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Alumni Profile: Sharon Joseph of Harlem Lanes Today: As co-founder and CEO of Harlem Lanes in the Harlem section of New York City, Sharon is at the forefront of the economic revitalization of this northern Manhattan community, long the heart of African American culture and commerce. Harlem Lanes opened in 2006 on 126th Street in the newly-renovated former vaudeville palace, the historic Alhambra Ballroom.
By opening Harlem’s first bowling alley in three decades, Sharon and her aunt and co-founder, Gail Richards, are also making history as the first African American women to own a bowling alley in the U.S. Helping the community is vital to our business philosophy at Harlem Lanes. We employ 45-to-50 people, almost all of whom are local and range from young teenagers to adults with families. With the young people here, we try to shape their thought processes and be there as role models. We make them bring us their report cards and encourage them to do well in school. We really try to empower people. At Booz Allen & Before: Sharon spent two years at Booz Allen’s Financial Service practice based in the New York Office, leaving in 1999 as an associate. Born in the Caribbean, she was raised in Harlem and educated at Tufts University and Columbia Business School. Do you feel that Booz Allen gave you a foundation for your current position? Yes, it did—particularly in how I utilized a lot of basic consulting skills like analyzing trends in planning and building the bowling center. Why bowling? One day in 2002, Gail and I were walking down 125th Street’s central business district and trying to think of businesses that the community could use. We envisioned something that was inclusive, would serve different ethnicities, and interest people of all incomes and ages. Figuring bowling could be that business, we started studying the industry and realized that it was an underserved market with a lot of opportunity for growth. We also found there was no research on the market—so just like we often did at Booz Allen, we had to create our findings from scratch. We went to bowling alleys in New York, asked a lot of questions—and found that 20 to 30 percent of the bowlers in Manhattan’s downtown areas were people from this very zip code. We did price-sensitivity analysis and looked at the overall industry and the kinds of people who owned bowling alleys. We learned that bowling alleys generally went out of business not because of the economics, but because they were mom & pop businesses without succession plans. So we took an old industry and gave an updated look—kind of like I did as a member of Booz Allen teams studying the financial services market. In a sense, our research was a textbook consulting assignment. What attracted you to Booz Allen? I got to know Booz Allen people at Columbia as part of an entrepreneur class working on an inner-city consulting project for Carver Federal Savings Bank. That triggered my interest in both Booz Allen and Harlem as opportunities to do two things: hone my business acumen and shape the community. What skills and strengths did you acquire at Booz Allen? Booz Allen gave me an ability to take complex information, analyze it, spot trends, and then give people results in a bite-sized, understandable way. Would you recommend working at Booz Allen? If so, why? Absolutely. My decision to join Booz Allen was all about the people I met there. Figuring I’d be spending more time with these people than with those in my own home, I wanted to be a part of a place where I liked and respected my colleagues. And Booz Allen people have a lot of knowledge that I could leverage—something I continue to do. Though I left Booz Allen more than six years ago, it remains the only one of my former employers where I retain warm relationships with people there. Senior Vice Presidents Gerry Adolph and Reggie Van Lee have been true mentors and, Sara Moose remains a big supporter. The firm has had some social events here. And I’ve been able to go back to my former colleagues and bounce questions and ideas off them about customer-relationship management and other issues central to our business. I never expected to have such a deep and abiding relationship with the people of any firm. But Booz Allen was more than a job to me—it has become family. I think MBA students should look at Booz Allen as a place where the relationships they build there can be long-term. That’s rare in today’s job market. Any favorite Booz Allen moment or experience that you’d like to share? There are so many. I remember being at a basketball game on New Year’s Day and getting a call to be on a plane to Hong Kong the next day to begin a major bank reorganization. “Welcome to the consulting life,” I remember telling myself! What Booz Allen gives you early in your career are a variety of unique experiences and exposure to all kinds of people and clients. Every assignment is an opportunity to study and learn about a different industry, not just from a business perspective but from all angles. Any advice for people just starting their careers with the firm? First, be sure to hone your core competencies—skill-sets that you’ll take anywhere you choose to go. Do that by taking advantage of Booz Allen’s online intellectual capital, which gives you the ability to train during downtime and to acquire expertise in areas where you’re generally not involved. Second, spend time developing relationships with your colleagues because they’re the people who could be with you for a long time. Be open-minded about the opportunities as well; there will be occasional projects that might seem tedious, so think of them as learning opportunities, as building blocks. And finally, remember you’re on a team, so always try to make the jobs of your colleagues and particularly the people above you a little bit easier. It’s not about getting individual glory at Booz Allen but the collective, which sometimes takes new MBAs a while to learn. When those around you look good, so does the firm. profile posted July 6, 2007 Related Links...
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