Infosys recognised as a ''globally most-admired knowledge enterprise'' for 2004

Infosys Technologies has won the prestigious 'global most-admired knowledge enterprises (MAKE)'award, for 2004. Infosys won the award for the second time in a row, and remains the only Indian company to have ever been named a prestigious global most-admired knowledge enterprises. It may be recalled that Infosys won the award for the first time in 2003. This is the seventh year of the awards.

The MAKE programme is administered by Teleos, an independent knowledge management research company. The MAKE research program consists of the annual global MAKE study — the international benchmark for best practice knowledge organisations, and similar studies at regional / national levels.

A panel of Fortune Global 500 senior executives and internationally recognised knowledge management experts chose the 2004 global MAKE winners. The panel rated organisations against a framework of eight key knowledge performance dimensions, which are the visible drivers of competitive advantage.

Announcing the awards, Rory Chase, managing director, Teleos, said, "The global MAKE winners are effectively transforming enterprise knowledge into wealth-creating ideas, products and solutions. They are building portfolios of intellectual capital and intangible assets which will enable them to out-perform their competitors in the future."

Acknowledging the award, K. Dinesh, co-founder and member of the board, Infosys Technologies said, "We are delighted to be ranked among the world's 'most admired knowledge enterprises in the 2004 global MAKE study. At Infosys, knowledge management (KM) is central to a core strategy to provide differentiated value to customers and enable their business do better and become more competitive. Knowledge in its different manifestations continues to be critical to our efforts to provide superior value based on our commitment to innovation and excellence in execution."

The other winners of the seventh annual global MAKE awards conducted by Teleos in association with The KNOW Network, include:

Accenture, Amazon.com, BP, Buckman Laboratories, Dell Computer, Ernst & Young, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Infosys Technologies, Intel, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Royal Dutch/Shell, Samsung Group, Siemens, Toyota Motor, World Bank and Xerox.

Reacting to the award, Dr J K Suresh, associate vice president and principal knowledge manager, Infosys Technologies, said, "Through the development of a culture of beneficent knowledge exchange across the enterprise, Infosys has been able to create a sustained environment for continuous learning and collaboration among people across geographies and functions. This in turn facilitates optimal value delivery of knowledge infused services and products to customers."

The study illustrates how creating a knowledge-driven organisation yields big dividends. One of the clearest metrics to demonstrate this fact is 'total return to shareholders (TRS). For the ten-year period 1993-2003, the TRS for the publicly-traded 2004 Global MAKE Winners and Finalists was nearly double that of the Fortune 500 company median.