Finding a New Balance in a New World: Combining Ambition and Altruism

There's an old saying that "today is the first day of the rest of your life." It's intended, I think, as a wake up call to tell us to let the past be past, and make the most of our present and future.

For some reason, I always thought of that saying as being an individual call to action. We had a collective call-to-action on September 11 — as our lives changed in ways big and small. Some of the effects were apparent immediately, others have emerged since, and still others will probably only be understood through the lens of history.

But, nonetheless, we go on. And, more than that, we need to climb up from this tragedy to a better place and see the world from a different vantage point, as individuals, as companies, and as a global community.

I leave the global stage to President Bush and heads of state. But, each of us has an important role to play locally. There are things we can do, as individuals and organizations, to rethink traditional measures of success, ambition, and "business-as-usual" and come out in a better place as a result. We need, in short, to find a new balance for a new world.

I'm sure each of you remembers exactly where you were the morning of September 11. I was at a Booz Allen partner meeting at the Plaza Hotel in midtown. As the events unfolded, we scrambled to account for family, friends, and our Booz Allen colleagues around the country.

Booz Allen had people that day both at the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Members of our Financial Services practice were on their way to the World Trade Center to meet a client at Merrill Lynch. We had a transportation consulting team working on the 63rd floor of Tower One with our client, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, where we're helping design and manage the new monorail that will link terminals at JFK airport. Fortunately, our Financial Services people had a late morning meeting and hadn't yet arrived when the planes hit the Towers, and our transportation people were able to escape.

In Washington, we had about 30 staff members working with clients at the Pentagon. Some were there on long-term assignments and others were attending meetings. Three of our people — Geep Fisher, a principal, and two associates — Terry Lynch and Ernie Willcher — were briefing their client about a program we designed to enhance survivor benefits for the Army. They — and their client, General Maude, were killed instantly when the hijacked plane crashed into the area of the Pentagon where they were meeting.

Although Booz Allen has 11,000 people around the world, in a lot of ways we're still a small company. Geep, Terry, and Ernie were known, loved, and greatly respected. I knew Geep personally.

We held a memorial service at our McLean, Virginia office where all three worked, and nearly two thousand colleagues attended, both in person and by video teleconference. Our Army clients, including General Keane, the 4-star Vice Chief of Staff, filled four rows in our auditorium, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army spoke at the service about the important work Geep, Terry, and Ernie were doing.

It was the saddest day I ever remember at Booz Allen, but it was also the most heart-warming.

As I wrote to our people on September 12, our challenge is to go forward, focus on the good, and use our talents to help make the world better and safer. We're doing that by helping our government clients in the areas of homeland security, critical infrastructure protection, and intelligence — all areas of expertise for Booz Allen's public sector business. And, now our commercial clients, especially in industries such as health care, financial services, and transportation are looking to us for help in assessing their company's vulnerabilities; developing strategies for business continuity; and rethinking business models, especially in the areas of global sourcing and alliances.

If this is a subject of interest, I invite you to join us for an Executive Roundtable breakfast on "Leadership in the Post 9-11 World: Globalization, Security, and Corporate Strategy." To make you feel at home, it will be at the Yale Club of New York City on December 4. And, your own Dean, Jeff Garten will be one of the panelists, along with the President of Lucent, John Heindel, and Booz Allen partner Mike McConnell, who used to head the US National Security Agency.

Clearly, there is a pressing need from both government and commercial organizations to understand how they can best respond to the new world. I've talked to people in industry and government and find their response to the tragedy to be very thoughtful. There's an increasing willingness to invest time and resources for the long-term, and to consider a bigger picture and broader impact when making decisions.

Originally, I planned to share a perspective with you today on the subject of "balancing ambition with altruism." But, last week, Dean Garten suggested I might also focus on how things have changed since 9-11. I believe there's convergence in these subjects.

Thinking about our world differently, thinking about ambition and altruism differently, is key for us as individuals in the post 9-11 world. I don't have to tell you that you're going to business school at a very difficult time. You're making career and life decisions against the backdrop of global terrorism and a global recession.

So, the traditional definition of a successful, ambitious Yale graduate — getting multiple, top-dollar job offers from I-banks, industry, and consulting firms — doesn't much apply this year. But, I believe there's a new success model that does apply today, and it's based on balancing ambition and altruism.

Just to be sure we're on the same page, Altruism is about considering the greater good of others in our decisions and actions.

I see both ambition and altruism as good things. They can and should be mutually reinforcing, not opposing, forces. That balance is possible when ambition is our inner drive to excel (rather than a desire to "beat" someone else)... and when altruism is a better way of living that considers the greater good (rather than a nice-to-do add-on for occasions when we have extra time or money).

So, the question is, how can we think about and go about achieving this balance?

Imagine two kinds of balance points. One is a balance that comes from above or beyond. And the other is a balance from within. They are both important and reinforce one another.

Altruism is the "balance from above." The visual image of the scales of justice — held by the impartial goddess of justice helps me visualize the balance from above. Some of you, especially if you had a recent birthday, might know that "Libra," the seventh sign of the zodiac, comes from the Latin word for balance. This balance comes from subordinating our singular self-interest to our community's interest, whether that community happens to be a city, company, family, or sports team.

