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Articles<br />
N o . 002<br />
BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON<br />
BEATING THE DRUM<br />
OF DISCOVERY<br />
P > 20<br />
BOOZ ALLEN STARTS<br />
WITH CHARACTERS<br />
P > 38<br />
<strong>transformation</strong><br />
05^2016≠ 002
STAFF<br />
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR<br />
SUSAN PENFIELD<br />
EDITOR IN CHIEF<br />
KAREN DAHUT<br />
EXECUTIVE ADVISOR<br />
AIMEE GEORGE LEARY<br />
STRATEGIC ADVISOR<br />
JOSEPH SMALLWOOD<br />
CHIEF CREATIVE<br />
TOBY ULM<br />
MANAGING EDITOR<br />
ALEX HAEDERLE<br />
STAFF WRITER<br />
JACOB KRISS<br />
STAFF WRITER<br />
CONNOR J. HOGAN<br />
STAFF WRITER<br />
BRENNA THORPE<br />
STAFF WRITER<br />
AMANDA STRUNGS<br />
SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTOR<br />
MARIA HABIB<br />
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR<br />
SHAWN MORIARTY<br />
ART DIRECTOR<br />
NUNE VARTANYAN<br />
DESIGNER<br />
AMRITHI DEVARAJAN<br />
DESIGNER<br />
JOE BUCKLAND<br />
DIGITAL DESIGN LEAD<br />
Rotational assignments are an integral component of Booz Allen’s employee value<br />
proposition. We intentionally give our talent the chance to work on and lead a variety<br />
of problems throughout their careers. Myself included.<br />
I now have the opportunity, and the privilege, to lead Booz Allen’s Strategic<br />
Innovation Group. It’s an exciting prospect. It’s a chance to drive new business,<br />
play with new ideas, and learn new things. I’m constantly learning new things.<br />
A few months ago, for instance, I ventured west to Seattle, WA for the latest<br />
Combustion Chamber—a pitch event where Booz Allen entrepreneurs<br />
seek executive mentorship and investment funding for their marketready<br />
ideas (pg. 08). I watched, inspired, as 15 employees demonstrated<br />
prototypes that ranged from mapping the bottom of oceans to training<br />
air traffic controllers with virtual reality.<br />
CHRIS CYRUS<br />
SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTOR<br />
KARAM SINGH SETHI<br />
SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTOR<br />
Think differently.<br />
IGNITE YOUR<br />
IMAGINATION WITH<br />
POSSIBILITIES.<br />
Vol. 01, N o . 002, © 2016 By Booz Allen Hamilton. ALL EDITORIAL MATERIAL IS FULLY<br />
PROTECTED AND MUST NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MANNER without written<br />
permission. If any copyrighted material has been overlooked, necessary arrangement shall<br />
be made to receive appropriate consent. All efforts have been made to ensure that material is<br />
accurate at the time of printing unless otherwise specified. ENVOI Articles is published semiannually<br />
by Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), 8283 Greensboro Drive, McLean, VA 22102<br />
DEAN ALEXANDER<br />
CAMPAIGN PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
06^2016≠ 002<br />
I honestly<br />
didn’t know if<br />
the experiment<br />
would work.<br />
But, as always,<br />
our people rose<br />
to the occasion.<br />
It reminded me of the first Combustion Chamber we held a few years<br />
before. I honestly didn’t know if the experiment would work. But, as always,<br />
our people rose to the occasion.<br />
As an institution, we consciously rouse the creativity of our talent. That’s why on<br />
April 1st we activated five Functional Service Offerings (FSO). These additions<br />
to our organization increase our ability to move on meaningful work, and make<br />
meaningful moves on furthering our talent experience (pg. 34).<br />
Yes, it’s essential that big companies adapt their models to stay in front of competitors<br />
and drive business growth. But if I have learned anything from my 22 years here, it’s<br />
that Booz Allen starts with characters.<br />
Every day, data scientists like Eric Druker and developers like Seth Clark are<br />
inventing and managing new products like Sailfish (pg. 06). Others, like Executive<br />
Vice President Joe Sifer are advancing original capabilities like directed energy with a<br />
cohort of engineers (pg. 26). And then there are Talent Agents like Alexé Weymouth<br />
who, on pg. 92, shares how a team transformed the business of internships with a<br />
model that retains more than 90% of participants.<br />
The real question, however, is which ‘character’ are you? In this issue of ENVOI Articles,<br />
we survey 13 of the most exciting roles at Booz Allen. We examine the nuances between<br />
the characters (and their missions), and how collectively they continue to transform<br />
Booz Allen. If you see yourself in their stories, reach out. Visit our career page online.<br />
Make an imprint on problems that matter. You’ll be glad you did. I was.<br />
Enjoy the issue,<br />
SUSAN PENFIELD<br />
Letter from the Editor > ENVOI Articles<br />
| 3
CONTENTS<br />
MARKE T A PPL IED INNOVAT ION<br />
26<br />
50<br />
84<br />
06<br />
Answers on Demand<br />
Meet Sailfish. Booz Allen’s new<br />
data science platform<br />
B Y C O N N O R J . H O G A N<br />
08<br />
Crowdsourcing Great Ideas<br />
A nationwide hunt for brilliance<br />
B Y A L E X H A E D E R L E<br />
Science Non-Fiction<br />
The future of invisible laser beams<br />
BY JACOB KRISS<br />
30<br />
Open Performance<br />
Leaders from Booz Allen Digital<br />
discuss their latest book<br />
BY ALEX HAEDERLE<br />
34<br />
The Intelligence Analyst<br />
Predictive detective and proactive<br />
entrepreneur<br />
54<br />
The Interns<br />
A chance to do something that matters<br />
56<br />
The Creative<br />
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication<br />
The Executive<br />
Because leadership requires perspective<br />
INNOVATION EDUCATION<br />
90<br />
Present Like You’re Einstein<br />
Tips to wow your clients<br />
BY KARAM SINGH SETHI<br />
14<br />
At the Corner of 15th and I(deas)<br />
A new space to connect with a city<br />
in transition<br />
B Y T O B Y U L M A N D C O N N O R J . H O G A N<br />
18<br />
Out of the Shadows<br />
This elite cyber team hacks the<br />
most opaque industry challenges<br />
B Y J A C O B K R I S S<br />
INNOVAT ION PHILOSOPHY<br />
20<br />
Beating the Drum of Discovery<br />
The technological need for more<br />
women in STEM<br />
B Y G R E T C H E N M C C L A I N<br />
Functional Growth<br />
Why Booz Allen is investing in<br />
new capabilities<br />
BY SUSAN PENFIELD<br />
BOOZ ALLEN STARTS<br />
WITH CHARACTERS<br />
38<br />
“If you see yourself in these characters<br />
and you want to leave an imprint on<br />
the world, then join us.”<br />
BY AIMEE GEORGE LEARY<br />
40<br />
The Management Consultant<br />
Booz Allen’s original profession has transformed<br />
44<br />
The Cloud Architect<br />
Seeing digital as it could be<br />
60<br />
The Talent Agent<br />
Answering Why Booz Allen?<br />
64<br />
The Engineers<br />
Prototyping a better, safer,<br />
more exciting world<br />
68<br />
The Developer<br />
Shipping code and culture in parallel scripts<br />
72<br />
The Security Professional<br />
Software engineers who think like<br />
the bad guys<br />
76<br />
The Product Manager<br />
The new ringleader<br />
92<br />
How to Get 90% of Your Interns<br />
to Work for You<br />
This new model is transforming<br />
the business of internships<br />
BY BRENNA THORPE<br />
EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE<br />
96<br />
The Culture of Software<br />
How SPARC is rebooting the culture<br />
of software delivery<br />
BY AMANDA STRUNGS<br />
98<br />
A Dockerized Government<br />
This tiny startup is on a mission<br />
to upgrade government IT<br />
BY CHRIS CYRUS,<br />
DIRECTOR OF ENTERPRISE SALES AT DOCKER<br />
48<br />
The Data Scientist<br />
Daring to transform society<br />
80<br />
The Systems Integrator<br />
Next-generation technology management<br />
4 | Contents > ENVOI Articles Contents > ENVOI Articles | 5
www.boozallen.com/sailfish<br />
Watch how the Sailfish family is<br />
solving the three main challenges<br />
of the data-driven marketplace.<br />
In September 1994, Cambridge Cable, a<br />
boutique British cable company, piloted<br />
a service that beamed video<br />
directly into their customers’<br />
homes for a nominal fee.<br />
Dubbed “Video On Demand,”<br />
the format disrupted the British<br />
entertainment industry. The<br />
service allowed subscribers<br />
to watch Hollywood blockbusters<br />
from their rural English<br />
living rooms whenever they<br />
wanted. It removed the need to tune in<br />
at pre-defined times to watch particular<br />
programming.<br />
ON-DEMAND IN DEMAND<br />
Fast-forward, and Cambridge Cable was<br />
acquired in 1999 by what is now Virgin<br />
Media to extend its coverage across southeast<br />
England. Now almost everything is "on<br />
demand," no longer just content or entertainment.<br />
“This emergence has disrupted<br />
every industry,” says Booz Allen Principal<br />
Eric Druker. “Taxi cabs by Uber, retail by<br />
Amazon. Companies that have not evolved<br />
have fallen behind or faded away.”<br />
For consumers, the question is no longer "if<br />
or when?" but "how long?" Most impulses can<br />
now be satisfied through a swipe or tap of<br />
an app and with limited expertise. A nontechnical,<br />
on-demand capability, however,<br />
doesn’t exist for organizations that want to<br />
locate their data sets and draw insights from<br />
them. They’re forced to rely on expensive<br />
teams of highly technical people.<br />
In response, Booz Allen built a dynamic family<br />
of data science tools, integrated social platforms,<br />
and on-demand service called Sailfish.<br />
EXPLORE DATA. EXCHANGE INSIGHTS.<br />
“Sailfish Explore makes it easier for you to get<br />
value from your data immediately,” says product<br />
lead Seth Clark. It opens up the biggest<br />
data sets to executives and analysts alike so<br />
they can get the answers they need quickly.<br />
What’s more, people don’t need to know how<br />
to code to use it. With drag and drop tools<br />
and unfettered access to every data set in an<br />
organization, anyone can build complex queries in<br />
seconds by asking questions of data in plain English.<br />
Sailfish Exchange, meanwhile, is a social<br />
platform that adopts a Pinterest-like interface<br />
to curate data sets across an organization. “It<br />
turns data analytics into a team sport, making<br />
it easier for people to work together and collaboratively<br />
solve tough problems,” explains Seth.<br />
The product was developed to help people<br />
understand they shouldn’t over-rely on their<br />
own personal experience when making decisions.<br />
That’s why Sailfish Exchange connects<br />
decision makers to other people and their<br />
insights, as well as the raw data.<br />
AN EXTRA BOOST<br />
When a user is stuck on a particularly tricky<br />
