Alumni Profile: Bill Stasior

Bill Stasior

As the firm's CEO, he led the firm's "Vision 2000" strategy effort, which resulted in global expansion, long-term client relationships, and a differentiated service offering that combined strategy, organization, operations, and technology capabilities.

Today, Mr. Stasior is highly sought as a board member and consultant to technology companies. He serves on the Board of Directors of OPNET, a company that specializes in optimizing network performance; SkyTerra, a satellite communications company; and Vanu Inc., a leader in the development of software-defined radio. Mr. Stasior also serves as a special consultant, providing advisory services in the areas of corporate strategy, leadership development, technology assessment, and business operations.

Mr. Stasior has a long-standing commitment to corporate social responsibility and is the recipient of The Marriott Lifetime Achievement Award for his leadership in community service. On behalf of Booz Allen, he serves on the Board of Directors and as an officer of the United Negro College Fund; he is also on the Board of Advisors of Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Do you recall when you first heard about Booz Allen? I was a graduate student in electrical engineering at Northwestern University and working part-time at Argonne National Laboratories when I came across an ad for Booz Allen. It caught my interest; here was a consulting firm stressing its high-tech, R&D element.

During my interviews, I realized that Booz Allen was a different environment from anything I knew. It had an aura of professionalism, talented people and a rich culture. All of this was immensely attractive.

What was your first assignment? I joined a team involved in the parametric design of a small, lightweight tank called the armed reconnaissance scout vehicle. I got involved in the tank's mobility study in which we had to mathematically analyze various parameters, tread types, engines, and power ratios that would affect the speed and mobility of this kind of vehicle in different terrains.

This was 1967, and back then we had to go to Los Angeles where our computer team was based to obtain the analysis required for an extensive computer simulation. So I spent most of my first few months at Booz Allen on the West Coast and really enjoyed it. I quickly learned that Booz Allen wasn't the high-tech R&D firm I thought I'd be joining, but more of a problem-solving, client-centered environment. The challenges could range from soft, to technical, to those focused more on the interactions of people than equations or equipment.

This was no laboratory environment, was it? Not at all. This was different, and it grabbed me as a different way to use my engineering skills. I took to the freedom and the intellectual challenge of working with our clients. And I enjoyed changing assignments every few months as well as the escalating scale of the challenge that came with each new task. I couldn't envision anything I liked better.

How did those challenges escalate? It was similar to being on a treadmill with the speed notching up. By going faster and faster, I found I was crossing over from being an analyst and a problem solver to somebody increasingly thinking about the business.

Playing that dual role-developing the business, marketing, selling your ideas, and then actually performing the work is the essence of our business. Making the transition means you can actively define what you are going to do. It means you can seek work suited to your interests and passion.

Booz Allen's entrepreneurial, professional, and intellectual freedom is exhilarating; we're a firm without a traditional recipe for success. Booz Allen gave me the franchise to pursue anything I wanted in order to build the business. I chose Information Technology, then in its infancy, where the opportunity to build a business seemed enormous.

Also, Booz Allen fit my aspirations, which have always been about choosing the hardest or "edgiest" challenge — in college, I remember switching my major to math and electrical engineering because it was considered more difficult — to see if I could succeed. I found the work at Booz Allen to be different, always challenging and exciting.

I'm new to Booz Allen. What's your advice? Start by always doing quality work and by over-delivering against the assignments and the demands placed on you.

Actively manage your career, and seek the assignments and challenges you want to pursue. This has never been a place to sit down and expect others to manage your career for you.

Finally, find a mentor, even if you aren't assigned one. Learn the profession and the business. And learn about the firm's values and culture from others who have been around awhile. Those who don't have mentors are missing out.

Ed Booz died many years ago, in 1951. What does his legacy mean to you? Ed Booz's vision was recognizing the rich opportunity to provide consulting services to commercial and government clients. He was the first person to see there was a whole profession in helping clients think through and solve their problems. His idea that we could measure and translate human activity into strategies to improve how corporations and governments operate was the beginning of management consulting.

But Ed Booz didn't think of consulting in terms of a business. Jim Allen did — and he saw the opportunity to build an institution around serving clients. He was the driving force in converting Ed's concept to a business reality. It was a fortuitous partnership.

Speaking of Jim Allen, another of Booz Allen's founders and a man you knew, what did you learn from him? Jim's enormous contribution began with a simple premise — that our business is about serving clients, and that eveything we do at Booz Allen is centered on solving client problems. He constantly reinforced that message. Our "spirit of service" started with Jim; and today, it's the cornerstone of our institution.

Interestingly, it was never about size with Jim. In fact, there's a memorable press interview in which he said Booz Allen wasn't about trying to be the biggest; we were about "being the best."

In speeches, you have talked about values-based leadership as a Booz Allen hallmark. How would you define that? Values-based leadership begins with respect for people, clients, and the quality of work we do. At its core, it is non-hierarchal and centered on the importance of sound ideas and prevailing in a vast exchange of ideas.

That, in turn, goes to the heart of Booz Allen culture, a place where "doing the right thing" for clients is valued and will lead to success. The culture means you aren't trying to outperform, outshine or selfishly achieve something for yourself; it's the team and working together that achieves results.

That's a long way from graduate studies in engineering, isn't it? Yes and no. Engineering gives you a disciplined way of thinking about things that carries into an overall perspective about people, life, and organizations. It gives you perspective and a concrete platform for being an effective management consultant; it's no irony that most of the chairmen at Booz Allen have been engineers by training.

profile posted June 14, 2004