VAULT EMPLOYER PROFILE: BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON
BY THE STAFF OF VAULT
Vault Inc.
EMPLOY PROFILE VAULT EMPLOYER PROFILE:
BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON
BY THE STAFF OF VAULT
© 2002 Vault Inc.
Copyright © 2002 by Vault Inc. All rights reserved. All information in this book is subject to change without notice. Vault makes no claims as to the accuracy and reliability of the information contained within and disclaims all warranties. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Vault Inc. Vault, the Vault logo, and “the insider career networkTM” are trademarks of Vault Inc. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Vault Inc., 150 W22nd Street, New York, New York 10011, (212) 366–4212. Library of Congress CIP Data is available. ISBN 1–58131–193-1 Printed in the United States of America
Booz Allen Hamilton
INTRODUCTION
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Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Booz Allen Hamilton at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
THE SCOOP
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History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
ORGANIZATION
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CEO’s Bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Business Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Key Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
VAULT NEWSWIRE
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OUR SURVEY SAYS
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GETTING HIRED
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Hiring Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Questions to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Questions to Ask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 To Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
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ON THE JOB
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Job Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 A Day in the Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Career Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
FINAL ANALYSIS
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RECOMMENDED READING
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Booz Allen Hamilton
Introduction Overview Some people travel after college or work until they find their calling. Others, like Edwin Booz, start their own consulting firms. Booz founded his eponymous firm shortly after graduating from Northwestern University in 1914. From its beginning, Booz's firm, one of the first of its kind, worked closely with corporations in the Midwest and other parts of the U.S. Montgomery Ward, General Mills and the American National Red Cross all enlisted Booz for consulting advice. Despite working for such lofty clients, Booz likely had no idea that by the dawn of the 21st century his consulting firm would be among the most prestigious in the world. Today, Booz Allen Hamilton has a staff of 11,000 and over 100 offices worldwide. The firm has recently expanded its service lines to include e-business, e-government and strategic security. Booz Allen boasts a strong track record of satisfaction – the firm garners 80 percent of its revenues from previous clients. Booz Allen has a split personality. The firm is divided into two main units: Worldwide Commercial Business, a classic strategy and operations consulting firm; and Worldwide Technology Business, which works extensively with government agencies. Within each of these businesses, Booz Allen is segmented into groups or teams with expertise in specific industry or functional areas. This unusual organizational structure was an outgrowth of the firm's “Vision 2000” program.
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Booz Allen Hamilton at a glance Headquarters 8283 Greensboro Drive McLean, VA 22102 (703) 902-5000 Fax: (703) 902-3333 www.boozallen.com
THE STATS Employer Type: Private Company CEO: Ralph W. Shrader No. of Offices: 100+ No. of Employees: 11,000 FY 2002 Sales: $2.1 billion FY 2001 Sales: $2.0 billion
PRACTICE AREAS Corporate Strategy Organization Strategy/Change Management Operations Financial Policy, Strategy & Analysis Wargaming & Strategic Simulation Information Technology e-Business e-Government Program Management & Acquisition Support Infrastructure Assurance Institutional Strengthening Multinational Strategy Facilities Design & Engineering
UPPERS • Excellent training program • Community-minded firm
DOWNERS • Intense culture • Pay cuts for some new MBA hires
THE BUZZ
WHAT EMPLOYEES AT OTHER FIRMS ARE SAYING
• “Dropped a bit, but still top notch, and still doing a great job abroad” • “Powerful, smart, ahead of the curve, aggressive” • “Brutal work environment” • “Where have they been the last 2 years?” • “No longer a threat to the top-tier strategy firms” • “Still elite – but why, I have no idea” • “Their government practice pulls down prestige” • “Great firm, a little rigid, past their heyday” • “Stupid bars between the names”
EMPLOYMENT CONTACT See “careers” on Booz Allen's web site, www.bah.com.
KEY COMPETITORS Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company SAIC
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Booz Allen Hamilton
The Scoop History One Booz, one employee After leaving Northwestern University in 1914, Pennsylvania native Edwin Booz started his own one-man consulting show. Initially, Booz performed business analyses and market condition studies for clients such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Canadian Pacific Railroad. From 1917 until 1919, Booz was forced to take a two-year hiatus from the commercial consulting act; he was drafted by and served in the U.S. Army. During those two years, Booz was still able to use his consulting skills, helping reorganize the business methods of the various bureaus of the War Department in Washington, D.C. In 1919, when WWI ended, so did Booz's days in the Army. Back in civilian clothes, Booz wasted no time returning to the private consulting arena. He opened Edwin G. Booz, Business Engineering Service in 1919. State Bank & Trust (of Evanston, IL), which lent Booz the money to start the new venture, became the company's first client. In 1924 Booz changed the firm's name to Edwin Booz Surveys. Still, Ed Booz was the only employee on the payroll.
And then there were two In 1925, George Fry joined Booz's firm, becoming its second employee. A few years later, a third partner emerged. James Allen, a Northwestern graduate like Ed Booz, joined the firm in 1929. The firm soon built up its client base and in 1935 took on an experienced management and marketing mind as its fourth partner: Carl Hamilton, a vice president and general manager of Weyerhaeuser's General Timber Service. (Hamilton later was responsible for devising the Booz Allen Hamilton code of ethics, which continues to guide the management of the firm today.) Soon after Hamilton signed on, the firm became known as Booz, Fry, Allen & Hamilton. In 1940 the firm was enlisted by the U.S. Navy to help it prepare for WWII. The assignment turned out to be the first of numerous government contracts for the firm. After a disagreement over the firm's future, George Fry left the firm in 1942. (Fry went on to create his own firm, Fry and Associates, which still exists today.) As a result of Fry's departure, the name Booz Allen Hamilton was
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Booz Allen Hamilton The Scoop
born. Allen became the firm's leader and spearheaded its rapid expansion. The firm quickly added clients, offices and employees. Notable contracts included the U.S. Air Force and major aircraft manufacturers. By 1947 Booz Allen had over 100 employees and annual revenues of $2 million.
Happy days During the 1950s, Booz Allen Hamilton continued to expand. The firm increased it service areas, moving into energy, manufacturing, electronics, and even communications consulting (Booz Allen was one of the first consulting companies to alert its communications clients to the potential of television). The firm's first international contract came in 1953 with an assignment to reorganize land ownership records in the Philippines. And in 1955 Booz established BAARINC (Booz Allen Applied Research, Inc.) as a separate company for technical consulting and government contracting. In the late fifties, Booz Allen, with Johnson Wax, introduced the famous “product life cycle” concept, which was outlined in the Harvard Business Review. At the close of the decade, Time magazine called Booz Allen “the company doctors” and “the world's largest, most prestigious management consulting firm.” With approximately 300 consulting MDs, Booz Allen entered the 1960s, which, it turned out, were no different for Booz Allen than the 1950s: the firm kept forging ahead. In 1962 Booz Allen incorporated. A year later, NASA became a client. By the end of the decade, Booz Allen Hamilton had become a major advisor on Wall Street and on the gridiron – the consulting firm was tapped to help structure the newly formed National Football League. In 1970 Booz Allen went public.
Tripped up, but far from down Unfortunately, the public markets didn't respond well to Booz Allen's IPO. In 1976, six years after going public, the firm returned to private ownership. Despite a weak showing in the market, Booz Allen still prospered in the 1970s (Today, Booz Allen Hamilton is still a private enterprise, and has no plans of going public anytime soon. “We cannot envision any scenario that would have us returning to the public domain,” said Booz Allen CEO Ralph Shrader in an interview with the Washington Post in May 2002. According to the Post, Shrader said this is because the firm “often forgoes immediate profits for long-term plans, a practice that conflicts with the quarterly expectations of Wall Street.”) Late in the decade, Booz Allen landed two huge contracts: the Saudi Naval Expansion Project (SNEP), which was Booz 4
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Allen's largest assignment to date, and Chrysler Corp.'s turnaround, in which the consulting firm played a major role. Come the eighties, Booz Allen Hamilton offered several new services in response to client needs in the midst of political and economic changes. In doing so, Booz Allen swelled: by 1988 the firm's staff numbered 3,500. Key assignments in the 1980s included AT&T and NASA Space Station, which paid Booz Allen $100 million for its consulting expertise.
Looking like the Booz of today The 1990s could be considered the beginning of Booz Allen Hamilton's modern era. Early in the decade, the firm created the Worldwide Technology Business and Worldwide Commercial Business units, and moved its headquarters to it current location in McLean, Virginia. Booz Allen cruised overseas in 1996, opening offices in Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Bogota, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Pretoria, Seoul, and Shanghai. (The international openings brought the total number of Booz Allen offices to 90.) In 1998 Booz Allen made several key moves. The firm named Ralph Shrader, then the president of the Worldwide Technology Business, its CEO. Daniel Lewis became the Worldwide Commercial Business's president, a position he still holds today. And Booz Allen began to consult for the IRS, which today is one of the firm's largest clients.