problem that their team can’t collaboratively solve,<br />
they can turn to Answers on Demand, which<br />
instantly connects them to a team of Booz Allen<br />
data scientists. Sailfish isn’t simply a platform<br />
to find, share, and analyze data on demand; it’s<br />
a portal to a 600-strong team who, some argue,<br />
wrote the book on data science.<br />
“We not only want to give clients a great tool<br />
that’s fun and easy to use, but provide access to<br />
a team of data scientists who can guide them<br />
through new ways to think about their problems.”<br />
“We not only want to give clients a great tool that’s<br />
fun and easy to use,” Seth says, “but provide access<br />
to a team who can guide them through new ways<br />
to think about their problems.”<br />
It’s a human touch to data science that many overlook.<br />
Yet, both Eric and Seth cite human intuition<br />
as the most essential component to solving analytics<br />
problem. With Sailfish, the only limit to that<br />
intuition is the amount of available data.<br />
“Sailfish created the ability to crowdsource analytics<br />
solutions within organizations and among hundreds<br />
of data scientists, on demand,” says Eric. “It’s<br />
going to transform the way we deliver consulting<br />
and future-proof Booz Allen for the emerging ondemand<br />
economy.”<br />
—SETH CLARK<br />
PRODUCT LEAD<br />
6 | ANSWERS ON DEMAND<br />
Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles | 7
THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER<br />
Hosted semi-annually, the Combustion Chamber<br />
is Booz Allen’s premier crowdsourced pitch<br />
event. It’s a Shark Tank-style competition where<br />
Booz Allen entrepreneurs seek executive-level<br />
mentorship and investment funding for original<br />
market-ready ideas and solutions.<br />
COMBUSTION<br />
CHAMBER<br />
CROWDSOURCING GREAT IDEAS<br />
By Alex Haederle<br />
GOOD IDEAS COME FROM EVERYWHERE.<br />
Yet it takes passion, research, exploration, and plenty of<br />
tinkering to transform a hunch into an original idea with<br />
business value. Smart companies create cultural processes<br />
that harness the power of their ideas to propel a sustainable<br />
pipeline of fresh, creative business ideas. The biggest<br />
challenge companies face lies in finding ways to discover<br />
and cultivate brilliant ideas from their people, irrespective<br />
of administrative levels or functional roles.<br />
One of the ways Booz Allen has tackled this challenge is<br />
by creating the Combustion Chamber. It’s Booz Allen’s<br />
premier crowdsourced pitch event where consultants compete<br />
against scientists, and technologists rival engineers to<br />
secure mentoring and investment funding for their market-ready<br />
business or product solutions.<br />
Semi-annually, the Combustion Chamber is hosted in a<br />
different city. The inaugural event began in Washington, D.C.,<br />
at a local startup accelerator and seed fund. The second<br />
installment journeyed across the country to the tech hub of<br />
Los Angeles, CA, followed six months later by Boston, MA—<br />
innovation capital of New England.<br />
After the Boston event, however, analysis showed the<br />
Combustion Chamber’s true value extended further than<br />
sourcing great ideas and engaging regional staff beyond<br />
the Capital Beltway. We could focus<br />
our people and ideas on specific<br />
business challenges based in particular<br />
regions. So we held the fourth<br />
Combustion Chamber in Atlanta,<br />
GA. With the backdrop of the Centers<br />
for Disease Control and Prevention<br />
(CDC) and largest health community<br />
in America, we directed our scientists<br />
and Internet of Things technology<br />
experts to improve safety of infectious<br />
disease labs and reduce rapid<br />
response events in hospitals.<br />
For our latest installment, we traveled to Seattle, WA,<br />
where energy, aerospace, and maritime industries drive<br />
the regional economy. With a focus on Directed Energy,<br />
Unmanned Autonomous Systems, Virtual Reality, and<br />
Systems Delivery problems, our people unveiled transformative<br />
solutions over the course of one night.<br />
A NIGHT AT STARTUP HALL<br />
The Seattle Combustion Chamber took place at Startup Hall,<br />
a co-working space at the University of Washington’s campus.<br />
An open, collaborative space for students to develop their<br />
ideas, it was an ideal backdrop for Booz Allen’s brightest<br />
scientists, technologists, engineers, and consultants to<br />
descend on the Emerald City and pitch their solutions.<br />
Since its inception, the Combustion Chamber has featured<br />
an application process in which staff from across the firm<br />
submit their ideas. The best are selected as finalists, and<br />
then our internal pitch coaches and mentors work with them<br />
to prepare for the Combustion Chamber.<br />
When we say good ideas come from everywhere, we mean it.<br />
A record 56 applications were submitted in advance of the<br />
Seattle Combustion Chamber. Only ten teams made the final<br />
and were flown in from all across the country—from San<br />
Diego, CA, to Chicago, IL, to Washington, D.C.—to compete<br />
at Startup Hall.<br />
TOTAL COMBUSTION<br />
CHAMBER RESULTS<br />
+ + $510,000 in investment<br />
funding awarded<br />
+ + 35 finalists<br />
+ + 5 locations<br />
SEATTLE COMBUSTION<br />
CHAMBER, BY THE NUMBERS<br />
+ + 15 total finalists<br />
+ + 10 participating teams<br />
+ + 56 applications<br />
+ + 5 Booz Allen executive judges<br />
+ + 1 guest judge from Microsoft<br />
THE ROAD TO SEATTLE<br />
Paul Anderson and Michael Wilson<br />
Dahlgren, VA: 2,343 miles<br />
Kevin Lawson and Kevin Komiensky<br />
Dahlgren, VA: 2,343 miles<br />
Susan Farley<br />
Arlington, VA: 2,320 miles<br />
Paul D’Angio and Justin Manzo<br />
Arlington, VA: 2,320 miles<br />
Renish Nishku<br />
McLean, VA: 2,316 miles<br />
Sandra Marshall<br />
McLean, VA: 2,316 miles<br />
Dan Lyman<br />
Rockville, MD: 2,312 miles<br />
Scott Stables<br />
Chicago, IL: 1,735 miles<br />
Brad Pilsl and Alan Kolackovsky<br />
San Diego, CA: 1,065 miles<br />
Ian Byrnes and Eric Jones<br />
Seattle, WA: 19,008 feet<br />
1 | ARTICLE TITLE<br />
Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles<br />
| 9
SEATTLE COMBUSTION<br />
CHAMBER JUDGES<br />
TONY MITCHELL<br />
Navy Marine Corps CSO<br />
MICHAEL FARBER<br />
Ventures and Alliances Lead<br />
BRIAN ABBE<br />
Engineering Services Lead<br />
MARK JACOBSOHN<br />
NextGen Analytics Lead<br />
MICKIE BOLDUC<br />
Defense and Intelligence Group<br />
Systems Delivery Lead<br />
TOM KEANE<br />
Partner Director Program Manager,<br />
Microsoft<br />
THE RIGHT<br />
CONNECTIONS<br />
Competitions need judges.<br />
And business ideas need<br />
leaders to sponsor them, implement them, and connect them to the people and<br />
problems where they can have the most impact. Combustion Chamber judges<br />
are executives from Booz Allen and our alliance partners, with the abilities to<br />
mentor and invest in good ideas.<br />
With the focus on energy, aerospace, and maritime solutions for the Seattle<br />
Combustion Chamber, the judging panel included executives who lead technical<br />
businesses within markets that rely on advanced technology. From the<br />
Client Service Officer (CSO) of our Navy and Marine Corps business, which<br />
relies on maritime technology to keep our warfighters modernized and ahead<br />
of foreign threats, to the lead of our Ventures and Alliances program that focuses<br />
on emerging edge technologies, the judges comprised a broad range of Booz<br />
Allen’s business.<br />
What’s more, this year, we invited Tom Keane, Partner Director Program<br />
Manager at Microsoft, to serve as a guest judge. Given the proximity to nearby<br />
Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA, and the event’s focus on technologydriven<br />
solutions, Tom made the perfect addition to our panel of executive leaders.<br />
“Trust and transparent relationships are extremely important,” Tom commented<br />
minutes before the Combustion Chamber kicked off. “It’s a diverse world in which<br />
we’re living, and the only way we can serve the needs of evolving customers is with<br />
partners like Booz Allen.”<br />
UNDER THE SEA AND UP IN THE AIR<br />
“I mapped the bottom of the ocean, and mapped it in 3-D<br />
layers,” Associate Ian Byrnes explained to a room of 100<br />
intent listeners. Ian and teammate Lead Associate Eric Jones,<br />
representing Booz Allen’s local Seattle staff at the event,<br />
pitched their revolutionary Project MARLIN. Through<br />
Oculus Rift-enabled virtual and augmented reality, Project<br />
MARLIN creates what is essentially Google Earth for the<br />
bottom of the ocean, with applications for the military, oil<br />
and gas, and energy markets. The judges pressed on<br />
their go-to-market strategy, client feedback, and proprietary<br />
viability of their solution.<br />
Ian and Eric set the tone<br />
for the rest of the event.<br />
Over the next two hours,<br />
the crowd heard solutions<br />
that soared from the ocean<br />
floor to the skies. Brad Pilsl and Alan Kolackovsky<br />
presented an integrated engineering solution<br />
that outfits a special high-speed unmanned<br />
surface vehicle with Booz Allen products—a 4G<br />
LTE location solution and micro high-definition<br />
digital video recorder—to improve intelligence,<br />
surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.<br />
Two groups from Dahlgren, VA, presented ideas<br />
for common controls architecture and interface<br />
protocols, as well as a new way to increase power<br />
density, for directed energy systems.<br />
Susan Farley, a technologist from Crystal City, VA,<br />
presented her custom algorithm to help airlines<br />
optimize their flight schedules for unexpected<br />
delays. Sandy Marshall, a creative director from<br />
McLean, VA, presented a solution that utilizes<br />
Microsoft’s immersive HoloLens headset technology<br />
to train air traffic controllers through spatial<br />
visualization.<br />
The biggest crowd-pleaser, however, involved<br />
some tried-and-true aerial theatrics.<br />
“I’m not trying to catch a 600-foot Space Needle in<br />
the face,” Lead Engineer Paul D’Angio proclaimed,<br />
met immediately with laughter from the audience<br />
as he framed the danger that first responder rescue<br />
teams face during natural disasters like earthquakes.<br />
Amid the laughter, Senior Lead Engineer<br />
Justin Manzo unpacked the team’s custom-built<br />
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype and<br />
set it on the floor. Paul then grabbed a remote<br />
control and flew the drone in front of the wide-eyed<br />
audience and judge panel. By the time it landed<br />
the teammates had demonstrated an autonomous<br />
