Alumni Profile: Chuck Allison

Chuck Allison

What attracted you to management consulting? I wanted to be in the business world and I wanted to be a professional — an investment banker, a lawyer, a management consultant. I very much aspired to do important things with important people — the sooner, the better. Management consulting looked like the best fit.

Why did you choose Booz Allen? Actually, it was the other way around: They chose me.

Booz Allen's Chicago office had a very active and patient recruiting strategy. They made it a point to track the careers of promising young people over extended periods of time. Apparently, Booz Allen tagged me when I graduated from Northwestern, and then, without my knowledge, monitored my progress for some six years. When I "grew up," they invited me in for an intensive three days of interviewing. And we clicked.

There were two special things that drew me to Booz Allen. I was impressed that the firm had founded modern-day management consulting (in 1914). They were the first. They were the pioneers. I was also attracted to the firm because of (Chairman) Jim Allen, a giant on the Chicago business scene. Jim and I shared an alma mater (Northwestern) and the same academic major (economics).

Why did you stay for 38 years? I never had any doubts about sticking with Booz Allen. That may sound puzzling to people who think that nearly 40 years with a single organization is a career rut. Not at all.

I had a very simple personal mantra: "Help Clients Succeed." Booz Allen gave me the platform to really influence the upper echelons of business — an opportunity that would be hard to match in a typical corporate setting. It is an enormously satisfying way to live a life. I loved being a top management consultant.

You helped to open the firm's London office in 1962. What was the experience like? It was exciting. My family and I had a great time in the U.K. When we arrived in London, Booz Allen had only one small engagement underway. We were starting virtually from scratch. Two of my fellow partners were doing the same thing at the same time in Germany and in France. We thought of ourselves as entrepreneurial missionaries.

Our goal in all three countries was to become a locally self-sufficient, full-service firm. At the outset, my partners and I capitalized on Booz Allen's wide-ranging U.S. relationships. Our beginning engagements were for the European arms of American clients.

Simultaneously, we cultivated the senior management of prominent British, German, and French companies. We built our staff, not with Americans, but with professionals native to those countries. Within just three years, 90 percent of our clients were European clients. It was the beginning of Booz Allen as a global firm.

What distinguished the firm in Europe? In the 1960s, there was a kind of "halo" around American management practices. So, our advice and counsel carried extra weight-no doubt more than it really deserved. Our greater advantage, though, was Booz Allen's ability to couple traditional consulting with advanced technological consulting. No competitor, European or otherwise, could provide that double-barreled capability.

What are your colleagues like? A management consultant is a peculiar animal. For starters, we tend to be claustrophobic. We're people who need freedom, people who find it confining to live in a conventional hierarchy. Those who succeed at Booz Allen generally run their own calendars, choose their own clients, conduct research in their own fields of interest, and thrive on tough management issues.

Second, a Booz Allen professional needs variety — most of us bore easily. We like working with new people and on new problems — preferably in different parts of the world.

Third, we like to be surrounded and energized by smart people — and in many cases, people smarter than ourselves. Booz Allen has always been full of people smarter than I am, people from whom I could always learn something. It's an electric atmosphere.

What makes Booz Allen different? It's our people — not one of whom is like another. We don't look the same, talk the same or behave the same. There's no Booz Allen "type." I treasure that diversity. It sets up apart.

More than anything, the Booz Allen individual is a "whole person" — analytical, intelligent, an innovative thinker, tough-minded, personable and persuasive. Sound practical judgment is an imperative. A Booz Allen person has to be much more than a "brain on a stick."

What else can you tell me? There is far more freedom at Booz Allen than at any comparable management consulting firm. We've been able to hold on to all the wonderful characteristics of a small partnership even as we become a giant in the profession. It's a fun place to be.

profile posted June 2004