Infosys Technologies has won the prestigious Most Admired Knowledge Enterpri-ses (MAKE) award in the Asia region, for the year 2002. This award recognises the mature knowledge management practices of the company. Infosys is the only Indian company to have won this award. Infosys is also the first company in India to make it to the final list of around 50 companies globally, from which the top 10 were declared as the Global MAKE winners, during 2001 and 2002.

The awards were announced at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. A panel of senior executives and leading knowledge management experts in Asia chose the first Asian MAKE Winners. The panel rated organisations against a framework of eight key knowledge performance dimensions that are the visible drivers of competitive advantage. Establishing an enterprise knowledge culture, developing and delivering knowledge-based goods and services and maximising value of intellectual capital are some examples of the performance dimensions considered.

Commenting on the award, Rory Chase, managing director of Teleos said, “Infosys Technologies is the only company founded in India which has been named a Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE 2002). The 2002 Asian MAKE panel has recognised Infosys for its knowledge-based services/ solutions, collaborative enterprise knowledge sharing, and its ability to maximise the value of the company’s intellectual capital.”

Responding to the news of the award, S Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer at Infosys Technologies said, “At Infosys, we realised fairly early that the Knowledge Management initiative has to be, of essence, people-centric. Nevertheless, technology has been an important dimension in our efforts to demonstrate the multiple possibilities of KM to our people, draw them to the movement, and help keep them committed. In this journey, a key lesson we have learnt is that unless people are able to see and experience the direct benefits of KM, no amount of incentives, rewards or recognitions is likely to elicit sustained enthusiasm, participation and involvement.”

Other winners of the Asian MAKE awards include Asahi Brewery (Japan), Fuji Xerox (Japan), Kao (Japan), NTT Data (Japan), Pacific Century Cyberworks-PCCW (Hong Kong), Samsung SDS (Korea), Sony (Japan), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company-TSMC (Taiwan) and Toyota (Japan).