Recent years have seen a surging interest in knowledge management on the
part of corporate America. This has been accompanied by a corresponding expansion in
consulting firms claiming to offer KM consulting services. Some of this can be
attributed to "jumping on the bandwagon," however, the large consulting firms
are themselves making considerable investments in knowledge management. On the face
of it this makes good sense because it would be difficult to find a company that is more
knowledge-intensive and more in need of managing and leveraging its intellectual capital
than a consulting firm. As a consequence, the web sites of some of the large
consulting firms offer a wealth of KM resources. The richest web sites are briefly
described below. Links to the sites are provided as well. All these sites are
searchable and using "knowledge management" or "intellectual capital"
(in quotes) will turn up numerous articles, papers and other resources. The Booz
Allen site also displays brief bio statements of consultants possessing expertise in
various aspects of knowledge management.
Andersen is one of the leading consulting firms with respect to knowledge management,
both in terms of offering KM services to its clients and in applying its KM know-how to
itself. Like many of the large consulting firms, Andersen publishes a newsletter: Outlook.
Outlook contains some useful and readable KM articles.
Booz Allen, best known as a strategy and technology consulting firm, is also known for
its investments in managing its own knowledge. Booz Allen offers two publications,
both of which contain articles and papers about knowledge management. One is a
newsletter: Insights.
The other is a well-known and highly regarded business magazine: Strategy & Business. Both are
searchable and both contain relevant KM articles. In some cases, the articles can be
downloaded in .pdf format.
E&Y is perhaps the best consulting site in terms of the quantity and quality of the
resources it makes available to visitors. E&Y operates several Knowledge Centers
and a Center for Business Knowledge. Direct links to these sites are no longer
available owing to a recent restructuring of the E&Y web site, however, the search
feature on the E&Y home page will turn up many of the previous sources. Links to
some of E&Y's other rich sources of KM-related information are provided immediately
below.
E&Y's Center for Business Innovation
publishes periodically a journal titled Perspectives. It
contains some useful KM articles.
E&Y's Virtual Library, part
of a portion of its web site titled "Managing the Knowledge Organization," makes
available dozens of papers dealing with various aspects of knowledge management. All
can be downloaded in .pdf format.
It is worth noting also that two of the prominent names in the field of knowledge
management -- Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak -- were instrumental in E&Y's early KM
efforts and both were associated with E&Y's Center for Business Innovation in Boston.
IBM's KM web site clearly focuses on setting forth IBM's KM service offerings.
However, it also provides access to a number of articles, papers and presentations.
These are all downloadable. Laurence Prusak, the Executive Director of IBM's
Knowledge Management Institute, is a well-known figure in the knowledge management field.
KPMG doesn't provide as much in the way of KM resources as the other consulting firms
but what it does provide is pretty good. The KPMG Knowledge
Management Fact Sheet (.pdf) is a concise summary of what KM is all about and how KPMG
is addressing it, both internally and with its clients. (Note: This is a PDF file and it
might take a minute or two to load.)
McKinsey is widely considered one of the leading consulting firms in the world.
Many consider it to be the best. As with the other consulting web sites, a search
using "knowledge management" will turn up relevant materials. However,
the main reason to visit this site is that it offers access to one of the best business
publications in the world: The
McKinsey Quarterly. All issues since 1993 are available and contain several
articles related to knowledge management. All can be downloaded in .pdf format.
PWC Global is the result of the merger of Price Waterhouse with Coopers & Lybrand.
Both were leaders with respect to knowledge management and their merger strengthens
their standing. As with the other sites, a search using "knowledge
management" turns up some interesting articles and papers. One of the better
ones on the PWC Global site is titled "Easing
into Knowledge Management." It provides a very readable overview of the
issues associated with knowledge management.
Clearly, not all consulting firms are listed above. The focus here has been on
maximizing the return on any investment of your time and energy spent visiting a web site.
We have tried to point you to sites where there are abundant and relevant resources
that are easily accessed and/or downloadable for later use.
Nor have we touched on any individual consultants such as Debra Amidon, Richard
McDermott or Karl-Erik Sveiby. These are addressed under the People link on the KM
home page.
If you are interested in visiting the web sites of consulting firms in addition to
those listed above, there is an excellent web site at Ohio State University devoted
entirely to consultants and consulting firms: Directory of Management
Consulting Firms
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