organizations. They provide the Financial
Highlights, Corporate Governance, Bursa Announcement, and other knowledge that
benefits to their users and stakeholder.

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CONCLUSION

Process of developing Corporate Taxonomy are not easy and acquire plenty of time and
need to be well-planed because this involve cost, time, and commitment for the organization.
Corporate Taxonomy act as a tools of navigation which it guide the users as well as the
stakeholders towards the information and knowledge that they need. Precision in developing the
Corporate Taxonomy are important as if there are any mistake it will lead the users and
stakeholders to the wrong information. This will cause the information loss for the pertaining
people. Corporate Taxonomy enhancing the organizational visibility which this act as the
organizations competitive advantage.

Based in this documentation, there are two company that implementing the taxonomy in their
business website. The company are providing the hierarchical structure of taxonomy that helps in
navigating the taxonomy in the website accordingly. The relationship between the knowledge
and organization are in order which this will enhance the knowledge sharing, transferring,
capturing and other activities.

Corporate taxonomy also act as organizational knowledge storage as the information and
knowledge about the company are being display in the website and the domain and its subdomains helps in defining the ontology of the taxonomy. The revision of the current ontology
will develop the corporate taxonomy of the organization into one step ahead. Last but not least,
to have better knowledge about the corporate taxonomy, ones need to observe the effectiveness
of the visibility and usability of the taxonomy in searching their information and knowledge in
the pertaining website or corporate taxonomy.

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