TABLE OF CONTENTS Steven Tallman, vice president of global operations, U.K. office
Mark Horwitch, vice president and director, head of Bain s KM consulting practice, Chicago office
Robert Armacost, internal director of KM, Boston office
Bain & Company (Bain) is a leading management-consulting firm founded in 1973. The firm currently has more than 2,800 consultants working in 28 offices across six continents. Bain s business mission is to make companies more valuable and convert strategy and action into economic performance. The firm offers expertise in a number of industries, including conglomerates, consumer products, financial services, etc. and functional areas, including strategy, e-commerce strategy, customers, and growth.
Bain has been an early adopter of KM and demonstrated strong KM leadership. Its awareness of KM started in the early 1980s, when the firm created a KM function, the Experience Center. All client presentations were captured in a database, which was searchable from a mainframe computer by a staff of librarians. With momentum from consultants for increased knowledge source content, in 1992, Bain built its first desktop application, BRAVA (Bain resource archive for value addition). Although BRAVA helped increase knowledge sharing, by the mid-1990s, Bain knew that, to continue as a leader, it needed to extend its learning and knowledge systems to the next level, utilizing Web-oriented technology solutions to make it easier for consultants to locate the most knowledgeable colleagues, the newest codified insights, and the most relevant and updated industry data. In summary, Bain s KM...