Last month, I had the pleasure of spending time with Pat Summitt, the coach of the 6-time NCAA champion University of Tennessee women's basketball team at, what might strike you as a rather surprising venue, CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Pat and I were the featured speakers at the CIA's Intelligence Community Executive Leadership Forum. In her book "Reach for the Summit," Pat talks about this balance. She says: "Teamwork is not a matter of persuading yourself and your colleagues to put aside personal ambition for the greater good. It's a matter of recognizing that your personal ambitions and the ambitions of the team are one and the same."

Our communities, families, and organizations are teams, and altruistic behavior balanced from above makes for a winning team.

One of my partners, Reggie Van Lee, heads Booz Allen's New York office and is a member of the firm's Board of Directors. Reggie is a fascinating guy. He's an extraordinarily successful business leader and much more. Reggie has two engineering degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. In his younger days, he was a professional dancer with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Today, he serves on the Boards of a number of non-profit organizations, and always finds time to lead pro-bono assignments and reach out to help others in the office and in the community.

Reggie finds balance by leveraging his business skills into the non-profit arena and finds that he brings value back to our firm as well. Most everyone who knows him considers Reggie a model of altruistic behavior. But, Reggie is very ambitious too. To me, he is someone who successfully balances both ambition and altruism.

You've heard that my image of altruistic behavior is the scales of justice. My image for ambition is the gyroscope. A gyroscope's center of balance and rotation comes from its central axes. Those of you who enjoy balance sports know we have a balance point in our bodies right here, just like a gyroscope. This point is the center of our balance and strength. Think of an ice-skater spinning or a skier racing down the mountain. Their balance point and strength and yes, their competitive edge, isn't in their skates or skis (anybody can go out and buy those). It's inside the athlete's mind and body.

At Booz Allen, we use the term core values to describe the qualities we aspire and commit to. Our core, our moral center, is a balance from within.

Ambition and competition are good things. They drive us to excel and do better. Ambition is negative only if we practice it selfishly and in a cut-throat manner. Reggie Van Lee would say, yes, he's a very competitive person. "But, I'm competitive toward a goal," he says "not against others. I like to compete. It keeps me on my toes and of course, I like to win." Reggie continues, "I want to win even if it's sole source work I'm going after. I want to feel like I earned it. I'm not trying to beat someone else."

I know a professional actress in Washington, Jane Beard. In fact, she coached me for a charity television spot. Needless to say, acting, especially trying out for acting parts in the theatre is highly competitive. But Jane feels that she isn't competing to beat others out of the part, but for a chance to be her best. "If I don't get the part," she says, "I have to believe that I wasn't the best person for that part."

Now, that might seem overly generous on the surface but, I truly believe it's the way we need to be. In 1999, when I was one of the candidates to be Chairman & CEO of Booz Allen, my goal wasn't to best someone else. My ambition, if you want to use that word, was to be viewed by my partners as the best person to lead them today. Sure, when it came down to it, I would have been disappointed if the election had turned out differently. But, I knew the partners would make the right choice. If they didn't believe I was the right person, then by definition, I wasn't.

I'm sure having the perspective that you will get "the right role" is especially hard right now because each of you is highly qualified for many opportunities that just aren't open because of the economy. That makes it even more important to move away from old definitions of success. So, what I'd like to impress upon you as you move forward in your lives and careers, is the value of re-defining ambition as a balance from within and a drive for excellence…And, the value of re-defining altruism as a better way of thinking and living where we see ourselves as a member of the community balanced from above.

I encourage you to think about balancing ambition and altruism in your career choices as well. If you can navigate these difficult economic currents and find the right opportunities, perhaps different ones than you anticipated when you applied here, you can fulfill ambitions, realize potential AND give back to the community. There are opportunities today in areas you may not have considered before, like defense and health care, and in government service. I encourage you to look seriously at careers in public service. It's long been common for law school graduates to clerk for a judge before entering private practice. For men and women with your talent and leadership skills, there is so much you could offer and so much you could learn working to make a difference at the National Transportation Safety Board, or the Federal Communications Commission, or, yes, the CIA.

I saw in this Sunday's New York Times that Yale undergrads were signing up for interviews with Government agencies in record numbers. So, think beyond Wall Street and Park Avenue as places where you can put your MBA to work and make an impact. Think beyond traditional success models of ambition and traditional "do-good" models of altruism…Think differently about how you can balance the two.

And, think about this: How do you want to be remembered?

I'd like to close by sharing a story that came my way that I believe talks to the theme of finding a new balance for a new world. It was from an ensign serving aboard the USS Winston Churchill in the middle of the ocean shortly after the terrorist attacks:

"About two hours ago, we were hailed by the German Navy destroyer Lutjens, requesting permission to pass close by our port side. As they were making their approach, our conning officer used binoculars and announced that Lutjens was flying not the German, but the American flag.

As she came along side us, we saw the American flag flying half-mast and her entire crew, topside, standing at silent, rigid attention in their dress uniform.

They had made a sign that was displayed on her side that read, WE STAND BY YOU.

There was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed along side us for a few minutes and saluted. It was the most powerful thing I have seen in my life. The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew, and it has been the highest point in the days since the attacks. It's amazing to think that only a half-century ago, things were quite different."

Think about that: how things were a half-century ago. The world has changed a lot since September 11, and we're all trying to find a new balance point in this new world. I for one am very hopeful. I hope you are too.

Thank you.