Toyota Named Japan's Leading Knowledge-Driven Company

TOKYO & LONDON--March 9, 2004--The winners of the 4th Annual Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) in Japan study, conducted by the Knowledge Management Society of Japan (KMSJ) in association with Teleos and The KNOW Network, are:

1. Toyota Motor

2. Honda Motor

3. Kao

4. Nissan Motor

5. Canon

6. Sony

7. IBM Japan

8. Fuji Xerox

These companies have been recognized for their world-class efforts in transforming corporate knowledge into wealth-creating ideas, products and solutions.

To select the 2003 MAKE Japan winners, senior executives of companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and members of the KMSJ nominated and ranked Japanese organizations against eight key performance drivers:

-- creating a corporate knowledge-driven culture

-- developing knowledge workers through senior management leadership

-- delivering knowledge-based products/services/solutions

-- maximizing enterprise intellectual capital

-- creating an environment for collaborative knowledge sharing

-- creating a learning organization

-- delivering value based on customer knowledge

-- transforming enterprise knowledge into shareholder value

Creating a knowledge-driven company yields big dividends, according to Rory Chase, managing director of Teleos. The 2003 MAKE Japan Winners reported a Return on Equity of 14.5%, nearly twice the Global 1000 average - and their Return on Assets was more than five times that of the top 1000 global companies.

Rory Chase said: "The 2003 MAKE Japan Winners are recognized as leaders in the international race to deliver customer-focused, knowledge-based goods and services. They are building portfolios of intellectual capital and intangible assets which will enable them to out-perform their competitors in the future."

A free Executive Summary of the 2003 MAKE Japan study is available by contacting Teleos: info@knowledgebusiness.com.

Teleos is an independent knowledge management research company. The KNOW Network - http://www.knowledgebusiness.com - is the premier group of leading knowledge-driven organizations dedicated to networking, benchmarking and sharing best knowledge practices.

The Knowledge Management Society of Japan's website is found at: http://www.kmsj.org.