Ralph Poole

Ralph Poole is a respected business leader, management consultant and accomplished executive. He has extensive experience leading Knowledge Management, Text Analysis, Business Intelligence, Content Management, Information Architecture, IT Strategy and Innovation consulting projects in global companies. He pioneered the application of metadata processing platforms, ontologies and semantic technologies in large enterprises. His approach to business, technology and knowledge management consulting is analytic and fact-based with a strong emphasis on delivering a substantial return on investment.

Mr. Poole held senior executive positions in four of the world's premier management consulting and IT consulting firms: Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Ernst &Young LLP, and Capgemini (a French IT consultancy). In this capacity, Ralph built multidisciplinary teams across several continents and was responsible for radically improving global learning, knowledge management, and software development methodologies in global professional service firms.

Ralph is an expert at managing change in large geographically dispersed global organizations. He has successfully managed projects that required transformational change in the enabling technologies as well as the work practices of thousands of people.

Ralph's work in knowledge management and learning has been documented in the Harvard Business Review, CIO, Fortune and Harvard Business School Cases. He presents at conferences and frequently comments on knowledge management technologies, ontology, text analysis, business intelligence, taxonomy and metadata strategies.

Ralph is an Engagement Director at Iknow, LLC where his work focuses on knowledge management, semantic enrichment of content, building metadata processing platforms, text mining, text analytics, ontology, taxonomy and metadata strategies, sentiment analysis, search optimization, and business intelligence solutions.

Lead technology enabled transformation projects by redesigning business processes and implementing enabling technologies. Key focus areas include Text Analysis, Business Intelligence, Taxonomy and Metadata Strategies, Knowledge Management, Enterprise Content Management, eLearning and Software Development Methodologies.

Responsible for selling and delivering knowledge management, learning and process methodology solutions

• Managed customer relationships, contracts, projects, accounts, maintained production schedules, and managed contract labor.
  

• Clients included: ATMI, Battelle, Booz Allen Hamilton, Collective Next, Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments, Forrest City, LEK Consulting, Moog, Inc, Premier Inc., Professionals Services Marketing Group, The Omidyar Network, The World Bank

Responsible for selling and delivering knowledge management, strategy implementation, business transformation, and learning solutions to clients. Led large engagements that enable a company's critical business processes with knowledge and learning. Delivered transformational projects in Oil & Gas, Financial Services, Health Care and Professionals Services, all involving knowledge management and learning.

• Clients include: Allen & Overy (UK Magic Circle Law Firm), BBC, Channel 4, Ofcom, Shell, Serco, UK Department of Health and National Health Service

Created the Center for Business Knowledge (CBK): a global organization that managed business research libraries, fact-based business research analysis, practice experience and knowledge, organizational learning, and knowledgebase development. Leveraged internal and external information and knowledge sources to accelerate the rate and quality of improvement in E&Y's Audit, Tax and Consulting businesses.

• Developed knowledge management processes to acquire, store, add value and deploy practice experience and knowledge to support client development and the efficient delivery of results in client engagements. Created a knowledge shared service function within the firm (CBK) to manage the process of content creation and rapid knowledge transfer in the audit, tax and management consulting practices.
  

• Built consensus within E&Y on the value of knowledge management and organizational learning. Lead the change management process within the management consulting practice to drive more industry/competitive information and fact-based content into consulting work products.
  

• Member of the firm-wide Knowledge Council and Technology Planning Committee, responsible for the management of all knowledge and technology implementation initiatives in a firm of 30,000 US professionals and 90,000 worldwide professionals.

Managed all internal operations for a practice of 130 professionals billing $24 million annually and growing at 40% per year. Directed human resources, consulting staff training, business research and library management, financial planning and administration, information systems and technology, graphics, office facilities, recruiting, staffing and professional development. Consulted to client senior management on reengineering assignments in financial services, telecommunications and manufacturing.

• Reengineered a large Canadian Telecom's sales, marketing and provisioning process for business customers. In a unionized environment, reduced process cycle time by 60% and headcount by 50%.
  

• Developed and implemented a reengineering plan designed to change the fund accounting processes in a large mutual fund provider, built procedures and systems that supported a $130 billion mutual fund portfolio. Reduced the client's fund processing costs by 60%.
  

• Reengineered a large multinational's corporate information system, reducing the cost of centralized computer operations by distributing manufacturing systems to the business units, while rationalizing and centralizing financial and human resource systems into a shared service center.
  

• Participated on the Symmetrix management board as a member of the Operations Committee which developed and implemented strategic plans.

Promoted from Information Manager to Director for research and analysis, practice experience sharing, and training. Created and managed the firm's research infrastructure, including the research libraries and knowledge centers globally. Created a business research library and the research and competitive analysis techniques to support the formulation of strategy for Bain's clients. Developed and implemented methodologies for distributing problem solving technologies worldwide, including state-of-the-art training capabilities and services which added technical consulting skills to client case teams. Staff responsibility for up to 125 individuals.
Practice Experience Sharing: Continuously improved consulting staff productivity by actively managing Bain's problem-solving technologies. Identified practice areas for development and innovation, creating a worldwide framework for practice experience sharing, training and identification of best demonstrated applications of strategic concepts.

• Created Bain's Experience Center to codify the accumulated problem-solving experience in clients, industries or markets served. Applied information technology and initiated training and seminars to distribute practice knowledge worldwide.
  

Executive Education/Training: Established Bain's training and development programs for executives and consulting staff.

• Created a worldwide strategy for executive training programs. Designed programs to provide key consulting skills at career milestones.
  

• Directed a $10-15 million annual investment in the development of proprietary training materials and technologies, creating state-of-the-art training capabilities for the professional staff and Bain clients.
  

• Designed and directed the implementation of sales training for the worldwide vice presidents group. Sales increases of over 25% are attributed sales training and follow-up activities.
  

General Management: P&L responsibility for IT and market research functions. Created the product and marketing strategies for units charging over $12 million annually to clients.

• Managed three specialty consulting practice areas: Bain Information Technology, Bain Market Research and the training department which sold services directly to clients, augmenting the skills of the consulting staff with a more technical skill set.
  

• Developed strategic business research capabilities worldwide. Designed research facilities and implemented rigorous fact-based business research techniques for analyzing costs, customers, competitors, and organizational capabilities.
  

• Restructured administrative overhead functions reducing costs by over $5 million annually.
  

Corporate Management: Chaired the team of executives responsible for providing administrative and information technology services to worldwide offices and client case teams.

• Directed a process which rationalized fixed and variable office costs, providing management with greater flexibility to manage revenue fluctuations.
  

• Developed internal and external benchmarks of worldwide operational costs providing incentive to reduce overhead costs by 20%.
  

Marketing:

• Developed an analytical method to track and display Bain and Company's impact on client's stock price performance.
  

• Directed the development of a marketing database which tracked client Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors relationships, qualified high priority leads, and tracked company contacts.

Created a business research library and developed an organization which provided fact-based research, practice experience sharing and analysis to client case teams engaged in developing corporate strategy.