| Type | Private Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Management consulting |
| Founded | 1886 (formally incorporated as ADL in 1909) |
| Headquarters | 35 offices in 20 countries |
| Key people | Dr M. Träm, Global CEO |
| Products | Management consulting services |
| Revenue | 2010: €1,436.7 million (Altran)[1] |
| Employees | 635 (Altran Technologies: 18,000) |
| Website | www.adl.com |
Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and formally incorporated by that name in 1909[2] by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted professional services. The company played key roles in the development of business strategy, operations research, the word processor, the first synthetic penicillin, LexisNexis, and NASDAQ. Today the company is a multi-national management consulting firm.
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The roots of the company were started in 1886 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist, and co-worker Roger B. Griffin (Russell B. Griffin), another chemist and a graduate of the University of Vermont who had met when they both worked for Richmond Paper Company in East Providence, Rhode Island. After Griffin left Richmond Paper following Little, their new company, Little & Grifffin, was located in Boston where MIT was also located. Griffin and Little prepared a manuscript for The Chemistry of Paper-making[3] which was for many years an authoritative text in the area. The book had not been entirely finished when Griffin was killed in a laboratory accident in 1893.[2]
After this tragedy, Little carried on in the business alone for a number of years. During these years he founded the Cellulose Products Company demonstrating that cellulose acetate could be used in producing nonflammable wire insulation and artificial silk. The company didn't do well financially, and when it was dissolved, Eastman Kodak purchased the company's patents for the first nonflammable motion picture film and the Lustron Company bought the artificial silk patents becoming the only American manufacturer of acetate silk.[2]
Little, who had studied Chemistry at MIT, collaborated with MIT and William Hultz Walker of the MIT Chemistry department, forming a partnership, Little & Walker, which lasted from 1900 to 1905, while both MIT and Little's company were still located in Boston.[2] The partnership dissolved in 1905 when Walker dedicated his full time to being in charge of the new Research Laboratory of Applied Chemistry at MIT.[2]
Little continued on his own and formally incorporated the company, Arthur D. Little (ADL), in 1909.[2] He conducted analytical studies, the precursor of the consulting studies for which the firm would later become famous. He also taught papermaking at MIT from 1893 to 1916.[4]
In 1916 ADL was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to do a survey of Canada's natural resources.[5] In 1917, the company moved to a building of its own, the Arthur D. Little Inc., Building, at 30 Memorial Drive on the Charles River next to the campus of MIT which had moved to Cambridge from Boston in 1916.[2][6] In November 1953, ADL opened a forty acre site for their Acorn Park labs in West Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Arlington, Massachusetts, which is quite a distance from MIT.[6]
In 1981, ADL produced the European Commission's first white paper on telecommunications deregulation, having completed the first worldwide telecommunications database on phones installed, markets, technical trends, services and regulatory information.[5] It also helped privatize British Rail, generally regarded as one of the most complex privatization exercises in the world.
By 2001, Arthur D. Little had reached its peak. But, a new management team had badly mismanaged the company's core business, had engaged in manipulation of the Memorial Drive Trust, and attempted a sale of the Technology and Product Development business. The ADL Board of Trustees replaced this management team, but the damage had already been done, and Arthur D. Little had to file chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
At an auction in 2002, Paris-based Altran Technologies bought the Arthur D. Little brand name and financed a management buyout of the non-US offices.
In 2002, its "Technology and Innovation" business was acquired by TIAX LLC (formed by Kenan Sahin for this purpose)[7]. TIAX formed in May 2002 when Dr.Kenan Sahin, who eventually became company president, bought Arthur D. Little's technology business[8] for $16.5 million, inheriting much of Arthur D. Little's existing U.S. Department of Defense work.
In 2006 Richard Clarke, the chief executive officer (who led Arthur D. Little following purchase by Altran in 2001) stepped down and Michael Träm was appointed as Chief Executive Officer.
On 14th November 2011, Dr. Träm resigned as ADL CEO as ADL prepared a management buyout from the Altran group. He left ADL shortly after.[9] The MBO was completed on 30th December 2011 with the majority of ADL directors becoming partners. The firm will be led by a newly elected global CEO, Ignacio GARCIA ALVES, who was also the leader of the MBO team. [10]
Today, Arthur D. Little has successfully rebuilt its core practice in Oil & Gas, telecommunications, automotive, chemicals, and public sector consulting. Arthur D. Little continues to be very active and recognized for its expertise at the crossroad of Technology, Innovation, and Strategy. It has been ranked as one of the top management consulting firms. In fact, Arthur D. Little ranked 29th in the US Vault ranking and 13th in the European one.[11][12]
Arthur D. Little publishes a bi-annual thought leadership collection called PRISM.[13]
ADL most often competes directly for contracts with A.T. Kearney, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, the Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, Charles River Associates, Deloitte Consulting, McKinsey & Company, Monitor Group, Oliver Wyman, and PA Consulting Group.