UAV solution to detect human lives faster and safer.<br />
A CENTURY-OLD STARTUP<br />
Consultant Renis Nishku delivered the night’s<br />
most memorable pitch. He calmly walked<br />
out to an eager 100-person crowd. Ten feet away<br />
sat Booz Allen CEO Horacio Rozanski, who<br />
watched with a stoic curiosity. The casual<br />
observer wouldn’t know it, but at that moment<br />
one of Booz Allen’s most junior staff members—<br />
six months removed from graduating from<br />
the University of South Florida with a B.S. in<br />
Industrial Engineering—was about to ask for<br />
$25,000 of Booz Allen’s investment funds, in<br />
front of Booz Allen’s most senior executive.<br />
Renis began his pitch with confidence. He described<br />
his solution to use the Microsoft HoloLens to<br />
create an Iron Man-like virtual environment for<br />
engineers and mechanics to analyze defects in<br />
manufacturing processes. By the time he ended<br />
and the judges finished their questions, the crowd<br />
applauded for the youngest finalist in the history<br />
of the Combustion Chamber.<br />
Thirty minutes later, Renis<br />
received $25,000 from the<br />
executive judging panel<br />
and mentorship from Booz<br />
Allen’s Strategic Ventures<br />
Principal Rob Ruyak.<br />
This is who we are. We<br />
create avenues to put our<br />
people front and center<br />
and facilitate the collision<br />
of brilliant ideas. Because<br />
good ideas come from<br />
everywhere.<br />
MICROSOFT<br />
HOLOLENS<br />
Microsoft HoloLens<br />
is a cordless, selfcontained<br />
Windows 10<br />
computer packed into<br />
a smart glasses virtual<br />
reality headset. It uses<br />
advanced sensors,<br />
a high-definition<br />
3-D optical display,<br />
and spatial sound to<br />
allow users to direct<br />
augmented reality<br />
applications with their<br />
eyes, voice, and hand<br />
motions. Microsoft<br />
expects HoloLens to<br />
begin shipping in the<br />
first quarter of 2016.<br />
10 | COMBUSTION CHAMBER<br />
Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles | 11
STRESS-TESTED SOLUTIONS<br />
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0<br />
WASHINGTON, D.C.<br />
1776<br />
SANTA MONICA, CA<br />
CROSS CAMPUS<br />
BOSTON, MA<br />
DISTRICT HALL<br />
ATLANTA, GA<br />
GENERAL ASSEMBLY<br />
The first Combustion Chamber took<br />
place in Washington, D.C., at a local<br />
startup incubator and seed fund. Five<br />
teams pitched their best ideas for funding,<br />
and over the course of the event,<br />
$50,000 was awarded among the<br />
five finalists.<br />
FINALISTS<br />
Jerry Negrelli and Jinnyn Jacob, mobile<br />
app to better connect dispersed work teams<br />
James Bridgers, feature detection algorithm<br />
to identify potholes in city streets<br />
Bill Hargenrader, cybersecurity tool enabling better<br />
monitoring and workflow tracking<br />
Dan Liebermann and Doug Friedman, population<br />
estimation and forecasting tool<br />
Rachel Winchester, Allie Carroll, and Josh Chao,<br />
integrated rewards platform<br />
The Cross Campus is the tech hub<br />
of L.A.’s startup community, an<br />
18,000-square-foot co-working and<br />
office space housed in a renovated industrial<br />
building. Booz Allen hosted the<br />
second Combustion Chamber there,<br />
and over the course of the day, $55,000<br />
was awarded among the five finalists.<br />
FINALISTS<br />
Dusty Vacak and Bill Bland, dynamic system<br />
model that helps clients manage their Windows<br />
Communication Foundations<br />
Josh Wentlandt, command-and-control center to<br />
expedite the distribution of flight keys to pilots<br />
Joseph Wyrwas and Derek Aucoin, modified<br />
Booz Allen-designed data security tools for<br />
commercial government clients<br />
Reechik Chatterjee, mobile application that<br />
allows teams to share HIPAA-compliant medical<br />
data in real-time<br />
Mike Morgan, video intelligence solution<br />
for U.S. Navy networks<br />
The third Combustion Chamber took<br />
place in District Hall, a civic workspace<br />
in Boston’s Seaport Innovation District<br />
operated by startup accelerator and<br />
strategic partner Cambridge Innovation<br />
Center. The evening’s winning solutions<br />
included a pathogen-sequencing database<br />
to control early disease outbreaks,<br />
to an adaptive problem-resolution mobile<br />
app that helps DoD hardware and software<br />
engineers troubleshoot. A total of<br />
$120,000 was awarded to four winning<br />
finalist teams.<br />
FINALISTS<br />
Michelle Holko, solution that enables scientists<br />
to readily track and predict pathogen threats to<br />
human health in real-time<br />
Andrew Troy and Luke Warnock, crowdsourced tool<br />
that shares real-time feedback among software<br />
users and equipment managers<br />
Sarah Olsen and Scott Welker, web application<br />
that helps risk assessment analysts automate<br />
data organization<br />
Balaji Yelchuru and Ismail Zohdy, mobile tool that<br />
forecasts future travel metrics and anticipated<br />
resource expenditures<br />
Brian Thomas, tool to provide specific risk mitigation<br />
recommendations to anti-terror officers in<br />
the field<br />
Daniel Shor and Kevin Weinstein, reusable engineering<br />
framework for Booz Allen’s Engineering<br />
Services team<br />
Booz Allen chose Atlanta, home of the<br />
CDC, to host the fourth Combustion<br />
Chamber, which for the first time<br />
narrowed the event’s focus to specific<br />
market problems. Solutions focused<br />
on Internet of Things-enabled health<br />
solutions that sought to improve safety<br />
of infectious disease labs and reduce<br />
rapid response events in hospitals<br />
through improved patient monitoring.<br />
Nine finalist teams received a total of<br />
$130,000 in funding for their solutions.<br />
FINALISTS<br />
Christy Staats, solution to automate the monitoring<br />
of lab equipment<br />
Monica Elmore & Wing Kuang, hands-free procedural<br />
risk mitigation and analysis solution<br />
Mike Caputo & Ryan Buckland, solution to reduce<br />
hospital readmissions<br />
Brad Smith, web-based data collection platform<br />
tracking adverse vaccine events<br />
Catherine Ordun, intensive inventory of health<br />
surveillance data<br />
Taalib al’Salaam & Rebecca Brown, cost avoidance<br />
model for chronic diseases<br />
Rebecca Hutchins, tactical cloud-enabled device<br />
to better track biometrics data<br />
Dimitrios Koutsonanos, web crawler pulling<br />
data to better determine causes of death<br />
Nico Preston, front-line disease<br />
awareness solution<br />
12 | COMBUSTION CHAMBER<br />
Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles | 13
AT THE<br />
CORNER OF<br />
DC INNOVATION CENTER: AT THE CORNER OF 15TH AND IDEAS<br />
LOCATION: 901 15TH STREET, WASHINGTON, D.C.<br />
SIZE: 8,700 SQ. FT.<br />
MAIN SPONSORS: HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE,<br />
INTEL, MICROSOFT<br />
ARCHITECTURAL CREDENTIALS<br />
THE DC INNOVATION CENTER ARCHITECTS ALSO DESIGNED<br />
CAPITAL ONE LABS<br />
By Toby Ulm & Connor Hogan<br />
EVENTS THAT INSPIRE<br />
BOOZ ALLEN REGULARLY HOSTS EVENTS WITH OUR PARTNERS<br />
FROM INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA, AND THE STARTUP COMMUNITY.<br />
WHATIF: An annual event that hosts disruptive<br />
thinkers from industry, government, academia,<br />
and the community to ideate, interact, and offer<br />
solutions to the world’s toughest problems<br />
COMBUSTION CHAMBER: A competition<br />
where employees pitch new products and<br />
capabilities to a panel of Booz Allen leaders,<br />
who evaluate the solutions and award funding,<br />
mentorship, and client introductions<br />
STARTUP WEEKEND: A 54-hour event, in<br />
partnership with Techstars, where participants<br />
develop their entrepreneurial skills to build<br />
new value for their clients and business<br />
The buildings on K Street in Washington, D.C.,<br />
are a lineup of usual suspects. Law firms, lobbyists,<br />
and associations wrestle for executive<br />
window space along the tree-lined thoroughfare<br />
as commuters pick out company names etched<br />
above cold glass entranceways.<br />
Running parallel to K Street, less than a mile<br />
south toward the Potomac River, sits a row of<br />
giant museums on either side of the National<br />
Mall. In April, these stone-clad vaults catch<br />
excited eighth-grade children along with global<br />
artifacts in endless Smithsonian labyrinths.<br />
Outside, the Washington Monument—the<br />
city’s enduring monolith to experienced ambition—launches<br />
skyward from a platform of<br />
American flags.<br />
At first glance, it’s business as usual in the<br />
Federal City.<br />
But cracks have emerged in the veneer of<br />
Washington's old guard. More than 1,000<br />
technology startups have squeezed their way<br />
into the crowded buildings and regulated industries<br />
once dominated by a few big businesses.<br />
Startups have shaken the business foundations<br />
of the capital city with youthful ideas and a<br />
lean mentality. Yes, Washington, D.C., has<br />
transformed.<br />
A SPLIT TICKET CITY<br />
In 2013, Booz Allen began<br />
its own <strong>transformation</strong><br />
when we started developing<br />
an Innovation<br />
Blueprint: a series of<br />
components and systems<br />
to source, supply, and<br />
mature our innovation<br />
practices. In the last three<br />
years, we’ve augmented<br />
our traditional business<br />
models. We’ve built disruptive<br />
technologies and<br />
co-created others through our extensive network<br />
of partners. And we’ve driven growth through a<br />
relentless pursuit of original value and integrated<br />
focus on our clients’ biggest challenges.<br />
The cultural and technological acceleration of<br />
the District reflects Booz Allen’s recent journey.<br />
“D.C. is an emerging tech hub these days,” says<br />
Senior Vice President Mark Jacobsohn. “And<br />
we’re a part of that.”<br />
It’s why Booz Allen built the DC Innovation Center<br />
on the first floor of our downtown office. Beyond<br />
the plans, products, strategies, and models, Booz<br />
“We set out to design<br />
more than just a center,<br />
but a place where we<br />
can show an original<br />
side of Booz Allen. It’s<br />
how we’re evolving.”<br />
—MARK JACOBSOHN<br />
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT<br />
Allen needed a new space<br />
to collaborate and connect<br />
with a city in transition.<br />
The 8,700-square-foot<br />
space is only a few blocks<br />
from the Veterans Affairs<br />
and Treasury buildings,<br />
as well as the offices of<br />
startup accelerator 1776<br />
and WeWork co-working<br />
spaces. It’s a physical<br />
embodiment of our innovation<br />
agenda, designed to<br />
connect the best technology<br />
to the toughest problems in a split ticket city<br />
