Knowledge.

There are five essential roles that I believe knowledge plays in our competitive advantage and sustainable business success: 1. Acquiring Knowledge: Acquiring the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to make sound decisions and take effective action. 2. Applying Knowledge: Using one's existing knowledge to independently make sound decisions and take effective action. 3. Creating Knowledge: Adapting existing knowledge or creating new knowledge to improve performance and do things that have not previously been done by others. 4. Sharing Knowledge: Increasing the productive capacity of others by sharing one's knowledge, skills and perspective with them. 5. Leveraging Knowledge: Increasing the organization's productive capacity by converting personal knowledge into organization knowledge (i.e. embedding knowledge in the systems, structures, protocols and strategies of the organization) - thereby making it available to everyone in the organization who might need it. Given that knowledge is an organization's only sustainable source of competitive advantage, those people who master these five roles are the people who will make the greatest difference and be in the greatest demand in the future.