I started my computing career at Boeing Computer Services where I had the delightful experience of building some of the world's first and some of the largest expert systems. Boeing had a problem at the time, similar to many businesses today, the old dogs were retiring. The engineers who designed B-17's, B-52's, 707's and 747's were cashing their pension checks. The fresh crew of engineers from the world's best universities certainly understood the theories of aerodynamics, electrical and mechanical engineering, but they really did not know squat about building an airplane, especially large commercial ones. So, the grand scheme, was to suck all of this knowledge that the engineers had gained over decades of experience, put it into a neat-o-king dandy IT systems and the new young guys could go to town with their new computerized workstations.

This kind of knowledge, the knowledge gained by actually doing something, is called tacit knowledge, and it is a uniquely human experience. I enjoyed my relative success at Boeing so much that I decided to go to Carnegie Mellon, the mecca for knowledge based systems, and learn how I could apply these knowledge based systems to the business world.

Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon spun out of the school of cognitive sciences. The theory back in the 50's and to some degree today, was, if we can figure out how human's think, we can make machines do a decent job of it. Well, computers are very good at explicit knowledge. What we learn at school, vocabulary, algebra, formulas, operations research and microeconomics, is called explicit knowledge. Humans are good at it too. But what we are really good at is tacit knowledge, aka learning from experience.

What attracted me to Advisory Board Architects, ABA, is that it allows experienced business professionals to tutor or "apprentice" new businesses in a very easy to engage environment. Many senior, CXO, level executives would love to share the knowledge of their 20 years in their field of work. But, who do you share it too? Have a nice talk with your wife concerning that stainless steel bolt manufacturer you just bought, or tell your kids how successful the new sales compensation program you designed has been. Maybe you will get a that's nice or a "whatever" but that is it. Give a rapidly expanding manufacturer some guidance on how to scale production across multiple provinces in China and 1) you will get some back slapping appreciation and 2) you will see the success of this manufacturer.

Advisory Board Architects matches the best executive talent, true experienced mentors, with the companies that need that talent. Now, you could quit your job and go to Mercer Consulting or McKinsey and get that same service for a nice fat fee. Yeah, like that is going to happen. You are a successful executive where you are for a reason. Because you have learned from experiences, from other mentors, from the school of hard knocks and you apply that knowledge every day. Making the, "How did you figure that out", decisions that come from seeing it ten times over. ABA is a tacit knowledge matchmaker, allowing experienced professionals to participate on advisory boards to mentor a new generation of companies to success. Yeah, it costs some, and the professionals get compensated a little bit. But it is a heck-of-a lot cheaper than McKinsey, and better too.

Dave Drach a Managing Director with Microsoft's Emerging Business Team. You can read Dave's corporate blog at the MicrosoftStartupZone.com and his personal blog at http://ddrach.typepad.com.

Dave Drach
Director
Microsoft Emerging Business Team
And an ABA Advisor