Knowledge Management and the Consulting Industry,The Consultant,Once upon a time there was a shepherd tending his sheep at the edge of a country road. A brand new Mustang screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerrutti shoes, Oakley glasses, TAG wrist watch and a Bhs tie gets out and asks the shepherd, If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them? The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the sprawling field of sheep and says, Okay. The young man parks the car, connects his notebook and wireless modem, enters a NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms, then prints a 150 page report on his high tech mini printer. He then turns to the shepherd and says, You have exactly 1,586 sheep here. The shepherd answers: Thats correct, you can have your sheep. The young man takes one of the animals and puts it in the back of his vehicle. The shepherd looks at him and asks: Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind? The young man answers: Sure. The shepherd says, You are a consultant. Exactly! How did you know? asks the young man. Very simple, answers the shepherd. First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Third, you do not understand anything about my business . and Id really like to have my dog back.,What is consulting?,The Collins English Dictionary reveals that to consult is to make oneself available to give professional advice, especially at scheduled times and for a fee. The term consult originates in the medical profession. There a consultant is a physician who is asked to confirm a diagnosis; or it is a physician (or surgeon) who holds the highest appointment in a particular branch of medicine or surgery in a hospital. The consultant is therefore someone mostly a specialist who is asked to give expert advice or information.,The management consultant,The management consultant is a special breed of consultant. Personification of the knowledge economy; Anti-thesis to Fords assembly-line worker. Symbolises the future of work: not dirty, not heavy-duty, not manual, not monotonous, not de-skilled, not de-humanized, not badly paid; but flexible, creative, international, demanding, cross-cultural, well-paid, technologically advanced, fun. The idol of todays working world; it is one of the main drivers of the business of business education Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., The Boston Consulting Group and Mercer (to name but a few) are the archetypal companies of todays global informational capital, which attract the highest calibre graduates.,InterCon,German subsidiary of a global management and technology consulting company The IKM project Virtual project team IT,Strategy CAs,Operational Processes CAs,Information Management CAs,People CAs,GMTs (Industries),Telecom & Media,Consumer Goods,Chemicals,Life Sciences,Financial Services,Energy,Transport/ Tourism,Automotive / Engineering,Utilities,etc.,USA,France,UK,Germany,Disciplines,PoAs,Supplier Networks,Electronic Business,Euro Transformation,Knowledge- Management,ERP (Standard Software),Customer Relationship Management,Service Offerings,Organisational Structure of InterCon,Project Knowledge Capture At Project Start Before Project End,updates KBase,updates KBase,finalize knowledge capture report, copy to PKC, PM, GMT/Disc, CoE, CA, PoA KC,at project end, hands over project archive to local Info Centre,review KCapture report and together with stream leads, identify Best in Class GMT documents,Key Roles,GMT KC GMT Knowledge Champion,PM Project Manager,PKC Project Knowledge Champion,GMT KS GMT Knowledge Specialist,CoE, CA, PoA, Discipline Knowledge Specialist,CoE, CA, PoA, Discipline Knowledge Champion,ALL,Strategic Direction,KBase Maintenance,CoE, CA, Disc., GMT Expert Team and KS,Define and communicate the strategic knowledge management objectives and set expectations at all levels e.g. at yearly KM conference in September, Capabilities Councils and other leadership meetings,Quarterly meeting with GMT/Disc. to filter non relevant documents out, identify gaps and discuss expectations to fill the gaps. Update CD-ROM copies of Tool Boxes and KBases.,Projects access knowledge via: the COMPASS (intranet which provides world-wide access to the KBases), CoE, CA, Discipline, GMT Expert Teams and KCs (whose main role is to help develop, capture and disseminate knowledge), and Knowledge Specialists (who act as a global point of contact and answer specific, complex requests for information on a case by case basis, throughout project duration).,Make Knowledge Management part of the feedback and reward loop: 360o expectation and feedback exchange for knowledge capture Reward most innovative and best in class con