Booz Allen offered the kind of consulting I was interested in, not just pure strategy consulting, but also the opportunity to do transformation strategy and work with clients through an entire project life cycle, including implementation. Not many firms do that. And I had the chance to live and work in this part of the world.
I’m the Principal lead for the Strategy and Organization capability for the firm’s business in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Our focus is primarily in civil government, which involves public service agencies; and in the commercial market, where we’re focusing on financial services, healthcare, education and energy. We also support the defense and security markets. I have a broad background in working with both government and commercial clients.
Much of my work has been a combination of pure strategy and implementation. The firm is very strong on implementation. That’s what clients in this part of the world want now. Plus, I have an international background, having lived and worked in North and South America, East and West Europe, and East Asia. I also have an MBA from INSEAD, a school for international business. All of those experiences contribute to my work in the Middle East for Booz Allen Hamilton.
I have particularly enjoyed projects in education and healthcare where we have used innovative thinking to deliver changes within the tightest of budgets. I led an innovative pilot project for the UK Minister of Education working with a group of 28 schools which turned into the world’s largest single education project delivering real change into 28,000 schools over three years. In the healthcare field, we helped a provider reduce treatment waiting times for potentially life-threatening conditions from eight weeks to four days with zero capital expenditure. We did this by applying process improvement techniques used in manufacturing.
Being successful as a consultant requires that you articulate the client’s problem or need correctly. That comes before you can begin to work out an effective solution. And getting to the problem requires a tremendous level of curiosity about how things work in our clients’ organizations. That’s why I love what I do. At Booz Allen Hamilton, I am surrounded by people who are curious, as I am. It’s the best job in the world if you just want to keep learning.
The leaders in government and business in the Middle East are looking for people with real expertise in making change happen. Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategy and Organization capabilities support effective change by integrating human capital development and knowledge transfer. And we work with our colleagues across the firm in other capability areas to implement that change.
We offer our clients the full scope of expertise, strategy, and implementation. There’s a real hunger from clients in this region for a firm like Booz Allen Hamilton. When we go to meetings and explain what we do, clients tell us they’ve been looking for a firm like us.
In this business, when you’re helping clients implement large systems that will take a long time to produce results, you don’t always get immediate feedback about the impact of your work. Five years ago, I worked on a continuous improvement project for a group of hospitals. I read their annual report for last year; the hospital has a completely new senior management team, but the annual report still talks about the process we implemented and how well it’s working for them. None of those managers would know our names today, but we made the hospital a better place to be. And that makes me feel good about what I do.
We’ve been helping a utility company make major organizational changes in response to protests during the Arab Spring. The company is instituting a completely new human resources structure around how people are paid and how they progress and get promoted. This is an urgent issue for our client.
Working for Booz Allen Hamilton is everything I’ve ever wanted in a job. It’s exciting work that makes a difference for our clients. I work with smart, motivated people who push each other to do our best and bring our best to our projects. And I get to work in a vibrant, multi-cultural environment.
