Building a Competitive Advantage in the Knowledge Economy

Abstract

eCommerce and the Information Age are characterized by a shift in critical resources towards knowledge and organizational skills and away from Industrial Age land and capital. The extended enterprise is also becoming the norm, and managers are increasingly having to not only identify the “core competence” of their firm, but also measure and manage it both inside and outside the formal boundaries of the firm. Unfortunately, they are faced with a void of useful management tools to help them do so. This chapter describes a tool that may become indispensable to Information Age management: the Knowledge Matrix. Basically, it is a device for mapping the knowledge resources of the organization, their strategic importance and who sends, receives and shares them. As such, it can be used to leverage organizational capabilities that already exist (which few organizations achieve) as well as build new capabilities. It is a structural tool for: • Defining and building the firm’s Core Competence; • Identifying new products, markets and strategic partners; • Planning information and communications infrastructures; • Managing inter- and intra-organizational relationships; and • Managing organizational change.