Are you, like me, becoming increasingly uncertain and somewhat irritated about the new knowledge economy? What does it mean – all this urging for businesses to become learning organisations, to join the new economy and to embark on the path of knowledge management.

I'm tempted to think it's all an invention of the high tech IT industries or the dot.com generation. But, recent research work for the Australian Business Foundation has convinced me otherwise.

Our research explored the key forces for change likely to impact on Australian firms over the next 15 years and a second study took a good look at the reasons behind the Australian wine industry's strong growth and performance over the last decade.

There is no doubt that it's a new game for businesses these days:

• The impact of globalisation increasing the ease and speed of business imitations.
• The truly revolutionary way the Internet and other online, e-commerce technologies are transforming the very way we do business and the power of consumers in production decisions.
• The fundamental changes evident in where the value to customers and the money is to be made in a business – fanned by technological advances and changing consumer expectations.

My conclusion is that the new knowledge economy is real. It does not equate with technology, least of all information technology.

Rather, knowledge is the key management challenge facing all businesses, even those in the most low-tech, sunset industries.

Businesses seem to be winning more from what they add to their products – service, marketing, design, branding – than the tangible products themselves.

They seem to be competing not by "building a better mousetrap" – the high quality of the product is a given – but on the basis of know-how and intelligence.

It means finding out what the "smart" part of your business is. What it is that gives you the edge, that makes customers buy from you and keep coming back for new and better offerings. The essential ingredients that are hard for others to copy or to substitute.

The real impact of the knowledge economy is the story of how firms compete by recognising, creating and mobilising their distinctive sources of know-how. How they trap the ideas and knowledge held within their business, by their employees, by their suppliers, by their customers, and by the other stakeholders surrounding their enterprise.

Today, assets are mobile. Any one can access raw materials, money, and the latest technology with the click of a mouse. So, your local distinctive assets are crucial. Assets like the tacit knowledge of your people, experience, skills, market intelligence, and what you've learned from past failures.

Not all knowledge lies within your enterprise. Having a critical mass of other complementary firms, suppliers, universities, researchers and the like is part of the knowledge equation.

This web of know-how and know-who is an asset. It extends our perspectives. It helps us frame our ideas, sense what is possible and incrementally add to the creative breakthroughs of others. The result is that knowledge is not lost or unused, but enriched and built on to find new commercial value. Knowledge turned into new capabilities.

Just like the Australian wine industry with their shift from a domestic to an export focus; from commodity rough reds to premium market segments. All based on collaboration, joint learning, and sharing knowledge, risks and visions.

Like Blundstone Boots did by using an association with dance, the arts, entertainment and fashion to turn good quality Aussie work boots into a high priced fashion item worn by celebrities.

This may have initially happened by chance, but now it's a deliberate business strategy. Recruiting for and refocusing their business on the creative, the branding and the invention of new markets and opportunities – like baby Blunnies in any colour imaginable.

Yes, the knowledge economy is real and open to all because these days in business what you know is more important than what you make.