According to Nair, with the scale of information available-traffic on the Web is doubling every six months-the economy is changing from a resource-based one to a knowledge-based one. And knowledge management is not only about embracing vast information but cultivating and capturing its content.

Whether big or small, companies which have access to information will win at the end of the day, according to Nair. On companies questioning the use of B2B or e-commerce, Nair warned: ``if you don't join, your business will not exist a year from now.''

The future will belong to those companies who will be have instantaneous communication. That does not just mean e-mail but also presentations through video-conferences and not only in flesh and blood, said Raj Seksaria, general manager, Asia Pacific, Consulting Group, IBM, while summarising his views on the subject. Seksaria added that increasingly, companies will need to empower people at all levels, have technology-savvy managers, and leverage organisational knowledge rather than individual expertise.

Earlier while inaugurating the convention, N Vittal, central vigilance commissioner, spoke about the perennial and the ephemeral aspects of management and the need to delve deep into the ephemeral. He also spoke of the speed at which the Internet has assumed an indispensable status in business and academics. At the same time, Vittal, drawing from his experience with the computerisation of the banking industry, expressed concern over IT specialists not being adequately adept in business-and vice versa.