of startups and government.<br />
DESIGN(ED) THINKING<br />
“We set out to design more than just a center, but a<br />
place where we can show an original side of Booz<br />
Allen. It’s how we’re evolving,” Mark notes with a<br />
smile. “The exterior is flanked in glass, so you can<br />
have a peek right from the street.”<br />
Next time you’re downtown, hop off the Orange,<br />
Blue, or Silver Lines at McPherson Square Metro<br />
and head west one block along I Street toward<br />
15th. About halfway up the block, look right and<br />
you can’t miss it: a space engineered for talent to<br />
connect, collaborate, and co-create with clients,<br />
partners, and the city’s entrepreneurs.<br />
14 | 15 TH & IDEAS Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles | 15
SPACES MATTER<br />
EVERY AREA WITHIN THE DC INNOVATION CENTER SERVES A SPECIFIC PURPOSE<br />
INTERNET OF THINGS LAB<br />
An assembled collection of hardware and software<br />
capabilities from across Booz Allen<br />
to solve the challenges of a connected age<br />
PROJECT TEAM SPACE<br />
A creative and open environment to enable<br />
selected teams to design and implement new<br />
products and services<br />
VENTURES AND EDGE TECHNOLOGIES ROOM<br />
A dedicated space to forge new partnerships with<br />
industry, academia, and the startup community to<br />
find solutions to the world’s emerging problems<br />
STAGE AND EVENT SPACE<br />
Hosts community engagements, from startup<br />
weekends to hackathons to executive panels<br />
“The Innovation Center’s open,<br />
adaptable space expresses our<br />
century-old spirit of teamwork,<br />
collaboration, and entrepreneurialism<br />
in a way we’ve never done before.”<br />
— JOE MAHAFFEE<br />
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT<br />
Inside the main fishbowl-feeling workspace, sporadic pockets<br />
of small teams huddle around laptops and tables. A serendipitous<br />
energy permeates the room where projects range from<br />
connected vehicles, to new partnership discussions, to open<br />
source software. There’s a sense that every team is just one<br />
conversation away from associating the right concoction of<br />
ideas to solve the problem they’re working on.<br />
“We needed the right environment to get the best out of<br />
our talent,” explains Executive Vice President and Chief<br />
Administrative Officer Joe Mahaffee. Through its design, the<br />
space can surge and scale with the needs of those working<br />
inside it. In minutes, the multi-group workspaces can transform<br />
into a unified community event space. As Joe notes,<br />
“The Innovation Center’s open, adaptable space expresses our<br />
century-old spirit of teamwork, collaboration, and entrepreneurialism<br />
in a way we’ve never done before."<br />
DON'T GO IT ALONE<br />
The DC Innovation Center attracts people and organizations<br />
from different disciplines and backgrounds to engage around<br />
common problem sets. “We’re rethinking the way we do<br />
partnerships,” Mark says. “Both big and small.”<br />
In fact, it’s an alliance with three companies—Hewlett<br />
Packard Enterprise, Intel, and Microsoft—that laid the<br />
groundwork for the Center. With financial and equipment<br />
support from these three sponsors, the Center offers talent<br />
the chance to tinker with the latest technology and search<br />
for ways to build value by connecting it to industry and<br />
client problems.<br />
Teams working in the Center focus on collaboration and prototyping.<br />
Small groups rotate through the Center periodically<br />
with the intent to incubate, test, and refine a model before<br />
delivering it to a client as either a minimum viable product or<br />
complete solution. If achieving that goal requires collaboration<br />
with industry or startup partners, teams have license to seek<br />
out the technology and expertise they need.<br />
“A lot of problems that our clients face today cannot be solved<br />
by a single company,” Joe says. “It takes a whole network of<br />
inputs from multiple organizations who are willing to come<br />
together in ways that were previously inconceivable. With the<br />
Innovation Center, we’re brokering those relationships.”<br />
Not every project and collaboration in the Innovation Center<br />
will succeed. That’s okay. A century of pioneering has<br />
taught us that taking sensible risks and failing forward is<br />
what matters. That’s how we build new value for our clients,<br />
our partners, and our people.<br />
That’s business as usual for Booz Allen.<br />
16 | 15 TH & IDEAS Applied Innovation > ENVOI Articles | 17
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0<br />
01 00 1 022 0 11 000 X 010 00<br />
0<br />
OUT OF THE<br />
SHADOWS<br />
By Jacob Kriss<br />
THE OBJECTIVE WAS SIMPLE:<br />
FIND A WAY IN.<br />
If you’re indoors and breathing, chances are<br />
there’s a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning<br />
(HVAC) machine outside. HVAC units keep<br />
buildings warm through the winter, cool in the<br />
summer, and us breathing fresh oxygen year<br />
round. The units are meant to provide comfort,<br />
not to endanger us.<br />
A couple of years ago, however, hackers exploited<br />
a near invisible vulnerability in an HVAC system<br />
to break into the internal networks of a major<br />
retailer. Using infectious malware, they boosted<br />
network credentials from the HVAC systems<br />
vendor that kept the retailer’s building circulated<br />
with air. With those credentials on file, they had<br />
their way in—a license to steal, using nothing<br />
but keystrokes and code.<br />
Install malware to steal credentials. Exploit web<br />
application vulnerability. Search relevant targets<br />
for propagation. Steal access token. Create new<br />
admin credentials. Propagate to relevant computers.<br />
Install malware. Steal PII. Install malware.<br />
Steal 40 million credit cards. Mission accomplished.<br />
[0101] <br />
Meet the 21st-century bank robber.<br />
HACKERS ON THE HUNT<br />
Devastating attacks like these are not unusual;<br />
in fact, they’re increasingly routine and relentless.<br />
Malicious hackers don’t operate like traditional<br />
thieves. They rarely plan a heist with a single<br />
entry point, rehearse it, and attempt to execute.<br />
Instead, they poke, prod, and pry at every imaginable<br />
vulnerability in a system.<br />
From dark corners, these criminals work in secret<br />
to exploit any vulnerability, however small, in the<br />
devices that connect us—from cellphones, to laptops,<br />
to building sensors that monitor oxygen levels—in<br />
an attempt to steal our data and disrupt our way<br />
of life. You don’t know when or how they’ll attack.<br />
Just that they will.<br />
In response, Booz Allen assembled Dark Labs:<br />
an elite group of vulnerability and malware analysts,<br />
reverse engineers, and data sientists dedicated to<br />
anticipating, outmaneuvering, outsmarting, and<br />
preventing malicious hackers from breaking into<br />
critical infrastructure and proprietary systems.<br />
The Dark Labs team doesn’t simply respond to<br />
individual cyber incidents or conduct network<br />
penetration testing. They act as guardians, investigators,<br />
and curious, inquisitive problem solvers.<br />
They’re trained and charged to sniff out patterns<br />
of life in network data, code, and firmware that<br />
would seem meaningless to an ordinary person.<br />
“We have world class cyber talent at Booz Allen,”<br />
says Vice President and Dark Labs Director Chad<br />
Gray. “And we’re unleashing them—the best of<br />
the best from the intelligence community—<br />
against the most complex, growing problems<br />
in commercial and international markets.”<br />
ENGINEERED EXPERIMENTATION<br />
Dark Labs is small by design. Inside nondescript<br />
buildings across the country, several lean, agile<br />
project teams of three to six people huddle in<br />
open workspaces. Here, teams are given broad<br />
autonomy to develop original security products<br />
and solutions that cast light on the most opaque<br />
challenges across industries.<br />
…malicious hackers don’t operate<br />
like traditional thieves... they poke,<br />
prod, and pry at every imaginable<br />
vulnerability in a system.<br />
“We empower our experts to work on what’s exciting<br />
and challenging to them. We established a<br />
cultural expectation for them to test hypotheses<br />
and fail forward,” says Chad.<br />
Dark Labs’ research and development focuses<br />
on emerging cyber threats and technologies.<br />
Particular attention is paid to enterprise and<br />
industrial systems that protect critical infrastructure,<br />
such as connected vehicles, financial<br />
institutions, and oil and gas networks. The team<br />
also focuses on finding and fixing vulnerabilities<br />
in things like automation systems, medical<br />
devices, and traffic control systems through<br />
responsible disclosure.<br />
The Dark Labs team regularly performs a variety<br />
of network reconnaissance and rapid prototyping,<br />
reverse-engineers apps, finds vulnerabilities, and<br />
writes threat reports to stay ahead of hackers.<br />
“We’re not just thinking about the challenges of today,<br />
but what’s going to strike 10 years from now,” says<br />
Senior Associate and Dark Labs Deputy Director<br />
Will Farrell.<br />
GETTING THE GREEN LIGHT<br />
Indeed, Dark Labs illuminates the critical vulnerabilities<br />
in the things many of us see every day.<br />
Last summer, for example, a Dark Labs team and<br />
a cohort of interns reverse-engineered a traffic<br />
light control system used throughout thousands<br />
of cities and towns across America. The “Green<br />
Light Project,” as it was called,<br />
identified eight vulnerabilities<br />
that, if exploited, would<br />
create chaos on our nation’s<br />
roads and highways.<br />
The Dark Labs team coded<br />
a software patch to fix the<br />
traffic light control system<br />
vulnerabilities, and then gave<br />
it away for free to system<br />
vendors and municipalities<br />
—preemptively solving<br />
a previously unknown<br />
security issue.<br />
That’s what Dark Labs strives for: seeing what<br />
others can’t, and fixing it.<br />
LIGHTING THE WAY<br />
In the coming months, Booz Allen’s clients and<br />
partners will be invited into Dark Labs. Together,<br />
they’ll work with our experts to co-develop and<br />
co-invest in new solutions that prevent attacks<br />
before they happen.<br />
“Our ultimate vision is not to be out there simply<br />
triaging broken systems,” says Will. “Instead, we<br />
want to partner with organizations during their<br />
engineering and development cycle to secure<br />
their systems from the very beginning.”<br />
It’s about time cyber security got some fresh air.
