Helping People Connect - Modern Mobility
When Edwin Booz launched the concept of modern management consulting in 1914, his first assignment was to conduct a market and economic survey for the Illinois Railroad. That work was followed by assignments to survey the markets in the U.S. for Canadian Pacific Railway and eventually expanded into other modes of traditional transport, including airlines, ports, airports, and highways. Today, people, goods, and services flow across boundaries in ways never seen in Booz’s time, and the ability to stay in touch while staying on the go is a requirement of most executives.
In 2006, mobility was a vital force for change and efficiency, and we worked with clients as they faced increased pressure in the traditional transport markets, such as rail and airlines, general and business aviation, postal services and package delivery, and supply chain logistics, as well as across multiplying dimensions of mobility, including, for instance, the security of handheld communications devices.
“Transport is the perfect example of where the public and private sectors meet for both strategy and transformation,” says Ghassan Salameh, a Booz Allen senior vice president based in McLean, Virginia. “It has traditionally been a focus of government, but we’re seeing more private-sector money flowing into transport programs, as well as new technologies, and a new emphasis on sustainability. And in China, India, and the developing world, it’s an area of tremendous growth and tremendous importance.
“In each engagement we undertook during the year in traditional transport, we called on all of Booz Allen’s skills, knowledge, and cross-functional capabilities,” says Salameh. “All of them require a multidisciplinary approach.”
The U.S. Next Generation Air Transportation System
Public–private partnerships will be integral to the success of the U.S. Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NextGen is a collaborative effort, involving multiple government agencies and private industry, to design and develop an air traffic management system capable of handling the threefold increase in traffic projected by 2025. Working with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Joint Planning & Development Office (JPDO), Booz Allen is providing support that extends from developing the NextGen concept of operations and the systemwide architecture required to enable the new system, to formulating an innovative funding, ownership, and operating strategy.
“For the foreseeable future, the U.S. government will not have sufficient funds to develop and implement transformational capabilities for our nation’s aviation infrastructure,” says Gary Schulman, a vice president based in McLean. “To address NextGen business challenges, we are studying innovative approaches to increase the level of private-sector participation, encourage competition and innovation, make the system affordable, and share risk across all stakeholders.”
Meeting the Challenge of Increases in Air Traffic
In Europe in 2006, Booz Allen provided research and technological support to a similar initiative, called Single European Sky. Its purpose is to improve air traffic management across Europe by basing it on flight patterns rather than national boundaries, which will improve capacity, enhance security, and lower costs.
Large increases in air traffic are not limited to Europe and the U.S. In China, an international Booz Allen team came together to forecast the growth of passenger, cargo, and aircraft traffic at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). The study showed that BCIA’s passenger volume is likely to swell from 42 million passengers in 2006 to more than 250 million by 2035. Given that the world’s largest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, handled 85 million passengers in 2005, clearly a single airport could not accommodate the projected traffic upsurge. Using the study’s results, BCIA is planning to build a fourth runway at the current airport after the 2008 Olympic Games and a new airport by 2015.
In the Middle East, Booz Allen Allen is playing a role in the deregulation of Saudi Arabia’s aviation sector as the firm appointed by the General Authority of Civil Aviation, an independent state agency that’s overseeing the liberalization. “A consortium led by Booz Allen came up with a new law for civil aviation in Saudi Arabia, new regulations, and policy for how to open up the domestic market,” says Fadi Majdalani, a vice president based in Beirut. “Now we are helping them implement the liberalization program, which has already resulted in two new carriers’ being licensed.”
Railways and Mass Transit Systems
Railways and mass transit systems face technological, budgetary, and management issues not unlike those challenging aviation. The Egyptian Ministry of Transport retained Booz Allen to define a vision and strategy for the country’s rail sector, and to develop an overall framework including economic, technical, and safety regulatory structures. “This is a classic restructuring of a public-sector organization,” says Adrian Foster, a London-based vice president. “We are setting up Egyptian National Railways to act in a commercial way, bringing modern management techniques and technology into the organization, formalizing its relationship with the government, and addressing some safety concerns.”
Booz Allen is also helping a leading European freight railway operator focus on the future and its goal to increase its international traffic from the current 50 percent of operations to 75 percent by 2010. “We are helping them look at possible international partnerships to better position the company in the European market,” says Bertrand Kleinmann, a Paris-based vice president.
In China, Booz Allen’s work with the Guangzhou Metro Corporation, which is responsible for the development and operation of the city of Guangzhou’s mass transit system, dates to a 1999 large-scale transformation of the organization that today is widely regarded as one of the country’s most successful change programs of a stateowned enterprise. In 2006, Booz Allen oversaw the implementation of further reforms of the corporation’s management models and organizational processes, designed to help it maintain sustainable growth. “What made this program a success was that our earlier work had helped Guangzhou Metro build internal capabilities so that the management team could implement the new change program,” says Edward Tse, a Booz Allen vice president and managing officer for the firm’s Greater China business.
Supporting the Travel and Tourism Sector
The travel and tourism sector has undergone tremendous change, especially with increasing numbers of people booking trips online, bypassing travel agencies. For the past two years, Booz Allen has been helping Thomas Cook AG, the second-largest tourism company in Europe, address this challenge with a redesign of its business platform. “Thomas Cook is moving from traditional packaged tours to a more open, multichannel and multiproduct architecture,” says Jürgen Ringbeck, a Booz Allen senior vice president in Düsseldorf. “The new program is being rolled out in the summer of 2007 in the U.K.; then it will be implemented in other countries over the next two years, resulting in a new business.”
Released in early 2007 was the first Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, which was developed by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with Booz Allen (which provided strategic design) and other partners. Exploring the travel and tourism sector as a driver of economic and social prosperity, the study ranks 124 countries according to their appeal for developing the industry. Klaus Schwab, founder and president of the World Economic Forum, says, “Our Travel & Tourism Index is an important milestone in enabling a strong and sustainable tourism industry to contribute effectively to international economic growth.”
On another dimension of mobility, Booz Allen’s experts helped the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) Chief Information Office/G6 (CIO/G6) determine whether a popular handheld wireless communication device could be equipped with a smart card for authentication and encryption for security, to enable its military and civilian executives to communicate anytime and anywhere. “There was a real concern in the Army whether this device was secure enough,” says Natalie Givans, a Booz Allen vice president in McLean. “They came to us for help, and within two months, we performed a deep set of analyses in our lab and in real-world settings, and we were able to give them not only a thumbs-up on the device, but also guidance about how to operate it in a secure manner.” Rick Walsh, AMC CIO/G6 deputy information assurance manager, says, “The ability to use untethered, secure identity management tools will change the face of the Department of Defense.”
story posted August 2007
