Booz Allen 100 Years Timeline

Defining
Moments
BAARINC
focused on technical consulting
and government contracting
Vision 2020
1955
The firm creates a new subsidiary, Booz Allen Applied
Research, Inc. (BAARINC), focused on technical
consulting and government contracting, to meet coststructure regulations for public sector consulting. Over
the following decades, BAARINC and its successor
divisions provide organizational and technical consulting
to the nation’s space agency, including significant work
on its response to Sputnik.
A Century of Character, Service, and Vision
1949
Jim Allen publishes one of the first articles on human
capital—“A Company’s Most Valuable Asset”—for
Central Manufacturing District Magazine. News of
the article is carried in Time, the Wall Street Journal,
and the New York Herald Tribune. Allen serves as
chairman from 1946 to 1970.
1964
Under the leadership of Charles P. Bowen, appointed
president in 1961 and chairman from 1970 to 1975,
the firm builds a new practice for non-defense clients
such as state and local governments, religious institutions,
hospitals, and higher education. The government
business enjoys strong growth, while the commercial
business evolves its portfolio by focusing on financially
sophisticated blue-chip companies.
Carl Hamilton
joins the firm as a partner at age 47.
A quiet and affable marketing specialist
who had managed a portfolio of
service businesses at Weyerhaeuser,
Hamilton writes the firm’s original Code
of Ethics, which includes “Willingness
to subordinate one’s own personal
interest to that of the firm.”
2010
The firm completes an initial public offering with
strong support from new investors and existing
shareholders—The Carlyle Group and Booz Allen
officers. Booz Allen joins the ranks of the Fortune 500
and gains additional financial flexibility provided by
access to the equity capital market.
1987
The firm wins its largest contract to date—valued at
more than $100 million—to support the development
and maintenance of the NASA space station program.
The firm also contributes to the design of the Hubble
Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
1945
Booz Allen begins a long phase of fast growth. Its
eight partners and 129 staff members now operate
from offices in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles,
and additional offices in Minneapolis, Washington,
and San Francisco soon follow.
1935
2013
Booz Allen begins to implement its longrange strategic planning initiative known
as Vision 2020. The firm develops a new
business strategy, restructures its matrix
to align markets and capabilities, invests
to grow and differentiate international and
commercial businesses, and stands up
the Strategic Innovation Group to create,
incubate, and market new service offerings.
1991
Led by Chairman and CEO William Stasior,
the firm reorganizes into the Worldwide
Commercial Business, serving primarily
the corporate sector, and the Worldwide
Technology Business, serving primarily
government clients. Both businesses
begin developing new strategies known
as Vision 2000.
1986
Booz Allen establishes the
annual Professional Excellence
Awards to recognize outstanding
engagements that exemplify
the firm’s enduring values and
demonstrate transformational
results for clients. Today the
program is called the Booz Allen
Excellence Awards.
2008
The firm separates into two independent
companies. Booz Allen Hamilton sharpens
its focus on full-service consulting to
US government and institutional clients,
while Booz & Company focuses on global
commercial management consulting.
James L. Allen,
an economics major at Northwestern,
joins the firm at age 25 as it moves
to the new Chicago Daily News
Building. Pragmatic, tough-minded,
and visionary, Allen uses the term
“management consultant” in a
promotional brochure describing
the firm’s work.
Edwin G. Booz
graduates with a master’s degree
from Northwestern University and
borrows $500 to establish the
Business Research Service, a
consulting firm headquartered in the
Otis Building in Chicago. From the
outset, his specialty is “taking the
measure” of business problems.
1914
1920
1930
Engagement with
1940
The firm’s public sector
consulting business begins
when incoming secretary of
the US Navy Frank Knox
needs support gearing up
for World War II. Ed Booz
and Jim Allen lead efforts
to double the Navy’s size,
revamp its systems and
services, cut red tape, and
establish an efficient new
management structure.
