In our work with business leaders we have found that what they are looking for is an organization that is entrepreneurial. They want both people and total organizations that are innovative, responsive and creative enough to impact decisively the ecology of the society and marketplace they operate in. They want their enterprise to generate new conditions in the market to which others must now respond. What they are after is an "Entrepreneurial Enterprise."

An organization that can accomplish this kind of impact is truly an "Intelligent Organization" that is co-evolving in a wider ecology of economic, knowledge and social concerns. As economic success is driven more and more toward reliance on knowledge as the source of commercial and technical advantage it is imperative that firms organize themselves around their capacity to generate, share and use knowledge rapidly and effectively. Organizations will need to "understand" the wider patterns of changing technologies, economic forces and social concerns if they are to respond effectively, and they will need to account for the reflexive nature of their response. Their adjustments to the market will alter the market landscape. In this environment those strategies that are designed to alter the market will be most powerful. Entrepreneurial action will be the attractor that unites intelligent organizations.

The Knowledge Management "movement" is only the first step in this direction, and organizations that embrace the use of technologies and practices designed to enhance the "capture" and "transmission" of knowledge artifacts will definitely have the advantage over those that wait.

The real pioneers, however, are now taking a broader perspective that includes exploring the human side of knowledge ecosystems. It is there that the real potential for innovation, agility, and entrepreneurial intelligence lies. What this consortium focuses on is integrating all aspects of a knowledge ecology into new ways of organizing, new management practices, new approaches to work–new ways of doing business.