By Gretchen McClain<br />
BEATING<br />
THE DRUM<br />
OF DISCOVERY<br />
From textiles to telescopes, light<br />
bulbs to cell phones, and from<br />
directed energy to virtual reality,<br />
we can chart human history on a<br />
trajectory of technological discovery.<br />
We live in the most connected,<br />
most technologically sophisticated<br />
moment in history because of the<br />
ingenuity of talented people.<br />
People with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics<br />
educations, or STEM as the fields are now collectively<br />
called, power technological discovery in America. Yet, the<br />
diversity among those advancing these disciplines is dwindling.<br />
Today, technological advancements are mostly pioneered by<br />
a narrow group of people: men.<br />
My father drew me to science. He was an engineer, and he<br />
spent time teaching my siblings and I to tear things apart,<br />
and then rebuild them. Before we could get our drivers’<br />
licenses, we had to know how to change out the brake pads<br />
on a car. From a young age, I was encouraged to experiment,<br />
embrace the unknown, and use math and technology to<br />
solve problems.<br />
Women, however, remain severely underrepresented in<br />
STEM fields. Although they make up nearly half the American<br />
workforce, women still represent just<br />
under a quarter of the total STEM<br />
workforce. Education systems struggle<br />
to get women into technical fields<br />
academically, and American industries<br />
struggle to keep them long term. This<br />
has created an unsustainable talent<br />
gap that, if left unaddressed, will slow<br />
the pace of technological discovery and<br />
America’s economic progress.<br />
We need more women in STEM.<br />
A CULTURAL CALL<br />
Booz Allen has been leading this effort<br />
to close the talent gap and get more<br />
women into STEM fields and leadership<br />
positions. It is committed to encouraging,<br />
empowering, and pulling women<br />
through into senior management roles,<br />
and has built mechanisms for those<br />
advancements.<br />
A DISPARITY OF<br />
WOMEN IN STEM<br />
FIELDS<br />
Women make up nearly half<br />
the American workforce, yet<br />
represent just under 25% of<br />
the total STEM workforce.<br />
—“Women in STEM: A Gender<br />
Gap to Innovation.” U.S.<br />
Department of Commerce,<br />
Economics and Statistics<br />
Administration.<br />
Women in the information<br />
security profession represent<br />
10% of the workforce—<br />
a percentage that is<br />
unchanged from two years<br />
ago. Although their sheer<br />
numbers in this profession<br />
are increasing, they are only<br />
increasing at the pace of the<br />
profession as a whole.<br />
—“Women in Security: Wisely<br />
Positioned for the Future of<br />
InfoSec.” (ISC)².<br />
“We all think differently and bring something unique t0<br />
the party,” Executive Vice President Susan Penfield says.<br />
“To truly represent the global landscape though, we need<br />
to start inside ourselves.”<br />
Leader of Booz Allen’s Strategic Innovation Group, Susan<br />
also co-chairs Booz Allen’s Women’s Agenda—a focused<br />
approach to recruiting, developing, and advancing women<br />
into senior leadership roles within the firm. Its mission is<br />
CHARTING A COURSE<br />
OF SUCCESS<br />
1988<br />
First woman elected<br />
as partner in Booz<br />
Allen’s Worldwide<br />
Technology<br />
Business (WTB)<br />
1994<br />
First woman<br />
appointed as head<br />
an office in Sao<br />
Paolo, Brazil<br />
1995<br />
First Women’s<br />
Advisory<br />
Board formed<br />
1998<br />
First Workforce<br />
Diversity Council<br />
formed<br />
1999<br />
Booz Allen Hamilton<br />
named to Working<br />
Mother magazine’s<br />
“100 Best Companies<br />
for Working<br />
Mothers”<br />
2000<br />
First woman<br />
elected as Senior<br />
Partner<br />
2001<br />
Booz Allen sponsors<br />
the first Women of<br />
Greater Washington<br />
Diversity Forum<br />
2002<br />
For the first time,<br />
WTB promotes more<br />
women than men<br />
20 | BEATING THE DRUM OF DISCOVERY<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 21
On March 8, 2016, Booz Allen hosted “Women<br />
on the Leading Edge” in its new DC Innovation<br />
Center, where executives from Hewlett Packard<br />
Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Merck, and Booz<br />
Allen explored how women will drive the future<br />
of connected businesses.<br />
HONORING BOOZ ALLEN’S<br />
COMMITMENT TO WOMEN<br />
+ + Working Mother 100 Best Companies—Hall of Fame<br />
+ + Diversity Inc.—Top 50 Companies for Diversity<br />
+ + Latina Style Inc. Top 50—among the top 50<br />
companies in the U.S. for hispanic women<br />
+ + Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality<br />
Index—7th consecutive 100% rating<br />
THE CONSTRICTING<br />
TALENT PIPELINE<br />
Only 12 out of 100 collegiate female undergraduates<br />
pursue STEM-related majors. Of those female STEM<br />
graduates who enter the workforce, only 25% continue<br />
to work in STEM fields a decade later.<br />
—Affordable Colleges Online, Women in STEM.<br />
to increase the representation of<br />
talented women at all levels across<br />
Booz Allen, enrich their opportunities,<br />
and spread the intellect and thought<br />
leadership that women bring to our<br />
business, clients, and communities.<br />
And it’s working. Commitment to the<br />
Women’s Agenda has led to three women<br />
members of the Board of Directors,<br />
four leadership team members, as<br />
well as the first woman appointed as<br />
General Counsel in Booz Allen’s history.<br />
The Women’s Agenda Leadership Excellence Program, a six-month<br />
immersion program, helps develop Booz Allen’s top talent into<br />
successful leaders. Events such as workshops on voice and presence<br />
and political savvy, one-on-one coaching, peer groups, and leadership<br />
events help our women connect and feel more engaged and supported.<br />
The Women’s Agenda is bigger than STEM, although it does include it.<br />
Externally, Booz Allen’s Women’s Agenda partners with organizations<br />
such as the Society of Women Engineers, the Women’s Center, and<br />
Women of Color in STEM to mentor and increase access for women<br />
in technical fields.<br />
“The vision for our Women’s Agenda,” Executive Vice President and Chief<br />
Personnel Officer Betty Thompson shares, “is to ensure that all women<br />
and all diverse populations at Booz Allen have a chance to move to the<br />
next level, and to see women like them as role models in senior levels.”<br />
AN UNCOMFORTABLE SEAT AT THE TABLE<br />
American culture unquestionably influences why women veer off technically<br />
oriented paths. According to Eileen Pollack in her 2013 New York<br />
Times op-ed, “Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?,” we’ve<br />
seen young boys and men encouraged throughout generations to tough<br />
out difficult science and math courses, from classrooms to labs.<br />
Meanwhile, girls—no matter how apt or able—all too often don’t<br />
receive the same pushes from their parents, teachers, and counselors.<br />
An implicit bias that math and science are for men permeates through<br />
academic and scientific environments. The result of this bias is that it<br />
may discourage many women from staying the course. Noted astrophysicist<br />
Meg Urry has described the feeling as, “the slow drumbeat<br />
of being underappreciated, feeling uncomfortable, and encountering<br />
roadblocks along the path to success.”<br />
“I was the only woman in the room—ever,” Mickie Bolduc states<br />
matter-of-factly over a cup of coffee.<br />
Mickie, a Senior Vice President with two degrees in mathematics,<br />
has helped lead Booz Allen’s Systems Delivery business for two decades.<br />
During her career, largely in the defense sector, she’s experienced<br />
firsthand how underrepresented women are in meeting rooms as well<br />
as classrooms, and the tension that exists within those spaces when<br />
gender stereotypes clash. “It can be intimidating, but you have to respect<br />
what you bring,” Mickie explains. “And I felt I had something to bring<br />
to the table.”<br />
Mickie now leads technical teams across various markets and technical<br />
capabilities, and she and others at Booz Allen are actively mentoring<br />
women one-on-one and sponsoring others to rise up through the firm.<br />
“We want people to have a common view on what it means to be a STEM<br />
woman at Booz Allen, and see that as an actual career path,” Mickie<br />
says. “We have more role models now [because of our commitment].”<br />
ALL ABOUT “LIKE ME”<br />
When I think about the problems facing the world today, many of<br />
them are complex technology integration problems, with solutions that<br />
require associative, combinatory thinking. Women are great at this—<br />
working problems with multiple variables up in the air. Women have<br />
the tools, but they also need human support. That’s why mentorship<br />
is so important.<br />
KAKOLI KIM<br />
Senior Associate Kakoli Kim has a PhD<br />
in biochemistry and leads a group of<br />
scientists out of Aberdeen, MD, supporting<br />
Chemical Biological Defense. Her<br />
team recently played a large role in<br />
combating the Ebola outbreak, examining<br />
threats to make sure the Army was ready<br />
to respond. “Most scientists thrive on<br />
their love of discovery,” Kakoli says, “but<br />
not for me. For me, it’s always been<br />
about application.”<br />
DID YOU KNOW…?<br />
On average, Women in STEM fields earn 92<br />
cents on the dollar to STEM men, compared<br />
to the 77 cents on the dollar that women<br />
in non-STEM fields earn.<br />
—“Mentors Help Create a Sustainable Pipeline<br />
for Women in STEM.” —Forbes<br />
2003<br />
First firmwide<br />
Senior African<br />
American Women’s<br />
Network formed,<br />
and Board Diversity<br />
Initiative launched<br />
2004<br />
Booz Allen<br />
executive named<br />
first woman<br />
Chairman of the<br />
Principal<br />
Development<br />
Committee<br />
First Women’s<br />
Leadership<br />
meeting held,<br />
launching the<br />
Women’s Leadership<br />
Initiative<br />
Relationship<br />
established with<br />
Women of Color<br />
