Traditional management consulting operating models are being brushed aside by new principles that have firms specializing in a growing number of functional areas. Global firms are actively making acquisitions and specialized hires to expand their expertise. For example, over the last five years, Boston Consulting Group acquired BrightHouse (purpose-driven consulting), Inverto (process and operations), MAYA (digital design), and Penbridge (pensions and investments) to diversify its capabilities. Even the generalist model, where consultants were traditionally hired to work across practices, is shifting to practice- and function-specific hires. McKinsey & Company's job page lists a variety of roles including Data Scientist, Alliances Lead, and BI Analyst. Bain & Company also lists roles for software engineers and product designers.
As a result, consulting firms are growing rapidly, putting pressure on their operations. The strategy shift, along with the quick growth, drives increased competition, cultural changes, and continued employee churn. Ultimately, the dynamic environment creates the need for effective knowledge sharing, leveraging intellectual property to ensure consistently strong client outcomes.
A digital revolution aims to modernize knowledge management
Realizing the need to drive knowledge capture and sharing, consulting firms have invested in tools and personnel. Almost all firms with over 500 employees feature a knowledge management function. At many large organizations, the knowledge function is represented at the C-level through a Chief Knowledge Officer.
Over the last three years, we've spoken to knowledge management leaders at over 30 firms and clear focus areas have emerged based on the size of the organization:
Small firms (fewer than 1000 employees)
• Provide consultants with cloud storage solution; move away from shared drives
• Invest in tools to manage templates and frameworks
• Knowledge curation responsibilities largely still belong to individual consultants
Mid-size firms (1000 to 5000 employees)
• Formalize knowledge curation process
• Establish a culture that rewards knowledge creation
• Examine tools to provide better access to knowledge
Large firms (More than 5000 employees)
• Invest heavily in tools and personnel to support knowledge sharing
• Examine new techniques, such as machine learning (ML), to improve knowledge search
• Build new platforms that aggregate search across different repositories and content types
Applying their client recommendations inwards, consulting firms of all sizes are wrapping their knowledge management efforts in a larger digital transformation by applying technology to rethink all aspects of their business. Not only does it improve efficiencies, but also acts as a sales tool for when they recommend similar transformations to their clients.
The digital transformation process is a journey, and several major firms have published their perspective. Googling 'digital transformation' lands ads from McKinsey, Accenture, and PwC. Focusing on knowledge management, our interviews with firms of varying size highlighted three consistent themes:
1. Provide tools within current workflows: Rather than pulling consultants away from their main tools (e.g. PowerPoint, Tableau), firms are integrating new solutions to fit into current workflows
2. Seek performance: Consultants need to effectively find knowledge pieces; firms are heavily investing in search solutions, tuning them to their specific needs and operations
3. Focus on security: Regardless of potential productivity gains, content security is a gate-keeper and all solutions must comply with strict standards that may preclude cloud solutions
While central to the digital movement, content systems struggle to unleash the value of PowerPoint assets
At all the firms we spoke with, knowledge is captured in PowerPoint files and, with most firms, stored on SharePoint. Large firms had a central team responsible for knowledge curation and smaller organizations simply spread the responsibility to their consultants. However, SharePoint and other content management systems (CMS) provide a general solution that fails to amplify the value of PowerPoint slides.
Consultants often complained:
1. Searching the CMS simply took too many clicks and broke their workflow. Just navigating a CMS is cumbersome
2. Flipping through PowerPoint files to find a specific slide is extremely tedious and akin to finding a needle in a haystack
3. Text-based results are hard to navigate, especially when PowerPoint content is visual by nature
The changing consulting operating model and the sheer volume of PowerPoint content heighten the urgency of solving these pain points. Our estimates suggest that firms have over 20 curated slides per employee—a 20,000 employee firm would have about 500,000 curated slides. When running a pilot with 100 consultants, we also found that users had an average of 40,000 slides on their computer. Five users had upwards of 200,000 slides and two had over 500,000 slides.
While SharePoint and other CMS may not be designed specifically for PowerPoint content, they remain central to consulting operations and won't be replaced. As such, a solution must fit tightly, be purpose-driven, and augment the value of traditional content systems.
Slide-level search can unlock the value of PowerPoint knowledge and seamlessly fits within the themes of digital knowledge transformation
Solving for the consultants' complaints leads to a slide-level search solution that digs into PowerPoint files to reveal the individual slides that best match what the user is looking for. These solutions can search across your entire repository, from the firm knowledge source to your local folders, and locate specific slides. Typically, the content of each slide is searched along with any metadata associated with it (e.g. industry, function).
Searches return preview images of slides that best match your search terms. This gives the user the opportunity to scan the results and quickly and efficiently decide which slides best meet their needs.
These slide search or slide library solutions can fit within the digital transformation themes:
Slide search solutions can be browser-based but they tend to be cumbersome to use, which ultimately impacts adoption. Ideally, the tool should work within PowerPoint allowing users to search, preview and then insert slides into their presentation with a single click.
Many consulting firms have dedicated a significant amount of energy into their CMS and knowledge curation process. As such, slide-search solutions more seamlessly connect with a CMS, retrieving slide content and available metadata all while respecting KM processes.
Search relevancy is the most important factor. While scanning through preview images is more forgiving than text, users still need to find their slide within the first 10 to 20 results. Typical enterprise search technologies can achieve this: word stemming (e.g. run vs running), synonyms, Boolean operators, weighing different components. However, ML and other AI techniques may further improve search relevancy.
While the shift to cloud is not new, large firms will prefer an on-premise slide library solution, allowing them more control over their valuable knowledge assets. Vendors need to provide an on-premise offer, but also need support processes in place to manage software update and change requests.
From single sign-on to content abuse mitigation, slide search tools also need to align with consulting security measures. Connections to authentication systems must allow users to be assigned to groups to control access. Strong solutions will fold into content download counters that ensure employees are not abusing their access.
With slide search, consulting firms and consultants are maximizing the value of their knowledge assets and driving productivity.
Kartik Sundar is a former consultant from Bain & Company's Atlanta and London offices. He is now a co-founder at TeamSlide, a PowerPoint-focused slide library and search solution.
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