Knowledge is a key resource and crucial field of investment in today's business organisations and the economy. Problems in strategically and effectively using this resource mainly consist of: how to specify, summarise, visualise the current state of knowledge; how to comfortably provide access to scattered and ill-structured information on the current state of knowledge; how to define, understand, visualise the impact of knowledge on organisational performance; how to assess and evaluate strategies and activities for purposefully intervening in organisations and economies by means of knowledge. To overcome this, the paper presents a methodological framework which basically consists of two sections. The first section enables to immediately benchmark a company's knowledge management maturity according to specific input data and information, provide tailored feedback and suggest changes in the company's strategy concerning knowledge-related activities. The second section consists of a 'world atlas on knowledge' comprising worldwide data on the constituents of the knowledge market.