in Technology<br />
2005<br />
Relationship<br />
established with<br />
the Society of<br />
Women Engineers<br />
Relationship<br />
established<br />
with Women in<br />
International<br />
Security<br />
2006<br />
Women 3.0 magazine<br />
names Booz Allen<br />
executive to its<br />
list of the Top 100<br />
Women in Corporate<br />
America<br />
2007<br />
Working Mother<br />
magazine chooses<br />
Booz Allen as one<br />
of the Top 10 Best<br />
Companies for<br />
Working Mothers<br />
for the fourth time<br />
2008<br />
For the tenth<br />
consecutive year,<br />
Booz Allen Hamilton<br />
named to Working<br />
Mother magazine’s<br />
list of 100 Best<br />
Companies for<br />
Working Mothers<br />
22 | BEATING THE DRUM OF DISCOVERY<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 23
PRI OBEROI<br />
Whether it’s coding analytics for cancer<br />
genome datasets for her client, or tracking<br />
and cataloging social responses to<br />
feminist movement, Pri Oberoi uses her<br />
coding skills daily. “Everyone needs a<br />
community that they can lean on to help<br />
them navigate their career,” Pri comments.<br />
A data scientist with a passion<br />
for social equality, Pri serves as Recruiting<br />
Chair for Booz Allen’s GLOBE Forum,<br />
an internal group committed to advancing<br />
the LGBT community within the firm, as<br />
well as a mentor to rising young female<br />
data scientists.<br />
“The most powerful determinant of whether a<br />
woman goes on in science might be whether<br />
anyone encourages her to go on.”<br />
—EILEEN POLLACK, 2013<br />
“Women want to look up to someone who looks like them,” Mickie<br />
explains. “They have to see a path, and they have to see success.” As a<br />
leader in Booz Allen’s Systems Delivery Group, Mickie has embraced<br />
this idea of sponsorship. Leaders within the group identify up and<br />
coming women across all of Booz Allen and place them in reciprocal<br />
mentor-mentee positions where they can succeed. Then, they promote<br />
those rising female leaders among senior leadership ranks.<br />
“It’s all about ‘like me,’” says Karen Dahut, Executive Vice President<br />
and leader of Booz Allen’s Civil Commercial Group. “Women need to<br />
be able to look across institutions and organizations and see themselves<br />
in other women.” Karen has built her career on leadership and<br />
lessons learned from great mentors and sponsors.<br />
As Karen knows, there’s a nuanced difference between those two<br />
ideas. Mentors help you understand the politics of an organization—<br />
how you achieve, how you advance, how you develop and say what<br />
you need to say. Sponsors, however, take action and pull you through.<br />
Men have an essential role in mentorship and sponsorship, too. Men<br />
need to encourage and have an active voice and participate in helping<br />
women see themselves in these roles, and celebrate and advance<br />
women as quickly as possible to make room for them at the table. Just<br />
as my father and so many professors and colleagues embraced and<br />
encouraged me along my path, so many more men across America<br />
must do the same.<br />
BEATING BACK THE BUTTERFLIES<br />
There’s a perception out there that it’s hard to be a woman in STEM.<br />
To varying degrees, that can be true, yet in some ways, it was easier to<br />
be a woman in STEM. Being different can be a benefit. People remember<br />
you. It’s true of my career. I’ve always had a combination of the<br />
butterflies in my stomach and the confidence to push myself, stretch<br />
myself, and take comfort in the unknown. I believe this tension creates<br />
our greatest work.<br />
While it hasn’t always been culturally “attractive” to be a smart woman<br />
in math and science, Booz Allen is changing that perception by changing<br />
the conversation. Women at Booz Allen (and in general) are really good<br />
at collaborating, integrating things, and working though problems.<br />
These are all the essential components of a STEM education.<br />
PUSHING FOR PROGRESS<br />
Although Booz Allen in particular has made great strides inspiring<br />
women and increasing access to STEM educations and careers in<br />
particular, more work remains to be done. “Women like us won’t rest<br />
until we feel like all women are treated fairly, equally, and have the<br />
same opportunities and are compensated at the same level that men<br />
are,” Susan concludes. “That’s what I want my legacy to be: I left it<br />
better for women.”<br />
For large companies like Booz Allen, diversity in STEM jobs doesn’t<br />
just make good cultural sense—it’s good business. Differences in backgrounds<br />
and technical knowledge produce better, more well-rounded<br />
ideas and solutions. Without a diverse workforce, you lose out on those<br />
serendipitous clashes of creativity and inspiration that have produced<br />
some of the world’s greatest technological achievements. That is why<br />
Booz Allen continues to drum the beat of discovery, and diversity, in<br />
STEM. It’s good business.<br />
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT<br />
Booz Allen is strengthening the STEM pipeline<br />
in America by sponsoring and participating in a<br />
broad range of mentoring and immersive learning<br />
opportunities among young students and<br />
future professionals. Our people are passionate<br />
about giving back and cultivating talent. We<br />
have been a longtime sponsor and partner<br />
of FIRST® Robotics, a robotics engineering<br />
organization focused on inspiring young talent<br />
to become science and technology leaders.<br />
We work with Girls Who Code, and recently<br />
launched and sponsored an initiative called<br />
STEM Girls 4 Social Good.<br />
In August, the firm hosted 40 young girls for<br />
a week-long camp investigating the problem<br />
of human trafficking through data science<br />
techniques.<br />
2009<br />
Firmwide Women’s<br />
Agenda established<br />
2010<br />
Natalie Givans<br />
named Engineer of<br />
the Year by District<br />
of Columbia Council<br />
of Engineers and<br />
Architects<br />
2011<br />
First female<br />
representation on<br />
the leadership team<br />
2012<br />
Joan Amble<br />
named the first<br />
woman to Booz<br />
Allen’s Board of<br />
Directors<br />
2013<br />
Nancy Laben<br />
joins Booz Allen as<br />
first woman General<br />
Counsel<br />
2014<br />
Gretchen<br />
McClain joins<br />
Board of Directors<br />
2015<br />
Melody Barnes<br />
joins Board<br />
of Directors<br />
24 | BEATING THE DRUM OF DISCOVERY<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 25
0116 17800880<br />
37.5 0<br />
FROM THE DEVASTATING alien heat-ray in H.G. Wells’<br />
War of the Worlds, to the handheld “phasers” that Captain<br />
Kirk and crew wield in episodes of Star Trek, laser weapons<br />
have long captured the imaginations of science fiction writers,<br />
directors, and dreamers.<br />
These concepts are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Booz<br />
Allen engineers and scientists are helping the Department<br />
of Defense (DoD) develop and test directed energy (DE)<br />
weapons. With numerous advantages over traditional kinetic<br />
weapons, DE has the potential to profoundly reshape the 21stcentury<br />
battlefield. And Booz Allen is on the front lines of<br />
solving the technical and operational challenges associated<br />
with building and deploying them on a wide scale.<br />
WHAT IS DIRECTED ENERGY?<br />
According to Joe Sifer, Executive Vice President and lead of<br />
Booz Allen's Directed Energy business, “DE weapons transmit<br />
or fire invisible beams or fields of concentrated electromagnetic<br />
energy or atomic or subatomic particles at a target.<br />
Currently there are two basic categories of DE weapons—<br />
high-energy laser (HEL) and high-powered microwaves (HPM)<br />
—each of which have different potential applications.”<br />
5 0<br />
1 34 678 9717 2311615 1117 0408<br />
357 492 0622 23<br />
HELs can be deployed to protect critical areas and infrastructure,<br />
shoot down hypersonic cruise missiles or intercontinental<br />
ballistic missiles, and take out aerial targets such<br />
as UAVs from the ground or from the air. The technology<br />
essentially uses lasers as a “blowtorch,” according to Principal<br />
Joe Shepherd, a leader in the firm’s DE business. “The same<br />
technology can be used at a lower energy to 'dazzle,' causing<br />
temporary loss of camera imagery or blocking vision in a<br />
cloak of colored light.”<br />
Alternatively, HPM uses high-powered radio frequency (RF)<br />
energy to disrupt a target, depositing electrical pulses or heat<br />
to cause an adverse effect. It can be used to disable vehicles<br />
and vessels and in counter-infrastructure operations by<br />
shutting down non-shielded electronics. While less physically<br />
destructive than a supercharged laser shot, HPM weapons can<br />
give warfighters a tactical edge by eliminating the enemy’s<br />
ability to use critical equipment.<br />
26 | SCIENCE NON-FICTION<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 27
LASERS IN ACTION<br />
In 2014, the Navy unveiled its Laser Weapon System (LaWS) a 30-kilowatt commercial welding laser<br />
repurposed for installation on the USS Ponce. Booz Allen is responsible for the ongoing maintenance<br />
and operation of the LaWS, which the Navy has successfully tested against small-boat and UAV targets,<br />
destroying or disabling them with pinpoint accuracy. The LaWS has been so successful, in fact, that it<br />
has been authorized for use as a defensive weapon, if necessary.<br />
CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS<br />
Directed energy technology isn’t limited to the military.<br />
Potential civilian usages include non-lethal vehicle<br />
and vessel stopping by law enforcement, laser-based<br />
systems for long distances communications, and<br />
possible breakthroughs in improving power-system<br />
efficiency that could be applied in commercial sectors.<br />
1 34 678 9717<br />
CHEAPER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET<br />
SIZE, WEIGHT, AND POWER<br />
Yet, for all these potential benefits, developing DE weapons<br />
isn’t without technical challenges. Current DE weapons are<br />