Hot for teachers With a renewed interest in training and professional development, the firm implemented a new corporate university in 1999. The consulting alma mater, not-so-humbly named the Center for Performance Excellence, is located at Booz Allen's HQ in Virginia. At launch time, the school consisted of 20 staff. Amazingly, the school was conceived, planned, and constructed within a 10month period. Also in1999, Booz Allen further expanded its global footprint, this time going the acquisition route. The firm purchased Carta Corporate Advisors AB, the leading consulting firm in Scandinavia. With offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark, Carta serves major corporations and government bodies across the Nordic region. Carta's capabilities – strategy and organization, corporate finance and strategic communications – were integrated with Booz Allen's to further strengthen the firm's market reach and delivery capability in Europe.
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Booz Allen Hamilton The Scoop
The Web that wasn't In early 2000, Booz Allen began accepting equity from selected clients in lieu of cash, as part of its venture and entrepreneurial consulting program, “Businesses by Booz Allen.” The program allowed Booz Allen both to reap some financial rewards for working with fledgling companies and to better attract top-tier recruits. In November 2000, Booz spun off Aestix, a web design and implementation company. This stand-alone company was a wholly owned Booz Allen subsidiary with 150 experts in McLean, Va., and London, England, meant to service Fortune 1000 and Internet clients both, in partnership with Booz and independently. When the Internet bubble burst, though, Booz Allen was hit in the face. In fact, the firm was hit even harder than other consulting firms because it was late on investing in the dot–com arena; thus, Booz Allen's invested capital garnered little return. In addition, when the dot–coms were thriving, employees left Booz Allen (and other consulting firms) for Web-related jobs, and recent MBAs weren't taking consulting positions in the numbers they did in the past. As a result, Booz invested considerable time and money in its recruiting effort – which, it seemed, was a success. However, while Booz Allen added young consultants, business leveled off, and employee attrition went way down. According to one insider, “Booz Allen thought it had scored a marketing success, but that's exactly why they [later] went through multiple rounds of layoffs and moved some CB people to the TB side.” In another bursting bubble-related change, Booz Allen folded Aestix back into Booz Allen Hamilton on January 1, 2002.
And the winner is…Booz The firm has received numerous awards for diversity and lifestyle issues. In 2001 Washingtonian magazine ranked Booz Allen among the top 50 “Great Places to Work” in the Washington, DC, area and named the firm the “Best Place to Be a Kid.” Booz Allen also received the 2001 EVE Award for its diversity programs from the U.S. Department of Labor, and the 2001 Torchbearer Citation from the Northern Virginia Family Service for promoting a balance between employees' work and their lives. The firm was also a hit abroad, ranking as one of the top four companies to work for in German magazine Junge Karreire's “Attractive Employers – 2001” survey. In 2002, for the fourth straight year, Booz Allen was named to Working Mother magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. The magazine praised Booz Allen for its flex-time program, on-site child care facilities, paid family leave plan, and other family-friendly policies.
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Really up and out Feeling the effects of the economy, in May 2001 Booz Allen Hamilton announced that it was laying off about 95 consultants (or less than 1% of the firm's staff) from its WCB. The firm also saw many more employees than usual depart after performance reviews. At the same time, many top MBAs hired in 2000 and 2001 saw their start dates pushed back considerably. In July 2001, the firm announced that the deferrals would be six to 12 months in duration; five months later, offers for MBAs from “non-core” B-schools (i.e., all but the Harvards and Whartons of the world) were deferred for longer. (The firm asserts that as of May 2002, all of the deferred MBAs have started work or at least have a scheduled start date.) In early 2002, many new hires were told that their starting pay would be reduced. (“It was a pretty major pay cut,” laments one unlucky offeree.) Booz Allen pushed back start dates for newly hired college graduates as well until “sometime in 2002.”
Compensation Pay WCB Pay packages typically include signing bonus, salary, performance-based bonus, profit sharing and graduate school assistance. Total undergrad starting pay package (in the U.S.): between $45,000 and $55,000 plus signing bonus, performance-based bonus and profit sharing. Total MBA starting pay package (in the U.S.): $100,000 plus signing bonus, performance-based bonus and profit sharing. WTB Pay packages typically include moving expenses, salary, profit sharing and graduate school assistance. Total undergrad starting pay package (in the U.S.): between $40,000 and $55,000 plus moving expenses and profit sharing. Total MBA starting pay package (in the U.S.): between $70,000 and $100,000 plus moving expenses and profit sharing.
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Booz Allen Hamilton The Scoop
Perks • Laptop computers • Cell phones • Palm pilots/PDAs • Profit sharing • Day care • Maternity leave • Free food/drinks • Sports/theater tickets • Cafeteria • Employee lounge area • Tuition reimbursement • Gym membership discounts/On-site gyms • Long-term disability insurance • Accidental death/dismemberment • Employee referral bonus • Employee assistance program • Accidental death/dismemberment • Employee reward/recognition program • On-site bank • Retailer discounts • Internal sports leagues
“Great benefits package – probably one of the best in the industry” – Booz consultant
“More benefits than Booz employees know about.” – Booz associate
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Booz Allen Hamilton
Organization CEO’s bio Movin' on up The son of a Naval officer, Booz Allen CEO Ralph Shrader grew up in a modest yet mobile southern family. During his youth, Shrader attended 12 public schools in 12 years. As a result, Shrader admits that nowhere feels like a home. Today, though, Schrader calls McLean, VA, home – even if it doesn't feel like it. Shrader lives in and runs Booz Allen from the DC suburb. A 27-year Booz Allen veteran, Shrader was elected chairman and CEO in April 1999. Before becoming Booz Allen's chief, Shrader served as the firm's WTB president and ran its division focused on telecommunications, information technology, and command, control, communications, computing and intelligence. Prior to joining Booz Allen, Shrader was the National Director of Advanced Systems Planning for Western Union and served as a senior member of the technical staff with RCA's Government Communications System Division. A Quaker and a Fighting Illini, Shrader holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, with minors in mathematics and nuclear physics, from the University of Illinois. Shrader has advised several big-time clients during his consulting career. He's led consulting assignments for government clients such as the National Communications System, the General Services Administration, and the Defense Information Systems Agency. On a global level, he's worked with key players such as the International Telecommunications Union and government agencies in Latin America. But perhaps more than his consulting expertise, Shrader is known for his commitment to promoting the rights of women, minorities and people with disabilities. During Shrader's tenure as CEO, Booz Allen has been recognized as one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers by Working Mother magazine for four straight years. Shrader's efforts on behalf of women and minorities as Chairman of AFCEA International led the association to establish a scholarship in Shrader's name to assist women and minority students pursuing graduate degrees in communications and electronics. Also under Shrader's command, Booz Allen has been called one of the top 10 companies in the U.S. for supporting employees with disabilities by WE Magazine, a publication for people with disabilities. In fact, Shrader's commitment to Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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Booz Allen Hamilton Organization
helping people with disabilities goes well beyond the workplace: Shrader's son Mark is mentally challenged and has epilepsy. Outside Booz Allen, Shrader is on the board of Abilities, Inc., a nonprofit organization that works with employers who hire people with disabilities. Abilities is a member of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities' (PCEPD) Business Leadership Network, a national program that promotes hiring the disabled. “Shrader is an exemplary leader and visionary on disability issues,” John Lancaster, executive director of the PCEPD, told BusinessWeek in August 2000. “He sets high standards for other corporate leaders to follow.” These standards haven't gone unnoticed. The National Business & Disability Council (NBDC) honored Shrader with its 2001 Exemplary Leadership Award, and the Epilepsy Foundation named Booz Allen its 2001 employer of the year.
