We live in a knowledge economy. This means that knowledge is power. Those who have knowledge that others do not have have a clear competitive advantage. This is especially true for the consulting industry.
For consultants to be able to advise, they must have more extensive knowledge than their clients. That is why this resource is one of the most important success factors for a consulting company today. Open access to knowledge and the transfer of knowledge between consultants and the various corporate units is also a basic prerequisite for the ability to innovate and develop new consulting fields. The effective and efficient management of existing and new knowledge is therefore one of their core competencies.
If knowledge is bundled in the company and knowledge management is established,
measurable successes can be achieved after a short time, which also significantly increase competitiveness:
- Faster availability of information in projects
- Easier and shorter training of new employees
- Establishment of minimum standards in consulting quality
The large consulting firms know this and invest considerable sums in order to record and integrate their constantly new experiences and newly developed knowledge worldwide and make it available to all employees at all times. However, building an accessible knowledge base takes time and money, which is why smaller and medium-sized companies often shy away from these investments.
Reality check: This is how knowledge management often works
Often the phrase “if only our company knew what our company knows…” is heard. Because in daily practice there are some challenges in knowledge management in many consulting companies:
- Consultants must subsequently summarize their project knowledge from completed projects and store it in a database in the form of a presentation. At the same time, the next project has already begun. Knowledge work therefore often takes place after work — in an extra shift.
- The value of the acquired knowledge can hardly be assessed by the author. If the knowledge is reused elsewhere, the author rarely learns about it. Accordingly, the motivation for detailed knowledge work decreases.
- The importance of knowledge as a key resource is repeated mantra- like, but not sufficiently valued by management. In the rarest cases,
there is a systematic recording of the positive effects of knowledge work. In addition, the development and dissemination of new knowledge are seldom really bindingly recorded in the consultants’ target agreements.
More and more valuable & more and more short-lived — the half-life of knowledge is decreasing
Knowledge does not stagnate, but increases day by day. That is why the importance of knowledge management will grow immeasurably in the future.
The main drivers here are trends such as digitization and digital transformation, which make it necessary to systematically question and revise existing knowledge through ever new data points. But also the daily work in the company — the exchange with customers or the implementation of projects — let the available knowledge grow more and more. At the same time, the “half-life” of existing knowledge is rapidly decreasing due to the ever faster changing environment. While professional expertise used to be relevant for 5–10 years, this time span is becoming increasingly shorter today.
Good consulting services are therefore becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive. In addition to the increased demands on the quality of the service, the frequent absence of consultants from the company headquarters, the high turnover of human knowledge carriers, and the immense shortage of skilled workers make the use of knowledge management indispensable for supporting organizational learning and thus also the organizational knowledge base.
Knowledge carrier: Man vs. machine
For consulting firms whose business model includes close and in-depth interaction with
customers in the form of personal discussions, a personalization strategy is initially suitable, since the focus of this approach is on dialog between individuals. Knowledge is closely linked to the person and is mainly conveyed through direct personal contact in conversations or in brainstorming sessions. However, due to the often high fluctuation in consulting companies, there is always the risk of losing knowledge through departures.
It is therefore essential to process knowledge internally and make it available to all colleagues. To this end, knowledge is codified. This approach involves externalizing personal knowledge and storing it in information systems for reuse. In addition to classic knowledge databases such as the intranet and wikis or shared folders, knowledge management software that collects and organizes collective knowledge and makes it available to all employees can also be used for this purpose.
From stepchild to success factor
In order for professional knowledge management to be used effectively in a broader range of companies in the future, there is no way around a good digital solution. This solution should fulfill a number of factors:
- Intuitive usability: The knowledge management software should be kept simple and modern so that all employees can use it easily, intuitively and without extensive training.
- Low time requirement: The acquisition of knowledge should be possible in the shortest possible time in order to be able to devote oneself quickly to follow-up projects.
- Support for common media formats: The software should include all relevant recording options so that employees are free to choose whether to save their knowledge as an audio file, graphically, or in a text document.
- Accessibility of knowledge: Knowledge must be easily accessible so that the translation back into operational work functions in a few steps and the use of shared knowledge is also possible across application boundaries.
- Incentivizing knowledge work: Employees should be motivated to maintain the database. This is possible, for example, by using software to show where the knowledge is subsequently used or by offering the prospect of rewards for retrieved knowledge.
The requirements for good knowledge management software vary from company to company and change as technology advances. Therefore, this list is by no means complete and should only be seen as a first start.
Which factors do you consider highly relevant?