large, heavy, and require huge amounts of power to fire.<br />
BUILDING THE FRAMEWORK<br />
Beyond the technical challenges of building and installing<br />
a prototype like the Laser Weapon System (see “Lasers in<br />
Action” on Page 28), Booz Allen is thinking through the<br />
myriad military operational matters surrounding DE. We’re<br />
helping the DoD understand how to integrate, deploy, and<br />
operate these weapons within its warfighter doctrine, in<br />
addition to building them.<br />
One of the most compelling advantages of DE over kinetic<br />
weapons is in cost-per-shot. For DE, this is primarily the cost<br />
of generating the power required to generate and transmit<br />
the DE to the target.<br />
“When using a kinetic weapon like a missile, you're taking<br />
something more expensive than a UAV to take down a UAV,”<br />
says Joe Shepherd. “With DE, you’re talking pennies per shot<br />
compared to thousands per shot for a kinetic weapon.”<br />
It turns out, a shot of DE is cheaper than a speeding bullet.<br />
Beyond cost advantages, DE weapons offer the ability to “turn<br />
the dial” on lethality. Captain Kirk was right. You can set your<br />
phaser to stun. In many instances, a military operator may simply<br />
want to disable an approaching vehicle, rather than destroy<br />
it—a capability that HPM, in certain applications, can perform.<br />
“We don’t think of DE as a replacement for conventional<br />
weapons, but as a complement. Incorporating DE can<br />
reduce cost and collateral damage,” says Senior Associate<br />
Patrick Shannon, who is focused on business development<br />
and acquisition for DE at Booz Allen.<br />
Because lasers allow for pinpoint accuracy in targeting, he<br />
says, they can greatly limit collateral damage when engaging<br />
a target. And since lasers travel at the speed of light, a target<br />
cannot evade an accurately aimed HEL beam. Moreover, DE<br />
can be difficult or impossible to detect, particularly with HPM.<br />
Operators may be able to use HPM against electronic targets<br />
without the enemy knowing until after the engagement.<br />
“Most of the physics on the HEL side are reasonably understood,<br />
and we’re getting there on HPM,” says Joe Sifer. “But the hardest<br />
part is you need these things packaged in a way that allows<br />
you to use them in a practical and operational way.”<br />
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED<br />
Today, approximately 65 Booz Allen engineers, scientists,<br />
and mission operations specialists, together with nearly that<br />
many subcontractor staff, are actively working to address<br />
these challenges for the Navy. This team, which is primarily<br />
based at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division<br />
in Dahlgren, VA, performs research, develops requirements,<br />
analyzes missions and engagements, conducts effects testing,<br />
creates and deploys prototypes, and implements proofs-ofconcepts<br />
that are integrated on ships and other platforms.<br />
For HPM in particular, Booz Allen engineers are focused on<br />
“tuning” the RF to allow it to couple to the right target. It’s a<br />
complex challenge. Determining the right frequency, source,<br />
and power level to get a lock is a considerable physics problem.<br />
“We’re working to get operational prototypes into an inventory so<br />
that the whole doctrine—training, sustainment, all the things<br />
that have to surround a system that’s being used long-term—<br />
gets into infrastructure thinking about DE,” says Patrick.<br />
THE LEADERSHIP IMPERATIVE<br />
Given their technical challenges and the need for a holistic<br />
doctrine framework in order to use them, widespread<br />
operational deployment of DE weapons is still many years<br />
away. In the meantime, Booz Allen is focused on helping the<br />
DoD develop the technology and understand how to deploy it<br />
efficiently and effectively.<br />
“We have an imperative at Booz Allen, because of our<br />
broad-reaching technical expertise in DE, to move this<br />
technology forward,” says Joe Shepherd. “That’s our focus.”<br />
Booz Allen has served as the essential partner to defense<br />
clients for more than 75 years. With engineering experts<br />
in electromagnetics, prototype development, and systems<br />
engineering among others, we’re ready to transform the<br />
battlefield once more.<br />
ELECTROMAGNETIC RAILGUN<br />
At NSWC Dahlgren, Booz Allen’s engineering team<br />
is helping to develop the pulse-forming network on<br />
the navy’s experimental railgun. This technology<br />
uses a powerful electromagnetic pulse to fire a<br />
projectile at seven times the speed of sound and<br />
costs far less than a traditional missile.<br />
Captain Kirk was right.<br />
You can set your phaser to stun.<br />
INAUGURAL DIRECTED ENERGY SUMMIT<br />
On July 28, 2015, Booz Allen hosted a first-ofits-kind<br />
Directed Energy Summit in McLean, VA,<br />
in partnership with the Center for Strategic and<br />
Budgetary Assessments. The summit included<br />
members of Congress, Department of Defense<br />
stakeholders, and key members of the industrial<br />
base that are applying independent research and<br />
development to maturing DE technology. Booz<br />
Allen is planning a follow-up event for mid-2016.<br />
28 | SCIENCE NON-FICTION<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 29
OPEN<br />
PERFORMANCE<br />
By Alex Haederle<br />
There has never been a more exciting time to be digital.<br />
On October 14, 2015, Booz Allen Digital unveiled a bold new<br />
message in the heart of Washington, D.C. In the Newseum’s<br />
Knight Center, some 250 people from government, industry,<br />
and the media huddled together for the Digital Innovation<br />
Summit to discuss the future of digital disruption. Printed<br />
storybooks circulated among the audience—storybooks that<br />
conveyed a new focus for Booz Allen Digital: opening the<br />
performance of clients by transforming them from closed,<br />
proprietary systems into open agile enterprises.<br />
ENVOI Articles interviewed the five leaders of Booz Allen Digital—Executive Vice President<br />
Greg Wenzel, Senior Vice President Julie McPherson, and Vice Presidents Bill Ott, Munjeet Singh,<br />
and Ralph Wade—to dig into the perspectives, the technology, and the ideas underlying the<br />
Open Performance storybook, which you can read at www.boozallen.com/digital.<br />
ENVOI Articles: What does Booz Allen Digital look<br />
like today, compared to two years ago? What’s new<br />
and different?<br />
Munjeet Singh: We’re a bit more edgy, that’s for sure.<br />
Julie McPherson: Yeah, we’re bringing sexy<br />
back to IT.<br />
EA: You’re kidding.<br />
JM: No, really! We’re glamorizing IT. Pushing<br />
it back toward the edge of what it should be:<br />
creative, connective, and repeatable—<br />
Bill Ott: —and not process-heavy and risk-laden.<br />
We’re rebooting that.<br />
EA: How so?<br />
BO: Well, development has changed. In the<br />
pre-digital era, it used to be, “What can we do by ourselves?”<br />
Now, it’s about open technology and communities—so<br />
we’ve committed to being an active<br />
leader and contributor within those communities.<br />
30 | ARTICLE TITLE Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 31
Greg Wenzel: The more you give away, the more<br />
you get back.<br />
EA: You argue, “Many firms are big. Some are agile.<br />
Few are both.” Those ideas seem contradictory to me.<br />
><br />
TOOLS FOR GETTING THINGS DONE<br />
VISIT WWW.BOOZALLEN.COM/DIGITAL<br />
EA: In the storybook, you made it clear that “open”<br />
means so much more than open source. Why is that?<br />
MS: Because it doesn’t just mean open source.<br />
Yes, we assemble open source software, but we’re<br />
building open architectures, open standards,<br />
we’re tapping open data through APIs, and<br />
engaging in open source communities as well.<br />
BO: So we embrace that, and we focus on solving<br />
core needs through an open approach, from<br />
how we employ development practices to the<br />
platforms we work on.<br />
EA: Why is reuse important to Booz Allen Digital?<br />
GW: There’s so much IT out there. Anybody can<br />
go develop apps. What sets you apart is how you<br />
can reuse what exists to assemble new value.<br />
JM: Ninety percent of anything anyone wants<br />
to do has already been done. So why not spend<br />
time on more valuable tasks?<br />
BO: Yes. It’s about adding new customer and<br />
user value on top of open products. Reuse isn’t<br />
just about cost savings.<br />
RW: But, that said, reuse is cheaper. Plus, if<br />
you’re reusing a common service, then you can<br />
build on top of it and standardize.<br />
MS: Reuse is going to be adopted very aggressively,<br />
very soon. We have an opportunity to<br />
shape what that looks like, and be credited as<br />
one of first consultancies to define it.<br />
RW: We’re a big firm. But with “big” comes<br />
resources, scale, and the ability to invest—<br />
things that smaller firms mostly can’t do.<br />
GW: And we love startups. But most startups<br />
alone aren’t equipped to assemble a system of<br />
systems, or migrate a government enterprise<br />
to the cloud. So we partner with them.<br />
EA: Got it. So that’s what you mean by, “It takes<br />
an enterprise to transform an enterprise?”<br />
RW: Exactly. We are the enterprise integrator.<br />
We have a broad reach into a large number of<br />
commercial and federal entities. Our partners<br />
have the critical tech to help us do that.<br />
GW: It’s a symbiotic thing. We get insight into<br />
next-generation technologies our partners<br />
create, and they get the benefit of our intimate<br />
understanding of clients.<br />
EA: On that note—how do you guys think about<br />
partnerships?<br />
JM: Our business partnerships used to be<br />
transactional in nature. Now, though, it’s about<br />
bringing clear, differentiated strengths to the<br />
ecosystem.<br />
MS: There’s great strength in partnerships.<br />
The whole premise behind our “Don’t go it<br />
alone” philosophy is linking up with those in<br />
the market who have done it before.<br />
BO: Exactly. Look at what we’re doing with Docker.<br />
We knew Docker, and knew they had the microservice,<br />
