Know how: Managing knowledge for competitive advantage by Terry Ernest-Jones at the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Tata Consulting Services. This is an interesting survey and discussion of where knowledge management is headed from the perspective of senior leaders in western European businesses. From the summary:
Like most intangibles, knowledge is a tricky thing to manage. But there are plenty of examples that prove that, with a sound approach to knowledge management, companies can translate their information assets into real value for the business. Besides, as Mr Collison puts it, "to fail after thoroughly tapping company resources is one thing. To fail in isolation—well, there’s no excuse for that."
The survey must have leaned heavily on the technology side of questions, according to my reading of the analysis. Some of the companies highlighted include Schlumberger (knowledge sharing), BBC (social computing), Barclays (expertise, sharing) and BP (knowledge networks).
I didn't see a whole lot of discussion of how KM leads to competitive advantage, other than KM (plus business intelligence) leading the list of important technologies to the survey respondents. If you were to ask me, I would suggest that competitive advantage in KM arises from the ability to tap into people and create new value for your customers. Caterpillar brings its vendors and big customers into the communities it manages, for example.
[found via Competitive Intelligence Marketplace]