Business Description The Booz split Booz Allen Hamilton is unusual among consulting companies in its structure. While most consulting companies are organized by geographic area, Booz Allen is organized into two major units, and further organized by geographical, industry and functional groups. Booz Allen divides its operations into two major business sectors, Worldwide Commercial Business (WCB) and the Worldwide Technology Business (WTB). Insiders say that in terms of interaction between WCB and WTB, “the twain rarely meet.” Says a former WCB senior associate, “The two groups hire different types of people, pay different and have different hours. Integration is less than seamless.” A Current WTB associate agrees: “TB and CB are night and day. They're two completely separate businesses. Hours and pay are much different.” Booz Allen, however, is now trying to service WCB clients using expertise and techniques traditionally associated with the WTB sector, and vice versa. According to a former WCB employee, “TB needs CB's management expertise, and CB needs TB's government contacts.” For example, Booz Allen is now working with commercial clients in the area of strategic security, a capability built with government clients such as the National Security Agency. The Worldwide Commercial Business, headquartered in New York, is a classic management consultancy, to which mainly recent college grads and MBAs apply. WCB does work in strategy, organization, leadership, change 10
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Booz Allen Hamilton Organization
management, operations, information technology and business transformation. Booz Allen's WCB division offers these, and other, management consulting services to clients in a range of industries. Booz Allen expedites the consulting process for its clients by organizing its expertise into what it calls Natural Market Teams, focusing either on an industry, region or key functional area. The industry-oriented teams are Aerospace and Transportation; Automotive; Communications, Media and Technology; Consumer and Health Services; Energy; and Financial Services. The regionally-focused teams serve clients in the developing markets of Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Crossing industry and regional lines are function-focused teams: Strategy and Organization; Operations; and Information Technology. Recent clients include Nissan Motor, BP PLC, and Amazon.com. The Worldwide Technology Business unit, based in the Washington suburb of McLean, VA, primarily caters to the U.S. public sector market – specifically, government agencies and institutions. (One of the unit's major engagements, which it undertook in conjunction with WCB, involved a restructuring of the IRS's business processes.) Approximately 42 percent of WTB's revenue is defense-related, 30 percent is civilian, 20 percent is derived from national security clients, and 8 percent comes from international government work. According to the Washington Post, government intelligence agency contracts account for $300 million a year in WTB revenue. Overall, reported the Post, WTB revenue increased 20 percent in 2001, largely due to the increase in government-related contracts post 9/11. (WCB's business, however, remained flat.) WTB is divided into three market-focused teams (International and Infrastructure, Defense, and National Security) and two functional teams (Information Technology and Organization & Management). The firm is planning a greater emphasis on new business in the e-government area, as well as in information assurance. WTB hires staff at all levels and seeks technical professionals with backgrounds in IT and engineering, as well as management consultants with backgrounds in business and liberal arts. Booz Allen garners about 80 percent of its revenue from previous clients. Recent WTB clients include the National Security Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and DARPA, the Pentagon's advanced research arm.
Strong implementers Booz Allen isn't a pure strategy firm. Putting an emphasis on transforming businesses rather than merely prescribing change, the firm reports spending Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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Accenture Organization
about one-third to one-half of its time helping clients implement its recommendations. Before implementation, Booz Allen works with a client to develop solutions for problems created by fundamental changes in a client's industry or company – a “strategy-based transformation” – and implement changes in its organization, operations and technology. Booz Allen involves its clients in the consulting and transformation process by making a point of integrating the client's executives and staff into the consulting team.
Flexible Booz Other management consulting companies may be larger or better known than Booz Allen – but few are as versatile. Over the years, Booz Allen's list of clients has been unique for its breadth and diversity. From NASA to the Secretary of the Navy to the District of Columbia to a legion of large commercial companies, Booz Allen has helped just about everyone manage their businesses better and save more money. One of the pioneers in the management consulting field, Booz Allen has developed an enviable reputation on the basis of its success in change management and public policy advising, its commitment to social progress, and its readiness to adapt to technology.
Vision quest As consulting firms grow, they struggle with the need to behave in a cooperative way and draw upon the amassed knowledge of their people. (Consulting firms, after all, have only the expertise and intelligence of their consultants to sell.) Booz Allen, as a large and spread-out consulting firm, confronted this issue head-on in the mid-1990s and came up with the solution known as Vision 2000. Vision 2000 was designed to mobilize and tap into the firm's stores of knowledge, or intellectual capital. The firm opted to veer away from the traditional corporate structure, where power resides at the local office level, toward a new organizational strategy that encouraged crossfunctional (strategy, operations, and IT) collaboration, and that worked across geographic barriers. The Vision 2000 plan called for “boundarylessness, [sic]” meaning a pooling of knowledge and best practices from all over the world. Booz Allen shifted its structure to one that is concentrated on practice groups, such as financial services, manufacturing, communications, and so on. Prior to Vision 2000, Booz Allen operated in country groups, which were often accused of being centers of cronyism and political advantage.
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Booz Allen Hamilton Organization
Knowledge everywhere The firm's Knowledge On-Line (KOL) intranet – which pools the knowledge that Booz Allen consultants pick up while on assignment – is often called the best of its kind. The shared system keeps consultants from repeating each other's work and provides information on an assortment of topics, including resumes, frameworks, databases and histories of employees. KOL is now used widely by Booz Allen consultants in both the Worldwide Commercial Business and Worldwide Technology Business. The intranet is set up to promote sharing of information; consultants often spend a considerable amount of time entering their own findings into KOL. Booz Allen achieves this informational exchange partially through an appeal to ego: Consultants who contribute to the database have their names prominently displayed; their entries are linked to their resumes; and it's simple to search for any given consultant's contributions to the system. In addition, the firm encourages contributions through its performance appraisal process – a consultant's evaluation is based in part on contributions to KOL.
Charitable Booz Allen Booz Allen is committed to performing pro bono work for clients. Recent clients include The Nature Conservancy, the Children's Defense Fund, Lincoln University and the United Negro College Fund. Booz Allen consultants can keep track of their firm's charitable moves via Community Relations On Line, the firm's intranet site, which reports on current and upcoming community service opportunities worldwide.
Balancing act In addition to its charity work and other community efforts, Booz Allen has also looked inward. The firm has made a strong push to create a comfortable workplace for its employees through work-life balance initiatives and diversity programs. According to senior director Jean Callahan in a June 2001 interview with the Washington Post, women compose 39 percent of the workforce in the firm's McLean, VA headquarters office and 22 percent of the management team. Members of minority groups represent 24 percent of all headquarters employees and 12 percent of management.
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Booz Allen Hamilton Organization
Locations Worldwide Commercial Business (WCB): New York, NY (HQ) Worldwide Technology Business (WTB) & Corporate: McLean, VA (HQ) Over 100 offices worldwide. You can find a list of all of Booz Allen's offices and their addresses on the firm's website, www.bah.com.
Key Officers Chairman and CEO; President of the Worldwide Technology Business: Ralph W. Shrader President of the Worldwide Commercial Business: Daniel C. Lewis Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton, co-leads the firm's Global Strategic Security Practice: Mark Gerencser Vice President and Director of Booz Allen Hamilton's Infrastructure Assurance Center of Excellence: Mike McConnell CFO: Doug Swenson
Ownership Booz Allen Hamilton is a privately held company. All Booz Allen stock is held by the company's 240 principals.
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Vault Newswire October 2002: Booz lands big gig Booz Allen was part of a team awarded a $280 million contract by the National Security Agency to provide the technology demonstration platform phase of the TRAILBLAZER program. The team also includes Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Computer Sciences. In March 2001, a Booz Allenled team was awarded a contract for the initial planning phase of the same program.
September 2002: A hit with mothers For the fourth year in a row, Booz Allen was named to Working Mother magazine's list of the “100 Best Companies For Working Mothers.” And, for the first time, Booz Allen made the top 10. Booz Allen also was named the best in its industry (finance and professional service firms).
September 2002: Boozer to advise New York City's Fire Department R. James Woolsey, a Booz Allen vice president and former director of the CIA, was named chief advisor to the newly created FDNY Terrorism Preparedness Taskforce. The Taskforce was formed to study the New York City Fire Department's terrorism preparedness capabilities. According to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “R. James Woolsey and his fellow members of the Terrorism Preparedness Taskforce possess a unique understanding of and a broad experience in counter-terrorism that will help the FDNY to identify and implement measures to enhance its ability to respond to potential strikes against our City.”
August 2002: Government jobs pay off Booz Allen Hamilton ranked 26th in Government Executive magazine's annual list of the Top 200 Government Contractors (based on 2001 government contracts). Booz Allen ranked 7th on the magazine's list of Top 20 Computer Services and Software Contractors, and 9th on its list of Top 20 Systems Integration Contractors.
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Accenture Vault Newswire
July 2002: CIA director infiltrates Booz Booz Allen Hamilton hired R. James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Woolsey will join Booz Allen as a vice president in the firm's Global Strategic Security practice.
October 2001: Making the lists Booz Allen Hamilton was rated one of the top companies to work for in two prominent publications. Washingtonian magazine named the firm to its list of “Great Places to Work” in the DC area, marking the second time that Booz Allen made the rankings. The firm also made Working Mother's annual list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers for the third straight time.
October 2001: Diversity award winner Adding to its list of workplace awards, Booz Allen Hamilton has been presented with the 2001 Exemplary Voluntary Efforts Award. Booz Allen won the honor for its innovative diversity programs. The award is given each year by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
September 2001: Terror strikes Booz Three Booz Allen employees were killed during the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. One principal and two associates were meeting with U.S. Army clients in the section of the building that was destroyed.
