【正文】 ?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: ?That?s 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 I?d 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。 ? Antithesis to Ford?s assemblyline worker. ? Symbolises the ?future? of work: not dirty, not heavyduty, not manual, not monotonous, not deskilled, not dehumanized, not badly paid。 but flexible, creative, international, demanding, crosscultural, wellpaid, technologically advanced, fun. ? The idol of today?s working world。 it is one of the main ?drivers? of the business of business education ? Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Cap Gemini Ernst amp。 Young, McKinsey amp。 Co., Bain amp。 Co., The Boston Consulting Group and Mercer (to name but a few) are the archetypal panies of today?s global ?informational? capital, which attract the ?highest calibre? graduates. InterCon ? German subsidiary of a global management and technology consulting pany ? The IKM project ? Virtual project team ? IT Strategy ? CAs Operational Processes ?CAs Information Management ?CAs People ? CAs GMTs (Industries) Tele amp。 Media Consumer Goods Chemicals Life Sciences Financial Services Energy Transport/ Tourism Automotive / Engineering Utilities etc. USA France UK Germany Disciplines PoAs Organisational Structure of InterCon Project Knowledge Capture At Project Start Before Project End Access to Knowledge Feedback and Rewards 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 municate the strategic knowledge management objectives and set expectations at all levels . 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 CDROM copies of Tool Boxes and KBases. Projects access knowledge via: ? the COMPASS (intra which provides worldwide 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, plex 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? contributions. Internal knowledge management involves a number of actors at all stages of the project life cycle review documents and allocate to the relevant (GMT, CoE, CA, Disc.) KBases updates Pamp。P Database Contacts PM to identify PKC and KS identifies PKC and accountable KS sends “KC Pack” and GMT KBase CDROM pletes Pamp。P form and forwards to KS fills in KCapture report and sends to KS define and municate knowledge capture approach and set concrete capture expectations with team abstract and sanitize best documents and send to KS Involvement of all project team members is critical to achieving