The term "Collective Intelligence" has many meanings. Most commonly, the term is used to describe the mass behavior of a group of living organisms. A primary characteristic of Collective Intelligence is the ability to leverage group think and group memory to solve difficult problems; problems that a single member of the group would be unable to solve on its own. This characteristic struck a chord with the founders of firm. Shouldn't IT consulting use the same mechanisms?
As a result the company has designed its mode of operation and core business processes around the notion the the collective is smarter than the individual. Each member of the firm is encouraged to share their skills and knowledge with team members in order to provide an organization where the whole is vastly greater than the sum of its parts.
Our preferred engagement model with clients also illustrates this notion. We work with clients on many levels in in many different circumstances. In many cases we like to position a senior consultant as engagement leader. The engagement leader coordinates work the our client and acts as a liaison between the client and Collective. This consultant has at their disposal a network of CI consultants to help them solve problems and deliver solutions. Often this support network operates under the radar and our customers senses a seamless delivery of high quality services with no additional labor or support costs.
Thes ability to bring a 'collective' or a large network of resources to each client engagement is a core value of Collective Intelligence.