August 2001: Card sharp The government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia has selected Booz Allen for a major project involving the state's public transportation system. Booz Allen will implement a new “smart card system,” allowing NSW commuters to travel seamlessly on trams, buses and trains. The system is expected to be rolled out in Sydney and other NSW cities in 2003.
July 2001: Quite a ride Booz Allen employees have raised approximately $90,000 as part of the DC AIDS Ride. A team of 36 staffers and family members made a four-day, 330mile bike trek from Raleigh, NC to Washington, DC. The money raised went to two DC-area AIDS charities, Food and Friends and the Whitman-Walker Clinic. 16
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May 2001: Job cuts Feeling the effects of the economy, Booz Allen announced that it will lay off about 95 consultants. The firm also pushed back start dates for newly hired college graduates until sometime in 2002.
March 2001: Quittin' Booz Booz Allen suffered a significant blow with the defection of senior partner Michael Wolf to competitor McKinsey & Co. The founder of the media and entertainment group at Booz Allen, Wolf had a client roster that included NBC, the National Basketball Association and Bertelsmann. At 40 years of age, Wolf was the youngest senior partner in Booz Allen's history.
October 2000: Kid stuff Booz Allen has opened a brand-new childcare center in its McLean, VA headquarters. Managed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the 8,000square-foot facility will offer all-day care for employees' children from infancy to kindergarten age.
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Our Survey Says Intensity in 10 cities (or 100) Life at Booz Allen Hamilton is nothing if not intense. The average workweek runs slightly below 65 hours, and in WCB at least, Booz Allen “is very firm about its up or out policy.” A number of insiders contend that the firm's culture varies greatly, making it “somewhat hard to pinpoint and is very different depending on the team.” Nevertheless, most agree that the firm is “demanding, yet rewarding.” And at least one source thinks that “the work environment is pleasant,” because “there are numerous programs that help to nurture and encourage a successful career, such as work-life balance, business casual dress, community outreach and effective communication programs to keep you informed of events and decisions that affect you and the company.” Even if the day-to-day culture is difficult to define, Booz Allen's overall corporate culture isn't: “Booz Allen has an 'old school' consulting culture where people are indoctrinated in the 'Booz' way very quickly.” Regular training is important, and “professionalism” is a key watchword around the Booz Allen offices. Most WTB consultants, however, praise the “independent working environment.” Says one WTB source, “No one is looking over your shoulder. You're given a lot of space. And people are very open if you have something to do outside the office; whether it's work related or not, people aren't raising eyebrows at it.”
Brain train Respondents reserve their highest praise for Booz Allen's training program. Two years ago the firm established the award-winning Center for Performance Excellence, a university-modeled program that coordinates and broadens training opportunities. Through the center, employees can access an internal core curriculum of courses as well as external opportunities, and the firm reimburses for any costs incurred. The McLean headquarters, for example, has even “set up relationships with universities to bring them on to the McLean campus.” “We all get monies for both internal and external training and are encouraged to use it,” says one contact. “My manager stays abreast of everyone's training monies to ensure that you use it for training of interest.” Another source says, “Additional training is strongly suggested; managers stay on top of you to better yourself.” In 2002, the firm made Training magazine's list of the top companies for human capital development. Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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Indeed, even in a time when cash droughts are forcing training cutbacks at many firms, we hear Booz Allen has kept its education coffers full, and “the opportunities to pursue such training are almost limitless.”
Have some respect Employees generally appreciate the sense of mutual respect they find at Booz Allen; one called it a “very professional atmosphere, where junior staffers are given the opportunity to excel from day one.” Nevertheless, cautions another contact, “there is also a strong hierarchy at Booz Allen which often deems how the first interaction with an executive will occur,” though “after they know an employee, the hierarchy tends to break down.” The firm makes sure mutual respect and communication is part of the daily structure; by providing an “extensive coaching and leadership training program to ensure all senior leaders are aware of their responsibility to the staff,” as well as “an appraisal system where staff have ample opportunity to give direct messages and feedback to their supervisors.” Most consultants give favorable reviews of their managers, who one source tells us “are always looking toward ways of helping us out. Sometimes we receive little thankyou cards to express their gratitude for all the hard work we put into a project.” Ultimately, though, for those averse to Booz Allen's intense atmosphere, the firm can seem “surprisingly competitive. [It is] superficially cooperative in verbiage and 'values,' but not in reality.” Another tells us that “there is no real levity in the workplace – human kindness seems to come more from an etiquette book than from the heart.”
Lots of hours, but flexible While average hours at Booz Allen can climb above 60 per week, the firm does what it can to make a relatively stable work/life balance possible. Of course, in consulting one can never predict how many hours will be spent on the job during a given week, and the bottom line is that “we are at the mercy of the client's timetable. Based on their poor time management, our time is compressed, requiring intense last-minute efforts.” The hours “ebb and flow and are tough to gauge.” And at Booz Allen, the better a worker you are, the more responsibility and tasks you will be given: “The number of hours you work is directly related to your team's growth rate, staffing levels, and your ability to assume more responsibility. If your team has a lot of work and you show yourself capable, you will get loaded down.”
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To help with the workload, Booz Allen managers give their employees as much flexibility as possible. “We have 'core hours' that staff are expected to be in the office,” reports one source, but “there is a high degree of autonomy to get your assignments completed.” And in general there's “minimal micromanagement, although each team differs in management style.” Employees can work from home if need be, and tough weeks are offset by light loads later on: “If I've had some very long hours, I'm usually able to take some time off afterwards to take care of personal business.” Travel is also said to be light; at WTB, whose clients mainly are government agencies in the D.C. area, very few overnight trips are required. “Most of the travel I do,” tells one source, “is within the local Washington metro area; traveling to and from client sites for meetings.” And while WCB employees understandably spend a little more time on the road, even their load is less than the industry standard.
Cash and bennies Consultants at Booz Allen say that “compared to industry average, we are well compensated,” though junior staffers grumble about the lack of bonuses. Nevertheless, Booz Allen “does a good job of looking at the salaries in the market and compensating employees appropriately,” says a senior consultant. A junior consultant on the WTB side says, “I started at par with, and even above, some of my friends who work at other consulting firms. She adds that “technical degree holders started ahead of BA holders.” Other insiders say Booz Allen is good about recognizing individual achievement at the junior levels, through incentives such as a VIP award and free vacations. “Time spent on your work is reciprocated back to you in different ways,” says one Boozer. One such way is the firm's reward/recognition program that works like this: Any Boozer can nominate another Boozer for a number of awards. Each award has its own criteria, and the awards committee (made up of Booz Allen consultants from various levels on various teams) reviews the nominees. Depending on the award, winners receive prizes ranging from some small item out of the company store up to a free trip to anywhere in the U.S. or the Caribbean, plus $1,000 in spending money. Says one consultant, “I know six or so people who have gotten awards – and they work hard; they're the movers and shakers in the company.” Another contact, who won an award that took her on an all-expense paid trip to St. Thomas, explains that Booz Allen, in doling out the big prizes, “takes care of all travel arrangements, and
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if you want to stay longer on your trip, they'll work with you.” She adds, “The hotels you get to stay in are really nice, too.” Booz Allen gets high marks for its benefits. “The firm takes a lot of pride in keeping its employees happy,” one source tells Vault. The company hosts picnics such as the big Memorial Day blowout in McLean, and a “great holiday party in December.” One employee describes the Memorial Day soiree as a “backyard barbecue.” She says, “It's great: People in the buildings around us are all working, and we're having a picnic.” Employees say the Christmas party is “awesome,” with “great food and lots of dancing.” In September, the McLean office rents out Six Flags for a day. Says a consultant and amusement park connoisseur, “If you have family, you can bring them, too. Though, the Six Flags down here isn't so nice.” The firm also offers on-site banking (in McLean), employee referral bonuses, a robust insurance package, and profit sharing. Lately, at least on the TB side, profit sharing has proven to be an excellent benefit. Says a WTB consultant, “The TB side has been doing extremely well in the last fiscal year – above projections, which translates into capital appreciation and an increase in total comp.” Additionally, in the U.S., “the firm provides compensation by putting money toward your 401(k) directly, without needing you to match it.” It's “the best 401(k) program out there,” remarks one source. Sports tickets, etailer discounts, amusement park discounts and a company store are added perks.
Home sweet office Most consultants couldn't be happier about their offices. In McLean, there are “no cubicles or hot desks”; rather, everyone shares an office with one other consultant (higher-ups, naturally, get their own). Things are nice to a fault, though, for some. One source complains, “Everything is dictated by level – including the size and shape of my desk. For example, I wanted to make the surface area of the desk smaller so I would have more room for a small table and was told no.” We hear that the offices at the McLean headquarters are too small for two people, and employees “are tripping over each other. We cannot conduct informal team meetings with others, which provides for scheduling conflicts when conference rooms aren't available.” And one source reports that the regional offices don't match up to the corporate headquarters: “Regional locations do their best to mimic corporate offices but fall short.” On the other hand, the source tells us that the regional offices make up for the disparity by creating “their own cultures and supplementing missing amenities with more social activities for the team.”
