Welcome… a word from our president

Just as the agrarian society gave way to the industrial revolution, the industrial society is giving way to one where knowledge and innovation are the key drivers of economic value and wealth creation.

As organisations from all sectors come to rely more on "intangibles" and technology for value creation, it is clear that an organisation's ability to foster, manage and profit from the knowledge of its people and their capacity to innovate will be the key to its future success.

However, as an economy and a nation we are challenged to find meaningful, consistent and reliable ways to successfully deal with these "intangibles".

As managers, leaders and citizens, we must explore and address the challenge of understanding value in this new knowledge-based era. Managing today's businesses, government agencies and economies requires new understanding, new skills and new workplace strategies if we are to continue to prosper.

Our vision is to create an Australia that is the most advanced knowledge economy in the world.

We believe the answers lie in the collaborative, "joined up" thinking of committed individuals and organisations.

The heart of our work is facilitating collaborative investigations, insights and the creation of 'best' practices and policy recommendations by bringing together thought leaders, experts and innovators from business, government, academia and the third sector.

Working in partnership with academics, corporations such as Westpac and Microsoft, professional bodies like CPAs, and participants from State and Federal government, the SKE has set out to create the frameworks, forums and contexts for those dialogues, inquiries, discoveries and best practices to emerge to benefit Australia as a whole.

While my current corporate "day job" has expanded to a global role, I am delighted to continue to serve the SKE as president for this most vital Australian initiative and passionately believe the SKE will serve as a national lighthouse and a role model for the development of other such organisations globally.

Steve Vamos

President

Society of Knowledge Economics

A note from the executive committee

Welcome to the first issue of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) newsletter. We're delighted to start this conversation with you by updating you on our achievements, activities and plans.

The Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) is a non-profit organisation formed to discover and share practical solutions and new policy ideas that will help Australia advance economic and social prosperity in a world increasingly fuelled by knowledge and innovation. Formed in mid-2005, our collaborative approach has seen us working to facilitate cross-sectoral engagement, industry partnership, research and practical solutions to support the economic agenda for 21st century Australia.

Foremost among our early achievements is the development of the Australian Guiding Principles on Extended Performance Management to help organisations report and manage knowledge capital. Already recognised for their innovative approach, these principles are now being tested in the Australian business environment. For more information about the principles and our other activities, please visit our website.

Understanding that the interests of our stakeholders are closely aligned with a broader business community and Australian society in general, SKE has engaged several private sector, government and industry bodies, including Microsoft, Westpac, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Australian Business Foundation (ABF), Business Council of Australia (BCA) and CPA. In doing so, we've positioned SKE as a collaboration hub for the knowledge economy debate. We aim to foster broad industry engagement, policy development and practical programs to help Australia remain productive, innovative and competitive.

As an interested participant in our network, we would like to invite you to help us shape the SKE agenda. We'd also like to share with you our progress to date via this e-newsletter.

Please take a moment to let us know if you would like to remain on our mailing list by clicking the subscribe or unsubscribe button below. And of course we're always interested in receiving your feedback.

We look forward to what is already shaping up as a lively debate on Australia's economic future.

Until next time,

SKE Executive Committee