Has your consulting firm a long-term memory problem?

Future-Proof Your Consulting Firm with a Long-Term Brain powered by AI

Are you tired of losing valuable knowledge every time a project comes to an end? Do you wish there was a way to retain all the information accumulated by your consultants over the years?

Knowledge management using good wine and cheese

I remember this rainy night in Amsterdam. I had arrived a few hours earlier at Schipol Airport after a pitch meeting with a private equity team. They were searching for a partner to conduct a strategic due diligence on a smoked salmon manufacturer. While the project was ours to take, our Research Center confirmed we had NO past experience with this specific business. Zip. Moreover, the market was poorly documented, and most players were not publicly listed. The question remained: should we accept the project, risking disappointment for a key client of the firm and subjecting the team to three weeks of hell? Or should we decline altogether?

Later that evening, I attended a team-building event with Principals from all over Europe. The program featured good wine and cheese, and after a long day of work, I couldn't resist indulging in a few glasses. It didn't take long for me to feel a little tipsy, and my Nordic fellow Bjorn, was in the same state. At one point during our conversation about the funniest and weirdest assignments we had worked on, he mentioned a particularly gross one that he had worked on. Apparently, he had been shocked to discover what they fed the SALMONS that were eventually SMOKED.

I sent a message to the team. We decided not to decline the project.

No such thing as best-in-class Intellectual Capital in Consulting

When I started as junior at a small Market Research company, there was an old, gentle lady known as "Madame la Documentaliste" who had exclusive access to all the archive binders, which were in paper format. When I later joined my first high-end strategy boutique, I was excited about the potential step change, only to realize that it was hardly any better. Then, when I joined a global strategy consulting firm, I was really sure that the Research Center would be top-notch, but alas...

I've had this discussion with consultants from all sorts of firms, and they all say the same. Intellectual Capital is critical. Yet, the process to capture and capitalize on it is often subpar and, at worst, really shaky.?

The myth about internal benchmarks and databases is one of the most common misconceptions from the client side about how consultants work. In reality, good consultants have a keen sense of judgment, intuition rooted in experience, and the ability to uncover facts and derive logical conclusions. That's all it takes, so who cares?

Client "You, consultants, must have plenty of databases and benchmarks you can dig into to get us an answer."

Me: Yeah sure… but you know, we must always fully take into account your specific business

But Generative AI and LLM are shaking up this status quo as we speak. Until now, the bottleneck was the standardization and coding of a continuous flow of unstructured documents, including pptx, pdf, spreadsheets, short and long documents, and conversational data. The sheer amount of human energy required to transform this material into a usable database was daunting.

Building long-term memory with Generative AI

The GPT craze has boosted the emergence of new tools and pipelines (such as LangChain). AI can now help you build a truly operational repository of knowledge that is not only comprehensive but also accessible. With AI, you can automate the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing data from past and current projects, making it easier for your consultants to access the information they need. By creating a centralized repository of knowledge, you can ensure that your consultants have access to the latest and most relevant information, regardless of their location.

The consequences for the knowledge industry are massive. Properly managed, building such a long-term memory of the firm addresses issues that every consulting firm faces, such as productivity in the early stages of projects, maintaining industry knowledge when valuable people leave, and truly leveraging global scale beyond sending carbon-heavy consultants all over the globe.

Top firms like McKinsey or BCG have already identified this opportunity and are actively working to reinforce their scale advantage. Some others got started. But what about all the others?

In December 2021, we were approached by a prominent FMCG player with the following objective: to discover groundbreaking methods of extracting essential knowledge and profound insights from their workforce, while minimizing human acquisition costs and effectively storing this valuable intellectual capital in an easily accessible repository. This task involved the extraction of conversational data from audio and video sources.

At that time, in late 2021, the technology was far from reaching its current state! However, it is without a doubt that, as of June 2023, this company has already made significant practical advancements in this area. It's important to note that these guys are not selling intellectual services, but rather household products!

Morgan Stanley recently unveiled such an initiative.?

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to start planning and building your consulting firm's long-term memory. By leveraging the power of AI, you can ensure that your firm has a competitive edge and is well-positioned for future success. Don't let valuable knowledge go to waste – invest in your firm's future today.

Stay tuned for additional articles exploring how AI is transforming the landscape for consultants and knowledge workers. To delve deeper into this topic, be sure to check out the rest of the articles in the series through the provided links.

1. Introduction

Learn more about simpledecisions.io