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The faces of Booz Allen Booz Allen is aggressive in addressing issues of gender and racial diversity, and it puts its money where its mouth is: “We have several women's groups backed by the firm to ensure equal access and treatment,” notes one consultant. The firm also supports a diversity council. Nevertheless, many insiders think it could be doing more. “I think the firm does a lot to bridge the gap in terms of [gender] diversity,” says one woman consultant. “But it still has quite a ways to go. We are consistently named to the top company lists for women because of perks such as parental leave and day care, but the tougher issues like women in leadership are not that well-addressed.” Another insider puts it even more bluntly, saying, “This is the least diverse organization I've belonged to in over 20 years. It's OK at the lower levels, but no one seems to find qualified women or minorities for the LIV [senior associate] and LV [principal] positions.”
Giving something back Community involvement at Booz Allen is a big deal, and insiders tell us that funding for just about any project you can think of “is easy to get.” Booz Allen maintains a community relations team that coordinates its charity activities and pro bono consulting work. Reports one source, “I've done several firm-sponsored events, Christmas in April and the Homeless Walk. I've also had the firm provide a grant to the organization that I am personally involved with, Habitat for Humanity.” Another source tells us that “I was active with a Korean American organization and Booz Allen was very active in sponsoring our college internship and high school mentorship programs.” The firm also matches donations for disaster funds and corporate challenge events. Yet another Boozer tells Vault about the firm's sponsorship of his AIDS Ride team: “Transportation to North Carolina and lodging the night prior to the ride was provided by Booz Allen. Employees from Durham provided us with a breakfast the morning of the kickoff and we had a great welcoming committee in D.C.” The firm also sponsors education tutoring at various schools, “a lot” of blood drives, and many sporting opportunities such as internal golf leagues, flag football leagues, softball leagues, as well as a “corporate Olympics in which you compete against other firms.”
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Getting Hired Hiring Process Booz Allen maintains different hiring practices for its two main units, WCB and WTB. WCB hires only a small number of undergraduates, who usually come on as consultants and stay for two to three years before returning to business school. The unit does most of its hiring from MBA programs, other consultancies and the world of industry. The firm also hires a number of people through employee referrals. WTB, on the other hand, hires a larger number of undergraduates. “Unlike WCB,” says a WTB insider, “We mostly recruit at nearby schools such as Virginia Tech, UVA, Penn State, University of Maryland, and James Madison.” The firm has a number of different interview-process models, which vary according to level, the unit doing the hiring and the size of the applicant pool. For undergraduates with a Booz Allen presence on their campus, the first step is usually an interview with a representative of the firm's university relations team. From there they go to a second round at a Booz Allen office, where the firm holds an open house of sorts – various teams set up tables, and “candidates have to walk up to a table, introduce themselves, and explain why they were interested in working for that team. Team representatives then ask questions and allow the candidate to ask questions.” At the end of the day, each candidate selects their top three teams, and each team selects a short list of applicants. If the lists match up, there is a final interview, followed by an offer. At the top business schools, Booz Allen WCB typically rents out a block of rooms at a hotel near campus. In the first round, candidates undergo a series of two to three interviews conducted by second- and third-year consultants and/or principals. Insiders estimate that about one out of three applicants makes it past the first round. The second round is identical to the first, except that more senior people (usually principals) conduct the interviews, and the cases tend to lighten up a bit as the emphasis moves more to fit. Third-round interviews take place at the office to which the candidate has applied. Here it is the same scenario once again – two to three interviews, including cases – but now partners run the show. Later in the school year, the firm hosts a “sell weekend” in many of its offices. For both undergraduate and MBA/experienced hires applying to WTB, Booz Allen's “gauntlet interview process” typically consists of a phone screening with “technical and experience questions,” followed by three to six 30-minute Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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interviews at the office to which the candidate has applied. “Each interviewer has a specific topic they drill on,” one insider says, “and then we review all the results to determine whether we should hire the candidate.” We also hear that Booz Allen is good about keeping applicants abreast of what's going on; there are no surprises in this interview process. Everyone meets with a recruiter before the interviews, who explains the process and gives advice on what the particular interviewers' might be looking for. “This allowed me to prepare myself for each interview,” reports one source. “After the interviews I kept in touch with the recruiters until my hiring.”
Questions to expect WCB 1. Company X is the top player in the desktop computer market and owns 70 percent of that market. Company Y, with 10 percent of the market, comes to you for a business strategy to capture a larger share. How would you advise them? Begin this case question by doing a 5-10 minute “estimation exercise,” which consists of questions such as: • How many desktop computers are there in the United States? • What's the future demand for desktop computers? After asking questions like these, you should be able to come up with a number – say, 40 million PCs. You should even have a notepad and pen on you so that you can jot down ideas and keep track of your thoughts. For the next 15 to 20 minutes, you should talk about the issues that the company might be thinking about before embarking on a huge market expansion, by asking questions such as: • What is the competition like in the market? • How will offering new PC products affect the company's labor costs? • What sub-markets, like business customers, that we have not addressed are ripe for us to enter? Interviewees should always remember that “there are several ways of approaching the problem, and during the interview what the interviewers are most interested in is your logic flow, the types of questions you ask, and how 26
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you structure the questions. Asking questions that are wrong is tantamount to not asking them at all. And answering too quickly is a no-no as well. If you ask a question, you need to know “why” you are asking it. What hypothesis does it support or disprove? 2. Guesstimate/Brainteaser: How many golf balls does it take to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool? In management consulting interviews, business “cases” are only one part of most interviews. Booz Allen interviewers also love to ask a “guesstimate,” a question requiring you to use a series of assumptions to come up with an estimate. Similar to a guesstimate, a “brainteaser” is a riddle or situation requiring creative thinking for a solution. In this golf ball guesstimate, the answer is as follows: An Olympic pool measures 50 meters long x 25 meters wide x 3 meters deep. Therefore, its volume is 3,750 cubic meters (228,837,657 cubic inches). The diameter of a golf ball is 1.68 inches, and its radius is 0.84 inches. Using the formula for volume (V=4/3 x pi x radius^3), you can determine that a golf ball's volume is 2.48 cubic inches. At this point, you cannot simply divide the total pool volume by the golf ball volume. Why? Spheres can only be packed so tightly; in fact, spheres as densely packed as they can be fill up just 74 percent of the actual volume. Therefore, the total pool volume available to fill is 74 percent x 228,837,657, or 169,339,866 cubic inches. We can fit 68.28 million golf balls in such a space. 3. Guesstimate/Brainteaser: Why do Coke cans have an indent – The Coca-Cola Company calls it a “dome” – at the bottom? A Coke can is a pressure vessel, requiring a “dome” so that it does not bulge out the opposite way. If the can bulged, it would tip over when you set it on the table. 4. What are some of the magazines you read? It's okay to throw Spin or People in there, but you had better balance it with something meatier. 5. If you got locked into a grocery store at midnight with the lights out, how would you figure out how long you could live on the food? 6. Your five-year-old niece approaches you and tells you that she wants to buy a present for her mother. She's thinking of opening a lemonade stand to earn the revenue, and asks for your advice since you're a Booz Allen consultant. What do you tell her?
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“It's cute and non-threatening,” says a former associate who has used the case, “but it brings up all kinds of issues, competition, how to increase revenues, price differentiation, that kind of thing.” 7. I'm working with a telecom company that wants an alliance with a utility. How would you go about this? 8. How would you do product placement for cat food?
WTB 1. Explain your short and long-term goals. The firm “isn’t looking for people who rest on their laurels. We want people who have definite career aspirations and who interested in growing professionally.” 2. What do you know about Booz Allen? Most prospectives don't know about the TB (government) side of Booz Allen. It's not a two-year up or out place. It helps if you know that and helps if you know about the specific team that you're interviewing with. Additionally, you want to show that you have a general interest in working in the federal sector, combined with an interest in traditional management consulting. 3. What sort of projects (academic or professional) have you worked on? Play up projects in which you worked in a team. Booz Allen is looking for team players who, according to an associate, “work well with others, are selfmotivated, will keep commitments and are good communicators.” 4. Tell me about your experience working on teams and your leadership roles on those teams. “They ask a lot of teamwork experience questions, because, at Booz Allen, you rarely do anything by yourself,” says one employees. “They'll probe you're previous jobs and schooling to see if you worked on teams.” Another source says, “It sounds kindergarten, but teamwork is really key here. They want to know that you can be a player and not make things difficult for other members.” 5. What was your favorite class and why? Your least favorite? They're testing your honesty. “My favorite was a history class – and I was an engineering major. The class was challenging, but I really liked the subject
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matter. They weren't surprised that my least favorite class was Thermodynamics.” 6. Walk me through your resume. Says one insider, “If it's on your resume, we'll test you on it – and you better know it like the back of your hand. We'll grill you. We had one candidate who said he was an IT expert and he didn't know even know the basics of IT.” 7. So you've worked on X team. What happened when things went awry? Interviewers want to see if you took a leadership role. They're also gauging your personality. “I can tell a lot about a candidate's personality by their response to this question,” says one Booz Allen insider. 8. If the FBI wants to trim 10 percent of its budget, what would you suggest they do? Booz Allen wants to know how you think; they're not looking for a correct answer. So think out loud and walk through the processes you would suggest. They also want to see how you would react to such a question – if you become flustered or not. 9. How would apply your past job experience to a job here?
