FREE ESSAY ON ARTHUR D. LITTLE, INC.

ARTHUR D. LITTLE, INC.

Arthur D. Little, Inc.
Does Process, Form, and Strategy make a business successful?
The 60's and 70's
ADL enjoyed a pre-emptive market share originating from the late 1800's, and became the
leader of a growing management consulting practice during 60's and 70's. By the end of
the 70's and early 80's they lost their dominant position as the market grew, and they
continued to slide as the success of new companies tooled with contemporary technologies
and skills, identifiable products, and a singular image gained market strength. ADL's
pride was in the freshness of approach to each case, the Eureka kind of solutions, and no
repetitive job undertaking. Work at ADL was problem oriented, technically based and
highly customized. However, the company identity was fragmented and confused and did not
have a formal organizational structure. A team of 5-15 people made a unit. There were 2-4
units per section and around 40 sections with $5-10m in revenues for each section. In
1954 ADL attempted to form into 7 divisions but this resulted in fighting over leads and
capital resources. ADL's work force was highly innovative, with high morale and a broad
range of freedom in work. There was no career ladder within the organization and titles
meant little as new jobs allowed for a new hierarchical structure.
Strengths and competitive forces during 80's
The market in the 70's had started growing from $2b to $40b, and there were a lot of new
entrants. As opposed to ADL, they focused on specific areas of management consulting and
specialized in a few particular areas. The new entrants also had an effect of segmenting
the market into core functional components. ADL was a broad-based non-specific product
company, which allowed for capturing many business problems that arose as markets
evolved. ADL enjoyed a very strong past, a vast knowledge base and a good R&D facility.
The internal organization of company was totally flat which initially worked to their
advantage. One major strength was the return of LaMantia to ADL as president, and the
redeployment of his process thinking. 
Main elements of new organization structure
ADL's new structure allowed for vertical development and functional orientation. There
were 7 directorates divided into three major businesses. Five of them were related to
management consulting and were geographically structured. Inside of each directorate were
three levels - director, senior consultant and consultant. The entire company structure
was tied together with 7 common business processes. Each case would primarily belong to
one directorate but would encompass different business processes, making it a matrix-type
structure. The idea in creating a business organization structure was to have more
accountability, identify specify goals and duties and improve resource allocation.
Overhauling the financial area, as well as tightening the planning, budgeting system, and
accounting system were additional initiatives implemented. 
Core business
Providing experienced and knowledgeable people to solve company problems was ADL's core
business. ADL sold processes focused services ranging from strategies, customer service,
supply chain management, information technology, manufacturing, finances, organization
and innovation. It concentrated on various industries like chemicals, pharmaceuticals,
health-care, automation and telecom. Its three core business units were management
consulting (MC), environment and health services (EHS) and technology and product
development (TDP).
Process thinking & strategy fit
Process thinking is identifying, categorizing, and prioritizing business functions, and
linking the functions through their informational needs. A strategy is making use of,
creating, modifying and tailoring the functionalities to achieve a certain goal. ADL
divided its entire operations into 7 processes. The processes fit the ADL strategy by
allowing the company to focus on its client relationships, HR and finances and by
facilitating its implementation, while costing the effort in terms of its returns. The
knowledge of a common process amongst functionality allows continuity and repeatability
with skill-sets and identifiable goals.
Strategic options for ADL, Recommendation
The integrating strategies include a unified company image, cross selling and integration
of the three business units, making the three business units into separate sister
concerns, developing a cross-business synergy, product, and practice, and single a
company strategy - a global industry practice. ADL's strength lies in the vast and varied
knowledge, which can be utilized across the three different business units. ADL should
position itself as a company with a brand name identity, providing system-wide, varied
and integrated solutions, and initiate processes for the cross selling and integration of
its three business units.