World Competitiveness Yearbook

A very interesting set of measures is shown here , on the website of the Insitute for Management Development (IMD, Lausanne), who publish a yearly overview on basically measuring a the quality of (business) life worldwide by country and region.

The basic Competitvesness factors are:

Economic Performance
Domestic Economy
International Trade
International Investment
Employment
Prices

Government Efficiency
Public Finance
Fiscal Policy
Institutional Framework
Business Legistlation
Societal Framework

Business Efficiency
Productivity
Labor Market
Finance
Management Practices
Attitudes and Values

Infrastructure
Basic Infrastructure
Technological Infrastructure
Scientific Infrastructure
Health and Environment
Education

What KM should be for a law firm

Robbins (Robbins, R. (2003). Harnessing Group Memory to Build a Knowledge-Sharing Culture. Of Counsel. June 2003. Vol 22, Iss 6; p.7) puts the emphasis on culture that law firms need to build and affirms that the benefits can be signifcant, such as higher quality service, more consistent advice, greater responsiveness to clients, productivity gains and improved employee satisfaction. This higher quality advice is possible if lawyers have access to the right information, meaning they know

§ What the law is
§ The policies and standards of the firms as well as the client
§ Which positions the corporation has taken in similar situations
§ Who needs to be involved in a decisions that varies from a precedent
§ What sources can provide more information on any of these subjects

If this information is accessible regardless of where a lawyer is located this leads to less irritation with clients who if he consults with more than one lawyer should not get more than one answer. In this relation KM can be an excellent enabler for managing risk.

OKLC

OKLC was a great conference. It really is cutting edge when it comes to what is being done in research at the moment. I mainly followed the K track which focussed on Intangible Assets and Social, Intellectual and Cultural Capital.

It is so pleasant to be on a conference that does not focus on someone trying to sell you something or which is mainly done for making profit.

On the K track I was most impressed with

Intangible assets and social, intellectual and cultural capital: origins, functions and value
Bradburn, Anton University of Westminster, UK
Coakes, Elayne University of Westminster, UK

They gave a very good overview on tools, definitions and measures which are very useful for my literature review as well.

Organisational Capital as Competitive Advantage of the Firm
Navas López, José Emilio Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Alama Salazar, Elsa Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Martín de Castro, Gregorio Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
López Sáez, Pedro Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Their paper is very strong and accurate and a very interesting read and really foucsses on the word sustainable advantage which is something that is usually very difficult to grasp.

A very good summary on the OKLC can be found on Mathemagenic as Lilia Efimova was there too (and I had the chance to meet her and tell her that she is a celeb in blogging, which she already knew anyways)...