Questions to ask WCB 1. What kind of training does Booz Allen provide? The training has significantly improved at Booz Allen, according to insiders, “but seems to change every year.” Find out the latest. 2. How do you use Knowledge On-Line in your average workday? Discover its relevance to you – and impress your interviewer with your Booz Allen-specific savvy. 3. How often do consultants in this office travel? This varies by the office. Cleveland-dwellers, for example, should expect to see precious little of their Ohio hometown. 4. How often are you staffed on international projects?
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Again, this is something that varies from practice group to practice group. Those in financial services rarely travel (if they work in New York), while those in aerospace do so frequently. 5. Can you tell me about some of the firm's latest community service projects?* Booz Allen is big on core values and big on community service. “They're proud of that,” says one employee. “So, if you ask about different ways to get involved, that would be appreciated.” 6. Who many people were promoted last year? What positions are you looking to fill? Explains a former Boozer, “Consulting is a short-lived career. You need to know what your up potential is and you gauge that by how many associates were promoted to senior associates and how many senior associates were promoted to principals, and how many principals to partners. If the numbers are small, that indicates that growth is slow; if the numbers are healthy, the firm is growing. It's definitely not fun if the firm isn't growing. Booz Allen was definitely not growing when I first started.” * Also a recommended question to ask in WTB interviews.
WTB 1. How big is the project team? What kind of work will I be doing? How many projects are in the works right now? How much travel should I expect? Teams vastly differ within WTB. Some work on many projects at a time, some only one at a time. You'll find out if you're being hired for a long-term project? Some teams travel, others don't at all. This is important to know depending on your preference. 2. What kind of client work do you do? “You want to take a snapshot of our processes,” says a senior consultant. “I want to hear questions based on the conversation we are having – it shows, at least, that you are actually listening and putting forth the effort.” 3. What do you like about your job? What don't you like about your job “Good way to feel out the corporate environment,” says an insider. 4. Who are your clients?
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Each team is different. It's important to ask questions to find out the 411 for specific teams. 5. What are the functional skills that you need to have that you don't have now? How is this team different than other teams? It's okay to say you don't think a certain team is a good fit but you still want to continue to interview with Booz Allen. Interviewers, if they like you, will point you in the direction of a team that might be better for you. “It's absolutely fine to do this on the WTB side,” says one insider. “It's important to find a team that works for you.”
To apply If Booz Allen doesn't recruit at your school, or if you're an experienced professional, you can search available job opportunities and submit an application online via the “careers” section of the Booz Allen web site (www.bah.com). To contact Booz Allen regarding “questions, feedback or technical issues” not relating to the status of your application, use the following address:
[email protected].
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On the Job Job Descriptions Consultant Consultants at Booz Allen (called analysts at most other consulting firms) spend most of their time performing research analysis, building models, and interviewing clients, competitors and industry experts. An analyst conducts Internet and phone research. After collecting the requisite data, the analyst puts together a model that describes the total amount of revenue generated by a particular industry, the top five players in the industry, the typical clients, and the type of products generated by the industry. Consultants also spend time interviewing clients. Duties “evolve over time,” explains one former consultant. “I often worked with client teams and led them in identifying a set of issues to address. I also worked with clients to scope out a work plan and take it to the next level. There is a mix of doing interviews, both external and internal, trying to get a hold of data, working in teams to do analysis, and doing presentations to others. About half of what you do is interviewing, processing and analyzing information, while the other half is talking to clients and teammates and doing presentations.”
Associate One associate says that job functions for associates are “split into a couple of categories. There is data gathering, analysis and presentations.” Data gathering is “trying to get information that a company or client can't get. It's interviewing high-level executives, and clients in other regions, trying to talk to analysts on Wall Street. A lot of it is interview-based. It's not like reading market reports. We talk to people and try to figure out how it all affects our company strategy.” After data gathering, the information is analyzed and presented to fellow consultants and clients. Assignments, says one associate, are broken up into “modules,” or “tasks.” “We are very task-oriented at Booz Allen. We make sure systems are in place and that consultants are prepared to report their findings in a certain way. That's probably because we often do strategy followed by implementation.” A former associate gives an example: “We worked with a company that wanted to bid on telephone licenses in Asia. They wanted to know how much
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to bid. So if you estimate the cost of deploying a network, you can figure out what the value is. We split up, so I did market sizing and revenue. You become an expert at that part of the project and you do the presentation on it.”
A day in the life WCB Consultant 9:05 a.m.: Get into the office. You are working with a consumer products company that wants to increase its market share in Europe and Asia; they are already strong in Canada, much of Latin America and the United States. You munch on a doughnut as you check voice mail and e-mail. 9:30 a.m.: One of the other consultants you share an office with wanders in, “which is unusual. Often I'm alone in the office.” 9:40 a.m.: After some aimless chatting, you get back into some in-office modeling of the potential value of an acquisition of a company in France. Your job is to investigate acquiring a European company as part of your client's entry strategy. 11:00 a.m.: Call up a Wall Street analyst you've spoken with before. He tells you to call back at (his) lunchtime. You return to looking over your data. 11:40 a.m.: Your fellow consultant begins to hit his computer. 12:05 p.m.: You call up the analyst and discuss the current stock value and future of the French company. 12:30 p.m.: Your office mate is stressed out, so you decide to go out to lunch at a nearby pizza “restaurant.” Greasy goodness! 1:15 p.m.: Back in the office, you again turn to your spreadsheets. 2:00 p.m.: You're still trying to figure out the value of this particular acquisition. (“If a company is going to sink $200 million into something, they want to make sure all the distribution channels and potential acquisitions have been fully investigated.”) 3:00 p.m.: Call up your junior mentor. She's not in the office today. You leave a message on her cell phone voice mail. 3:30 p.m.: Finally figure it out yourself.
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3:40 p.m.: It occurs to you that you should have checked Knowledge On-line. You call it up and discover that an associate in the Dallas office has already done research on this particular company. You give him a call. 4:00 p.m.: You discover three more companies in France that your client should consider. Time to start the research process again! 4:15 p.m.: Your junior mentor, an associate, calls you back. You talk about the assignment – which happens to be your first. She gives you pointers on how to present your findings. 4:30 p.m.: You have a presentation to your team tomorrow afternoon, which you're a little nervous about. You start working on a deck. 7:00 p.m.: Order in Chinese food. 9:00 p.m.: Go home.
WCB Associate 8:30 a.m.: Get in the office. Check voice mail and e-mail. 9:00 a.m.: The first meeting, a joint effort with both clients and Booz Allen consultants. You're investigating the feasibility of a joint venture with a Russian oil company. You fill each other in on your research and analysis. 10:00 a.m.: You direct some consultants toward further research after the meeting breaks up. One of them is investigating an alternative – acquiring a firm with Russian operations instead of embarking on a joint venture. 10:30 a.m.: Call an analyst at a Wall Street firm who has studied AmericanRussian joint ventures. He gives you a few pointers and indicates areas of analysis for you to consider. 11:30 a.m.: You call some people at the client company to gather data you'll need for a valuation model. 12:30 p.m.: Time for lunch. You sit at your desk and leaf through a copy of Fast Company. There's an article on business partnerships you want to read. 1:30 p.m.: You spend a few hours calling around to get data in order to value a certain Russian oil and gas concern. 4:30 p.m.: Enter data into a comparative financial model you've been working on.
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5:30 p.m.: Check Knowledge On-line to see if anyone's worked with this particular company before. End up reading a new article on the emerging market of Kazakhstan. (“I always find something I need on KOL, even if it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.”) 8:30 p.m.: Go home. “On every project, a senior associate is the job manager – and everything gets coordinated through them. The job manager is the 'center of the universe.' He or she knows the schedule, what everybody else is doing. I've worked on teams with 1 other person and on teams with up to 16 other people – Booz Allen people, that is. As a project manager, you should have good detailed discussions with your team on how to you divvy up the project and what you have to find out.” “An associate's work is usually about issues rather than 'run this spreadsheet.' You have to determine the most efficient way to answer a question. For example, a question could be as broad as 'Why are Company X's sales down?' You must then break down in detail why the sales down. You might look at individual products, at propensities of customer acceptance, and at salespeople of a certain product line. The art of the consulting is to cut it the right way.”
