Alumni Legends Interview: An intimate conversation with four of our former senior partners

In your view, what are the biggest changes that have occurred in the consulting sector in recent years?

Rudi: Forty years ago, consulting was a largely unknown profession in Germany. Existing consulting firms initially had to explain what it was all actually about. It began with bringing consultants with American know-how to Europe. Auditors had already been around since the turn of the century. Consultants had to prove that they could deliver in value added.

Helmut: It was about management concepts and the fact that consulting isn’t something a manager just invents but a science that you can also market as a product or service. That was a new phenomenon in the postwar period.

Rolf: We had huge acceptance issues at first. It was challenging to turn consulting into an accepted product on the market. We had to start by proving that we could contribute to a company’s development and success even though we weren’t already a long-standing element of the company. The advantages of external consultants simply weren’t generally known in the industrial sector. In the early ’80s and ’90s, it still took some artful persuasion just to be listened to.

Christian: But things changed starting in the early ’90s. We came in with a strong conviction of people who could do something the company itself couldn’t do. The fact that we hit the market with such incredible chutzpah was partially down to the environment, of course. With relatively little technical support and one computer for every 10 people, we could still get things done back then. By comparison, consulting is now an industrial service that, at its core, is often no longer that different from what the client itself does. Standing out as a consultant is getting more and more difficult as time goes by.

Rudi: As I was preparing for our conversation today, I looked through my first reports from 1967. Back then, it was about setting up a steel services center for a German steelworks. The Americans had a strong position in the steel market at the time, which is why we simply needed to essentially just transfer their management concepts to the German environment. At the time I met Jim Allen, founder of Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH], who coined the phrase: “We are the lighthouse: We show clients the way and our message is to make clients succeed.”

Rolf: During those early years, the fact was that the Americans were simply further along when it came to management experience. One of the largest telecommunications enterprises, which Helmut spearheaded for us at the time, was one of our major clients.

Helmut: But it wasn’t just about experience. Something that played a major role for us was bringing analytical approaches to management. We carried that over from our academic studies. Analytical and scientific work is now one of the fundamentals of consulting. Back then, it was a new idea. Of course, information technology has now transformed the whole thing.

Rolf: “Work hard, play hard” for the client’s benefit — that was the main priority. There was no such thing as “work-life balance” at the time. If it came down to it, we worked through the night.

Christian: But we never partied as much as we did back then!

Helmut: Back then, there were also some oddball partners. (objections from all sides) Present company excepted, of course…

Rudi: There was no place as good as our company at turning people into oddballs.

Rolf: A good way to sum up the culture we had at the time was the saying: “If 10 people from a consulting company go to the cinema, then everyone will know about it afterward. If 10 Booz Allen people go to the cinema, no one will know.” We were all different, no one was too stiff; we were multicultural, diverse, and enjoyed our freedoms and individuality.

Rudi: Forget that I said “oddball.” Rolf put it much more nicely; that’s what I meant. Another thing that influenced BAH culture was that there was no “winner takes all” mentality. That made us very different from other consulting firms. We all got the same salary.

Helmut: Yes, it was completely transparent. Everyone knew where everyone else stood, including in financial terms.

Christian: There was a common understanding that money shouldn’t be the most important factor. In the ’50s and ’60s, rules were defined and a pragmatic code of conduct was developed. That had simple things like “you must always tell the truth” and “you have to look out for the common good.” All the things that are essentially obvious, but that always seem different in working life. That was a much stronger core than a sheer monetary incentive. This was an incredibly strong approach. It got more difficult later on. But the original system and the value proposition was an unbelievably effective tool in the competition with other consulting firms.

Rudi: That meant we had the same value system and goals. It was a key asset for partners to know how to behave properly. Anyone who didn’t stick to it made themselves conspicuous. It meant that the top dog didn’t automatically win.

Helmut: Complete egotists couldn’t survive with us.

Rolf: People who didn’t stick to the code — who used teams as cannon fodder, for example — got kicked out. That helped us a lot when it came to having a clear identity on the market and positioning ourselves accordingly to our values.  

Five years of Strategy&: What would you like to see as the company’s future, and what opportunities can you spot on the horizon? It’s 105 years after Booz Allen Hamilton was founded — what would our founders be especially proud of?

Rolf: First of all, the three of them would certainly be proud of the company’s endurance and the fact that it is still fulfilling its aspirations toward quality. Its global presence and the fact that we are now part of a larger whole would definitely have pleased them too. Though they would probably have been disappointed that the name is gone. It’s still used in technology consulting for the US government, though. But the three of them had commercial consulting in the back of their minds when they founded the company.

Christian: BAH was able to adapt to constantly changing conditions such as industrialization, globalization, digitization, and so on. That was a huge achievement that very few companies managed to pull off.

Rudi: I didn’t know Edwin Booz and Carl Hamilton, but what I would say to Jim Allen today is: “We are still doing what you told me 45 years ago. Making clients succeed. That’s what our business is all about.” If we succeed in gaining a reputation among our partners all over the world as the company that manages to make clients succeed, then we’ve done a good job.

Helmut: All I can do is second what my colleagues say! A society without an economic foundation will fail. That is why I am sometimes skeptical where contemporary Germany is concerned. I am thankful for what my predecessors achieved in establishing a robust financial system. I hope that I can also contribute to that.

Rolf: The team and the people were the key to how we were able to withstand the stress back then. The people were exciting, interesting, young, dynamic. It’s an incredibly strong network to this day. You can still ring up any of the alumni at any time. This honesty, the momentum, the friendship — that’s unique. That’s really special at Booz Allen.

Christian: We value the excellence of the people now even more than back when we were active, because now we can really appreciate it, while back then we took it as a given.

What do consultants have now that they didn’t have earlier? And do you nevertheless have any advice that you would like to share with your colleagues?

Helmut: My warning for the future is not to rely solely on the availability of quintillions of data points and technical savvy. Judgment is still the key skill for consulting. You always have to think for yourself. Someone who just copies down a number may not notice whether it’s a million or a trillion. IT and artificial intelligence shouldn’t replace personal judgment; otherwise, too many errors will creep in.