1940
Innovations in
Thought Leadership
1957
Partner Bill Pocock co-develops the Program
Evaluation and Review Technique, or PERT, a flow
chart that depicts critical activities and important
interdependencies and bottlenecks, first applied to
the Navy’s Polaris nuclear submarine project. Sam
Johnson from Johnson & Johnson and Booz Allen’s
Conrad Jones co-author “How to Organize for New
Products,” published in Harvard Business Review.
1950
1960
Chrysler Motors
1966
James Farley, chairman from 1975 to 1985,
secures an engagement with Pete Rozelle and
the National Football League to merge with the
American Football League. Booz Allen helps
navigate a number of complicated federal
antitrust laws and other business concerns
to pave the way to the Super Bowl.
1970
2014
Booz Allen marks 100 years of character,
service, and forward thinking by ringing
the opening bell at the New York Stock
Exchange. The event kicks off a yearlong
celebration that includes partnerships
with the National Gallery of Art, the USS
Midway Museum, and the Aspen Institute.
The Booz Allen Ideas Summit,
the firm’s signature innovation
effort, launches in 2008 to identify
and incubate new ideas and
solutions for the marketplace.
The firm further enables a culture
of entrepreneurship with the
introduction of additional in-person
events where staff pitch ideas to
secure investment funding, as well
as online tools for idea sharing.
First described in a 2008 book authored by
four Booz Allen officers, megacommunitySM
services provide clients with a framework
and structure in which business, government,
and nonprofits work together in a state of
permanent negotiation to address seemingly
intractable problems.
1999
Ralph W. Shrader
takes office as chairman and CEO and
leads Booz Allen through a decade and
a half of tremendous growth and change.
1990
2000
2010
2014
Groundbreaking
Cyber Solution
The firm launches Cyber4Sight™
threat intelligence services to help
clients stay one step ahead of cyber
adversaries. Cyber4Sight uses multiple
data sources to identify and monitor
an organization’s unique cybersecurity
profile, determine its “attack surface,”
and deploy military-grade predictive
intelligence to anticipate, prioritize, and
mitigate cyber threats 24/7.
Driving Our
Second Century
of Excellence
An Approach for Solving
Wicked Problems
1979
Booz Allen begins an engagement
with Chrysler Motors and its CEO,
Lee Iacocca, to help secure a loan
guarantee from the US government
and advise Chrysler during its
recovery and turnaround process.
1980
Booz Allen develops the Polaris™ tool
for quickly conducting integrated cost
and schedule risk analysis. The product
allows government and business
leaders to make sound, objective, and
data-informed decisions and better
achieve program objectives.
2012
Booz Allen Cyber Solutions Network™ services
are established to create a first-mover advantage
in protecting client infrastructures and information.
The network connects clients with thousands of
cyber experts, technologies, and solutions through
a dynamic and integrated network of cyber
centers and laboratories.
1929
1914
Next-Generation
Analytical Software
Incubating
Innovation Internally
2005
As an underwriter of the first Aspen Ideas Festival,
Booz Allen sponsors the Health and Bioscience
Track that stimulates cross-sector thinking about
global healthcare issues, including rising costs,
declining service quality, risks to public health,
and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
1985
R. Michael McCullough is named
chairman and CEO, holding the
titles until 1991. He introduces
a new compensation system for
Booz Allen officers based on the
performance of the entire firm.
Innovation is in Booz Allen’s DNA.
From change management to systems
engineering to cybersecurity, Booz Allen has
always been at the forefront of applying the
newest thinking to solve business problems
and achieve breakthrough results.
The Strategic Innovation
Group is launched in 2013
to deliver original, practical,
and transformational
solutions to clients by uniting
strategy, consulting, emerging
technologies, and advanced
engineering solutions. The
Strategic Innovation Group
helps clients integrate
capabilities, streamline and
modernize processes, and
extract actionable insights so
they can do more with less.
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