– Former WCB Associate
WTB junior consultant (Level 1) On-site (McLean HQ) 5:45 a.m.: Wake up. 7:00 a.m.: Leave for work (“From Arlington – where many of the younger people here work – it's about a 25 to 35 drive to McLean. It takes a lot longer to get home, though. Traffic here isn't so good. Another popular area for younger professionals is Falls Church; the older people – those with families – live in suburbia, in places like Rosslyn, Sterling and Fairfax. I spend two or three days in McLean and the rest of the time at the client site, which, now, is out in Fairfax.”) 7:30 a.m.: Arrive at work.
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7:35 a.m.: Check email and voicemail and read the paper. (“I call my first half hour at work my warm-up: I check messages, have coffee, read USA Today, and see who's in the office.”) 8:00 a.m.: Begin editing a document that will be going to a justice and treasury client in a week. (“I've been helping to write the document over the past two months. It's taken up about 50 percent of my time. I usually work on two to three projects at a time.”) 10:00 a.m.: Work on a client's changes to a deliverable. (“Often, something such as a client's edits to document will come up during the day. Clients will mark-up the pages of a document, flagging their comments with post-its. Which means you'll have to rewrite some sections. This could take an hour if you pretty much got it right the first time, or it could take six months to get through review and back to the client.”) 12:00 p.m.: Lunch. (“I usually go out to lunch. We walk to one of the malls nearby. Corner Bakery is a favorite. Sometimes I'll bring my much. On Fridays, though, we almost always take a long lunch.”) 1:00 p.m.: Check and return messages. 1:30 p.m.: Continue to work on document that is going to client in a week. 2:00 p.m.: Meeting with team member, a level two, to go over the document I've been working on. (“I knew he was going to be in McLean today, so in the morning I asked to meet with him after lunch.”) 3:00 p.m.: Incorporate superior's comments into the document. Send out to the rest of the team. 5:00 p.m.: Make travel plans for meeting next week. 5:30 p.m.: Leave office for the day. (“I usually leave between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., and then I go to the gym. There is a gym on site that is free and decent, but I don't go there. A lot of the guys, though, will work out there during lunch.”)
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Booz Allen Hamilton On the Job
WTB senior consultant (Level 2) On-site (at McLean HQ) 9:00 a.m.: Arrive at work. (“It's not too important when you come; no one's looking over my shoulder.”) 9:05 a.m.: Check email and read the federal sector headlines in the newspaper. 10:00 a.m.: Call clients. (“Call one client to talk about a new system they're developing, and call another to clear up an issue that just came up.”) 10:30 a.m.: Team meeting. (“Meet with project manager and the rest of my team to talk about upcoming deadlines and other issues regarding the project we're working on. Sometimes, it's just a brainstorming session. I usually work in teams of three to four people”) 11:30 a.m.: Research for a piece of a deliverable (a report to be sent to client). (“I'll make research gathering calls and use the Internet and the information resource center here at Booz Allen. As a task manager, I 'own' a certain piece of the project. It'll be up to me to manage the piece, and up to me to design my own research methodology to complete the piece and present it to my team as part of the final report. I'm pretty independent. Nobody's assigning me tasks; I create tasks for myself.”) 12:30 p.m.: Lunch. (“If I'm busy I'll just go to the cafeteria, grab a sandwich, bring it up to my desk, and work through lunch. If I'm not, I'll call up one of my friends and we'll walk across the street to Maggianio's or the Daily Grill.”) 1:30 p.m.: Return emails and voicemails received during lunch. 2:00 p.m.: Work on Power Point presentations, Excel spreadsheets and narratives for deliverable. 3:30 p.m.: Catch up with colleagues. (“I'll wander around the halls and chat with other employees. It's important to know what other people are doing, because you'll be looking to jump on a new project soon.”) 4:00 p.m.: Meeting with manager. (“Most days, I'll spend an hour doing nonproject related work such as meet with a manager or principal to talk about campus recruiting or a new proposal effort.”) 5:00 p.m.: Continue to work on spreadsheets and narratives. 7:30 p.m.: Leave for the day.
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WTB senior consultant (Level 2) Off-site (at client) 9:00 a.m.: Arrive at client site. (A lot of government jobs starts early, but I don't have to be here until 9 a.m. Since September 11, security has tightened, so the parking lot here doesn't open until 9 a.m.”) 9:05 a.m.: Check e-mail. Check with the client to see what's going on with their schedule. 9:30 a.m.: Meetings with some section heads. (“Tomorrow, though, I'm teaching two classes on a software program. I'll be teaching one class from 9:30 a.m.until noon, and then another one after lunch.”) 10:00 a.m.: Work on writing a training manual for software program. 12:00 p.m.: Lunch. (“There's nothing to eat in the Pentagon, so you have to get in your car and drive somewhere.) 1:00 p.m.: Read through documentation on software. Testing applications software. 3:00 p.m.: Research cost estimating software. 5:30 p.m.: Leave for the day. (“They don't like you to be in the office alone here, so I'm only here until the last person leaves. I can take a lot stuff home to work on, though. Sometimes the colonel will send everybody home early at 3:30 p.m.”) “As opposed to creating formal deliverables, my job at the client entails doing whatever the client needs. Currently, there's a web site that I administer and do training for. My team is flexible in that even at lowest level positions, you might get client contact. I try to get back to McLean about every other week. For people who spend most of their time off-site, Booz Allen has hotel spaces and swing spaces – places to sit and type when they come back to the office. I had an office, but they gave it away. It's important to stay connected to McLean.”
– WTB senior consultant
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Booz Allen Hamilton On the Job
WTB Associate (Level 3) On-site (at McLean HQ) 6:00 a.m.: Wake up. (“In WTB, your days are much more flexible than in CB. I'm an early riser; some people don't come in until 9 a.m., though. You usually map your day around meetings. In WTB, you work on multiple projects, usually two to five. In WCB, you work with only one client at a time – you're a captive audience. So, in WTB, you can self-structure your workday.”) 6:30 a.m.: Check e-mail from home. 7:00 a.m.: Get on the road to the office. 7:30 a.m.: Arrive at office. Check and respond to email. 8:00 a.m.: Go over technical analysis for one project. 9:00 a.m.: Check in with team members. (“Walk down the hall to see how a fellow associate is doing on his portion of the analysis.”) 10:00 a.m.: Staff development meeting with subordinate. (“It's typical for associates to oversee two consultants. These development meetings last an hour. It's a chance for consultants to ask me anything about how they're doing. During the meetings, I provide feedback, point out any deficiencies in their progress, and let them know what they need to do to rectify any deficiencies. It's an assessment. We work on their growth.”) 11:00 a.m.: Work on an ongoing project – the development of a government web site – that involves writing the introduction and executive summary of the analysis. (“Right now I'm working on four different projects. Only one, though, in which I have to keep tabs on clients. The other three projects the client interfacing occurs one and two levels above me. A typical project team consists of nine team members: three to four associates, two senior consultants, and two junior consultants.”) 1:00 p.m.: Lunch. (“I usually eat at my desk. There are a few places in the building – Sam's deli and Subway – and a decent Vietnamese place down the street.”) 2:00 p.m.: Internal marketing meeting. 3:00 p.m.: Continue to work on government web site analysis.
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5:00 p.m.: Go home. (“I have kids, so I leave early – but when I get home, I usually work for another couple of hours. During crunch time I'm usually working from 4 a.m. until 8 p.m.”) “Generally, most people who go into government consulting make a career of it. You get to see a project through to the end, rather than just formulate ideas and leave. The trade-off is in the comp, which takes a little bit longer to go up than you want to be. Also, it's more functionally driven than the strategy side. So, if you're interested in a specific area such as financial analysis, network infrastructure or strategic planning, you can stick with it. Typically, on the strategy side, you have to go into a product group such as automotive or consumer products. In WTB, though, you live and die by your functionality. For some, there's also the draw of helping the federal government. The IRS is one of our biggest clients. We don't work for cabinet people, but we do work with senior execs in the government. We help a wide variety of clients; we do everything from help create defense strategies to improve how you pay your taxes.”
