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During the last decade, Siemens'' Information and Communication Networks department (ICN) was confronted with fundamental changes in its environment. The new situation required the manufacturer to newly define its business which had shifted from a stable and simple product business to complex customer-oriented services. In describing the close collaboration between the South African key account manager, Doug Williams, and the German project manager, Markus Schmid, the case shows the process through which Siemens ICN laid the groundwork for a new business model based on intensive global collaboration and knowledge management. The basic idea was to make knowledge that had been created somewhere in the world for ICN, available for reuse and innovation elsewhere. To give explicit and tacit knowledge sharing a nudge, two projects were combined. On the one hand there was the Knowledge Network Model (LITMUS) project, through which international knowledge management is measured, and on the other hand there was the Bonus-on-Top, which makes worldwide knowledge transfer and creation attractive by offering employees valuable incentives. During the realisation of both projects, different process stages had to be traversed: the first was the emergence of an innovative, strategic idea in a bottom-up approach, while the second was the consideration of the main aspects of a new business model. As a third step, the case clarifies the visualisation of value creation through knowledge, and the motivation for active knowledge management.