When I was seventeen, I spent the summer working in a large Philadelphia insurance company. I found insurance interesting — especially the management trainee courses I was taking. One fateful day my boss said, “Tim, we have a problem that I don’t understand. I want you to talk to a bunch of people, figure out what’s going on, then report back to me in a couple of weeks — including some options for how we can fix it.”I didn’t know what I was doing — and I don’t recall the the nature of the problem or how we solved it. But I do recall liking the work — which was management consulting, though we didn’t call it that. I was pretty good at it — I like people, fact-finding and analysis, and solving problems, which I consider the big requisites for that work. Years later, and after a few plot turns, I decided to formally pursue consulting as a career. I earned degrees in knowledge (sciences, philosophy and psychology) and management (analytics, finance) from Yale. I spent ten years at KPMG and PwC in data analytics and business design/development, then several years helping to establish the emerging field of corporate strategic intelligence. By 1996, I had come to the realization that knowledge was the new oil — and that I was unusually well-prepared to pump it big-time. So I hung out my professional shingle — which became The Knowledge Agency.My current work includes knowledge retention, knowledge quality assurance, and the value of knowledge — the subject of my latest book. I'm honored to be associated with a small global group of senior leaders in the field of Knowledge Management — though I am one of the few whose expertise in both Knowledge and Management derives equally from training and professional experience.Knowledge is the master resource that controls all the others (land, labor, and capital). But because knowledge is intangible — therefore not formally recognized by today’s accounting principles and practices — it is often poorly-tended, under-resourced, and even neglected entirely.Knowledge is an enterprise resource — and should be held to the same ROI standards the others are. Knowledge should be managed as an investment — not as an expense. Knowledge is highly leverageable — even modest improvements in how it’s managed can yield disproportionately large outcomes. And any organization — large or small, public, private, or non-profit, in any industry — can benefit.Interested in exploring how Knowledge Resource Management could help your organization? Contact me now to schedule a no-charge, no-obligation introduction.