– WTB Associate
Career Path For undergraduates Don't be confused by the name – at Booz Allen, both in WCB and WTB, the entry-level position is called “consultant.” Most consultants who join the firm on the WCB side stay with Booz Allen for two or three years. The company may encourage select consultants to leave work for a few years to earn an MBA. As an incentive for their best employees to attend business school (and return to the firm when they've completed their studies), Booz Allen places them on a leave of absence for two years and funds their stay at business school. These lucky consultants, however, must remain at the firm for two years as associates in order to get their full tuition reimbursed. MBAs enter at the associate level and have the potential to advance to senior associate, principal and vice president (informally known as partner). In “rare” cases, a WCB consultant can advance to the associate level and beyond without an MBA. Traditionally, Booz Allen has hired relatively few consultants compared to MBA-level hires. “Originally they didn't like to do Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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Booz Allen Hamilton On the Job
that because we work pretty closely with clients on-site. They felt that undergrads didn't have the necessary presence to deal with clients. But they were pleasantly surprised.” Consultants who stay three years with Booz Allen have the option to work with a Booz Allen client or in another office in Booz Allen. These opportunities are provided to make consultants more tempting bait for business schools (which now often require a third year of varied experienced from applicants). On the WTB side, which is, again, much different than WCB, undergrads are hired on as junior consultants or “level one” employees. (Booz Allen has a level-rating system from A to 5; level 5 is the highest and anything below level A is considered an admin job.) Typically, within two years, Booz Allen will promote junior consultants to senior consultants, or to level 2. It's not uncommon to spend another two years as a level 2 before moving up to level 3 (which is where MBAs start out). Even so, one associate admits that you “could spend anywhere from one year to five years as a level 1.” Another contact gives this advice for incoming WTB consultants, “You want to get to level 3 before you start slacking off. You don't want to be a lifetime level 1.”
For MBAs MBAs begin at Booz Allen as associates on both the WCB and WTB sides. After two to three years on the job, associates are promoted to the position of senior associate and become the job manager on an engagement. Both associates and senior associates handle one engagement at a time. After two to three more years, senior associates become principals. While principals might work on two different projects at the same time, they do less hands-on work; “they move more toward selling our work.” It will take MBAs “seven to nine years” to make partner, though this varies; some people have made it as fast as five, others have taken nine to 10 years. Some MBAs leave to go to investment banking firms “mostly as research analysts,” but most find positions in the industries they cover. Says one insider: “People get asked to leave if they are not advancing.”
Review process Booz Allen calls its review process the “appraisal.” Appraisals take place six months after you join and subsequently “once a year starting with your first anniversary. These “are very fair. Most are pleased with the process.” You fill out a self-appraisal, which includes the names of everybody you have worked with over the past year. You also identify the most important ones on that list. You then meet with your appraiser to let him/her know what issues might 42
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come up. Your appraiser then interviews at least eight or 10 of the contacts you identified and develops a composite picture of your performance over the past year. The appraiser may also contact more people to examine certain issues. As for the evaluation experience itself: “It lasts half an hour to an hour, and you know what to expect. You are ranked on communication skills, contributions to KOL, analytics, contribution to the firm, and so on.” The evaluation includes a look at strengths, development needs, and an action plan to meet those needs. In addition to the annual appraisal, consultants meet with superiors on a monthly basis to discuss their professional progress. One TB consultant explains, “Once a month, I meet with a level 3 person – the guy who signs my timesheets. It's an assessment of my performance during the past year: Am I fulfilling competences? Moving toward fulfilling competencies? My superior will make sure he puts me on tasks that will help fulfill my competencies so I can get promoted. For example, I need to demonstrate my leadership role, so he makes sure to task me on something where I can work on that. My supervisor has an open door policy. I can call him any time.”
Training Many Booz Allen consultants and associates serve on committees, one of the biggest of which is training. “We have new hire training and regional training once a year, for three days,” says an insider. There is also a Career Mobility program, aimed primarily at employees interested in transferring to other groups within the firm. Booz Allen's training programs are “normally useful,” and “compared to other consulting firms, are less social-oriented than work-oriented.” “I think a heavier emphasis on the social aspect would be nice,” says one associate. “It would be nice to know each other.” But for the most part, training at Booz is “primarily on the job.” Booz Allen consultants are aided by the presence of Knowledge On-line, “which is really strong and useful for training, because it captures intellectual capital from different projects. KOL has primers and industry backgrounds that are readily available” to needful consultants and associates. (Indeed, the creators of KOL were somewhat surprised to discover how widely KOL was used for training.) “Even if I don't know anything about an industry, I can get some economic background and major competitors out of it.” Others say that members of their case team are helpful as well. “People will give you two books to read and an hour of explanation, if that's what's needed.” The firm also introduced finance training for consultants in 1999. Mindful of its lessthan-glowing reputation for sensitivity, Booz Allen now features a seminar on Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more.
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“what is appropriate and inappropriate at work,” and sponsors women's dinners to talk about consulting careers.
Staffing Each industry and operational practice has a group director of operations, a “GDO,” who does staffing for that office. “You can submit a resume when projects circulate.” One associate, however, points out that “GDOs are principals, not partners, so any partner outranks them.” No surprise, then, that there is “a lot of lobbying of partners.” The staffing system is in flux because of the firm's reorganization – the firm will staff its engagements by region or office.
Summer program Booz Allen, like most serious consulting firms, gives its summer interns “real work.” “Most get one to two client engagements in a summer, though there are always some people who are stuck doing proposal work for a while.” This “isn't a law school summer,” says one insider, “and interns will work equivalent work schedules to associates.” The firm does “not encourage split summers, but will allow them on a case-by-case basis.” Booz Allen will allow MBA interns to split summers with other consulting firms. All MBA interns go to an initial training session. Because there are two different possible start dates, one is held in May and the other in June; every intern must attend one or the other. In the United States, these sessions are held at a “resort/conference center in Tarrytown, NY, a suburb of New York City.” The session lasts “three days and three nights. There's no golf or tennis, just pool and a little basketball.” Summers have a mid-summer “pulse check” and an end-of-summer review. The reviews are performed by job managers, the supervisor of the summer for a particular client. Therefore, a summer intern may have more than one job manager. Summer interns also are assigned a junior mentor and a senior mentor. (The junior is an associate or senior associate, while the senior mentor is a partner. The job manager is NOT the same person as the senior mentor.) The job manager at the time does the official reviews. At the end of the summer, the job manager gets together with all the other job managers and a consensus is reached. “Generally, the original 'offer partner' (the partner who interviewed the summer intern) will make the offer, but that's not necessarily true,” report insiders. The offer rate to summer MBA interns varies between 80 and 85 percent. All summer interns are told that an 44
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offer “is theirs to lose. We do everything to make interns succeed, but we don't give away offers,” says one insider. About two-thirds of offerees accept. “You won't get [an offer],” says one former associate, “if you're not a good fit culturally or personality-wise, or if you didn't do a great analytical job.” Booz Allen picks up the second-year B-school tuition tab for interns who accept their offers. Booz Allen offers a fall internship for MBAs starting their programs mid-year “that is one of the best,” and a two-week internship for Harvard students doing an intensive MBA program. “Only we and the Boston Consulting Group offer this mini-internship,” reports one associate. Regular summer internships last 10 to 12 weeks.
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Final Analysis During the past few years, as the economy wobbled, so did the consulting industry. And Booz Allen, one of the industry's top firms, was not immune. Booz Allen underwent a round of layoffs, deferred or rescinded offers, and more employees than usual departed as part of the commercial side's up-orout policy. Even so, Booz Allen remained diversified enough to handle such unprecedented turmoil. In 2001, while Booz Allen's commercial practice remained flat, its strong government practice flourished. The WTB is still going strong, and most of the WCP employees who were deferred offers have joined the firm, or at least given start dates. Booz Allen Hamilton apears to have found a formula for sucess.
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Recommended Reading Of the number of books written by Booz Allen consultants, we recommend the following: • Habbel, Rolf, The Human Factor: Leadership in the E-economy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. An ethical roadmap for successful management in the 21st century, The Human Factor was named the Best Business Book of 2001 by the Financial Times Deutschland and GetAbstract. The book was originally published in German in 2001. • Harbison, John and Pekar, Jr., Peter, Smart Alliances: A Practical Guide to Repeatable Success. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1988. The growing importance of business alliances to global firms. • Laseter, Timothy, Balanced Sourcing. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1988. How firms can save billions by not purchasing goods at a premium.
In addition, we also recommend the following articles: • “Brains on sticks…and Other Insights into the World of Consulting, with Booz Allen CEO Ralh Shrader,” Washington Business Forward, October 21, 2002. • “The Boss; I Was Once a Shy Navy Brat,” The New York Times, March 7, 2001. (Written by Booz Allen CEO Ralph Shrader,) • “Booz Allen Takes Procurement to the Web,” Information Week, May 29, 2000. • “Booz Allen's Global Knowledge Strategy,” Knowledge Inc., 1996. A detailed description of the operation of Knowledge On-line. For further reading, the Booz Allen web site contains a full list of Booz Allen consultant-authored books, company news and press releases, and articles about the firm.
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