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How Do You Harness Expertise in a Consulting Firm?
In management consulting, firms don’t sell products; they sell expertise. The ability to assemble the right insights, at the right time, often determines whether a firm wins a multimillion-dollar proposal or loses to a competitor. Yet research shows that up to 90% of a firm’s expertise is tacit knowledge, embedded in consultants’ heads, shaped by years of lived experience, and rarely written down.
The challenge? Hybrid work, siloed systems, and relentless turnover make tacit knowledge harder to access than ever. Many global firms are realizing that their biggest competitive advantage is also their most underutilized asset.
As one senior management consultant put it:
“Tacit knowledge is not easily accessed or codified, but is more read between the lines rather than on the lines.” — CGI study
Unlocking this hidden expertise is no longer a “nice to have.” It is the key to faster proposals, smoother delivery, and sustainable differentiation in a crowded market.
What Is Tacit Knowledge in Consulting Firms and Why It Matters
Explicit knowledge, that stuff you find in wikis, playbooks, and SharePoint libraries, has its place. But in consulting, the real value lies in tacit knowledge: the nuanced judgment, client context, and lived experience that consultants accumulate over years of projects.
As another senior consultant explained:
“We are selling knowledge and offerings, but not products. Thus, what we do and how we do it becomes vital for our projects.” — CGI study
Tacit knowledge is what allows a consultant to anticipate a client’s concerns, recall how a regulator interpreted a rule, or adapt a methodology to a new industry. Without ways to surface this expertise, firms risk reinventing the wheel on every new engagement.
The Challenge of Unlocking Hidden Expertise in Global Firms
Today’s consulting environment makes tacit knowledge sharing harder than ever:
- Cross-border teams mean expertise is scattered across continents.
- Hybrid and remote work reduce informal mentoring and chance encounters.
- Traditional KM systems capture only explicit artifacts, not lived expertise
- Talent turnover leads to institutional amnesia.
As one Vice President Consulting Expert observed:
“Random meetings are very hard to replace in the digitized world. Such random meetings also help with knowledge sharing.” — CGI study
When firms fail to activate tacit knowledge, the result is inefficient proposals, duplicated effort, and rework. Consultants waste hours chasing answers through fragmented Teams chats and email threads. Valuable expertise leaves the firm when people do.
Traditional Enablers of Tacit Knowledge Sharing in Consulting
Global firms have long invested in ways to transfer knowledge informally:
- Mentorship and apprenticeship models to pass expertise from seniors to juniors.
- Communities of Practice (CoPs) that bring together specialists around shared topics.
- Cultures of openness and trust that encourage knowledge flow.
These remain vital. As one senior consultant stressed:
“There is greater value in gaining knowledge through mentorship than [in] doing a learning course. It has to do with the dialogues, which allow for precision in the exact knowledge you want.” — CGI study
But in distributed, digital-first firms, these mechanisms no longer scale on their own.
Why Digital Knowledge Management Alone Falls Short
Over the past decade, firms have layered digital systems on top of these practices: SharePoint sites, intranets, collaboration tools, and AI copilots. But many leaders admit these tools haven’t solved the problem.
Why? Digital repositories capture explicit knowledge but not tacit expertise. Content becomes fragmented. Context is lost. And without human validation, consultants hesitate to trust what they find.
As one senior consultant noted:
“Of course, now there are opportunities, but the structure has been lost, and it has become worse… knowledge just disappears.” — CGI study
To compete, firms need more than yet another static knowledge base. They need systems that dynamically surface hidden expertise, bridging AI with human insight.
How Leading Firms Are Unlocking Tacit Knowledge
Forward-looking consultancies are adopting Expertise Activation Platforms like Starmind, designed specifically to tap into tacit knowledge at scale.
Here’s how Starmind addresses the challenge:
- Surfaces hidden expertise instantly using AI-powered expert graphs.
- Accelerates proposal development by reducing duplicated effort.
- Preserves institutional knowledge even when employees leave.
- Integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and daily workflows.
- Complements AI copilots with a human validation layer for trusted answers.
Unlike traditional KM tools, Starmind is not a static repository. It continuously learns from employees, dynamically mapping expertise across global teams. That means when a consultant asks a question, whether about a regulatory nuance in Singapore or a client precedent in banking, the platform instantly identifies who has the answer.
The impact is measurable: faster proposals, reduced rework, higher utilization, and improved win rates.
Five Common Objections About AI Knowledge Sharing Tools
Senior leaders often raise valid questions when evaluating new AI tools to manage the internal knowledge systems in a consultancy firm. Here’s how Starmind is addressing them:
- “We already have SharePoint or Confluence.”
→ Those systems store explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge, 90% of expertise, lives in people’s heads. Starmind activates it. - “Our consultants already ask each other in Teams or by email.”
→ Informal channels are fragmented and slow. Starmind makes expert matching instant and scalable, integrated into Teams itself. - “Digital tools haven’t solved this before. Why would this be different?”
→ Starmind blends AI with human validation, creating a trusted socio-technical system, not another static repository. - “Will adoption be hard?”
→ Adoption is seamless because Starmind is embedded in existing tools. There’s no new system to learn. - “How do we measure ROI?”
→ Tangible outcomes include higher proposal win rates, reduced rework, faster staffing decisions, and preserved knowledge.
Practical Steps for Consulting Leaders to Improve Proposal Win Rates
If you’re a Partner, Practice Leader, or Knowledge Manager looking to unlock tacit knowledge in your firm, consider these steps:
- Audit your knowledge landscape. Identify where tacit knowledge lives and where it’s being lost.
- Strengthen cultural enablers. Maintain mentorship and Communities of Practice alongside digital systems.
- Invest in expertise activation. Look for platforms that map expertise dynamically and integrate into workflows.
- Start small, scale fast. Pilot with proposal teams or high-impact practices, then roll out firm-wide.
The payoff is clear: fewer blind spots, faster proposals, and stronger differentiation in a crowded consulting market.
The Future of Consulting Belongs to Firms That Unlock Tacit Knowledge
Global consulting firms face relentless pressure to deliver smarter, faster, and more competitively. The firms that thrive will be those that activate their hidden expertise, making tacit knowledge accessible in real time, across borders and business lines.
Platforms like Starmind are proving that this is not only possible, but transformative. By bridging AI and human insight, they help firms reduce inefficiency, preserve knowledge, and increase win rates.
In an industry where expertise is the product, unlocking tacit knowledge may be the single most important lever for growth. Don’t wait for your expertise to walk out the door; access it forever with Starmind.
→ Explore how Starmind helps global consulting firms surface their hidden expertise and turn knowledge into a competitive advantage.