containerization solution to help a major<br />
federal client overhaul its Integrated Award<br />
Environment. But, Docker didn’t know the client.<br />
GW: We, however, do. So we came in and brokered<br />
the relationship, giving Docker their first<br />
customer. A big one.<br />
JM: We were the glue that made that possible.<br />
And that’s how we want to approach every<br />
partnership.<br />
EA: What are the business challenges associated<br />
with transitioning government enterprises from<br />
traditional IT to open, agile, mode 2 IT?<br />
GW: The federal government has spent so much<br />
on existing IT. They have smaller budgets now,<br />
and can’t afford to sustain what they’ve got and<br />
still modernize for the future.<br />
RW: And culturally, most government clients<br />
aren’t aligned to do that—the systems they’ve<br />
got in place, budgeting, programmatic—as well<br />
as risk.<br />
MS: Clients need [IT systems] architecture that’s<br />
lightweight and infrastructure that’s capable of<br />
immediacy. Changeable and transportable, too,<br />
so clients aren’t locked into vendors.<br />
JM: You’ve got to have fortitude. And trust in a<br />
forward thinking, risk-embracing mentality. It’s<br />
what’s essential for open performance.<br />
EA: What does “open performance” mean?<br />
RW: When you think of performance, you think<br />
of speed…but there’s also a measure of, “How<br />
much have I opened my enterprise up?”<br />
JM: And that’s what we do. Open performance<br />
is our promise: that embracing an open mantra<br />
unleashes better performance within, and for,<br />
your enterprise.<br />
GW: It’s also a state—when you’re no longer<br />
locked into proprietary vendors and have the<br />
power of choice in your systems and technology.<br />
MS: We enable that state. We transform organizations<br />
from closed, proprietary systems to<br />
open, agile enterprises. And we do it collaboratively<br />
and transparently.<br />
BO: It’s about opening up the realm of possibility.<br />
Open technologies, coupled with open attitudes,<br />
will propel you forward. That’s open performance.<br />
32 | OPEN PERFORMANCE Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 33
FUNCTIONAL<br />
GROWTH<br />
Edwin Booz pioneered the notion that a group of people<br />
outside a business could analyze its challenges and advise<br />
on strategies to improve its operations. This vision both<br />
precipitated the establishment of Booz Allen and the industry<br />
of management consulting.<br />
By Susan Penfield<br />
Today, Booz Allen serves as the essential partner to<br />
some of the world’s biggest organizations. We have<br />
a relentless commitment to take on, tinker with,<br />
and solve their most complex challenges.<br />
PLACING AUDACIOUS BETS<br />
After the financial turbulence of 2008 and<br />
subsequent changes in government spending,<br />
our clients faced shrinking budgets and rising<br />
expectations. This presented Booz Allen with<br />
an opportunity to invest in those areas our<br />
clients would need when the markets returned.<br />
As part ofour Vision 2020 strategy, we created<br />
the Strategic Innovation Group (SIG): a focused<br />
agenda of investments that anticipate the future of<br />
cyber, data science, digital, and our own culture.<br />
While the SIG’s configuration and intent promotes<br />
experimentation around specific initiatives, we<br />
didn’t isolate it from the rest of the firm. In fact,<br />
we did the opposite. The SIG partners with our<br />
market accounts and entire talent base to incubate<br />
original capabilities. But with a market rebound<br />
and a return to growth, we are now expanding<br />
our investments to meet the surging demand for<br />
these new capabilities.<br />
This April 2016, we activated five Functional Service<br />
Offerings (FSOs) in Analytics, Cyber, Engineering<br />
and Science, Management Consulting, and Systems<br />
Delivery. Each FSO is an independent, yet integrated,<br />
horizontal business charged with scaling capabilities<br />
within and across vertical market accounts.<br />
Coupled with a centralized functional talent model,<br />
each FSO will find and rotate in talent to transport<br />
and apply new capabilities to new clients with<br />
fresh problem sets. In doing so, the FSOs will<br />
increase our agility to move on meaningful work,<br />
and make meaningful moves on furthering our<br />
talent experience.<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 35
CYBER<br />
SYSTEMS<br />
DELIVERY<br />
ANALYTICS<br />
ENGINEERING<br />
& SCIENCE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
CONSULTING<br />
INSPIRING A COLLECTIVE MINDSET<br />
We’re not starting from scratch. We’ve always<br />
examined problems through a functional lens.<br />
Our 17 Functional Communities, for instance,<br />
challenge inspired talent to put their functional<br />
skills to the test on problems beyond their daily<br />
client work. In these communities, our talent<br />
socialize their best ideas with their colleagues<br />
and learn new techniques to solve old problems.<br />
Our talent enjoys participating and networking<br />
in these communities. They’re not going away.<br />
Rather, the FSOs build upon these pillars of<br />
community and intellectual capital. They will<br />
codify and centralize functional talent and scale<br />
a functional mission across our business.<br />
This starts with adding to the outlook of our<br />
people and the alignments across our business.<br />
We have always had market leaders running<br />
account portfolios. That won’t change. But<br />
we’re now charging executives to lead growth<br />
from a functional perspective and seek out<br />
opportunities to expand solutions within each<br />
market account.<br />
Functionally aligned talent will have expanded<br />
opportunities to explore the challenges associated<br />
with building, scaling, and standardizing the<br />
delivery of original capabilities with transformative<br />
value for Booz Allen and our clients.<br />
The Systems Delivery team has assembled a cohesive<br />
framework and management process for all of<br />
Booz Allen’s systems delivery jobs. Think of it as<br />
a Starbucks coffee approach applied to software<br />
delivery. The team has standardized our software<br />
delivery process so that every project, regardless<br />
of team or geography, tastes like Booz Allen.<br />
As market and FSO teams aggregate talent and<br />
resources, account leaders will be able to identify<br />
the resources and intellectual capital they need<br />
to grow their value to clients through an expanding<br />
capability set. Likewise, capability leaders<br />
will have access to resources and problem sets to<br />
apply their solutions in new ways and inspire an<br />
institutional view of expertise and lifecycle talent<br />
management through accounts. It’s a virtuous<br />
circle that further streamlines investment, scopes<br />
a sensible risk posture, and inspires a collective<br />
mindset through reciprocal gains.<br />
ACCELERATING FLOW<br />
What’s more, the flow of intellectual capital and<br />
resources can increase proportionally to the<br />
number of intersections among our accounts<br />
and functional areas.<br />
Yes, we will go to<br />
market faster.<br />
We will continue to<br />
build original value<br />
for our clients.<br />
For example, in the future<br />
when a leader identifies a<br />
market opportunity to solve<br />
a client’s technical engineering<br />
challenge, they can<br />
access the Engineering and<br />
Science FSO. Knowing who<br />
to reach for in a large organization<br />
is a significant step to<br />
codify. In the past we relied<br />
on our entrepreneurial culture—with<br />
great success—but can now respond to<br />
market needs faster through a disciplined process.<br />
The FSO then takes part in solving the capability<br />
challenge. Rotating in the right engineers and the<br />
smartest intellectual capital from across the firm<br />
both improves our ability to match the challenge<br />
and constructs a pipeline around our engineering<br />
capability in a new market.<br />
CONNECTING TALENT TO MEANINGFUL WORK<br />
Stronger functional agendas and inspired talent<br />
are inextricably linked to top and bottom line<br />
sustainable growth. After all, the growth of our<br />
core business underpins<br />
and strengthens both the<br />
success of our talent and<br />
our expanding capabilities.<br />
Yes, we will go to market<br />
faster. We will continue<br />
to build original value for<br />
our clients.<br />
With the rotational nature<br />
of the FSOs, our functionally<br />
aligned talent will<br />
become even more valuable<br />
to the market upon their return to those teams.<br />
The FSOs make it easier to harvest new capabilities,<br />
forge meaningful connections, advance careers, and<br />
leave an imprint on Booz Allen and our clients.<br />
36 | FUNCTIONAL GROWTH<br />
Innovation Philosophy > ENVOI Articles | 37
BOOZ ALLEN STARTS<br />
WITH<br />
CHARACTERS<br />
By Aimee George Leary<br />
Booz Allen has come a long way since guiding our<br />
first client—the Illinois State Railroad—and pioneering<br />
management consulting. But we’ve never<br />
been constrained to a predetermined track.<br />
Our expertise, best practices, and work ethic have<br />
revolutionized how industries think over generations<br />
and taught us that the trades of 1914, while foundational,<br />
can no longer push our clients forward.<br />
So we evolved.<br />
Today, we’re the leading generation of builders.<br />
We’re scientists, engineers, technologists, and<br />
storytellers inspired by collaboration and the<br />
desire to solve a problem that matters. It’s why our<br />
data scientists diagnose medical research with the<br />
latest algorithms, and our engineers prototype<br />
new technology to counter improvised explosive<br />
devices. It’s why our developers reboot the conventions<br />
of software delivery, and our interns build<br />
models to detect human trafficking.<br />
We’re at our best when the stakes are high and<br />
the problems are big.<br />
The truth is, we’re still keeping our clients on the<br />
tracks—and daring them to think beyond the predictable.<br />
We have always been driven by a united<br />
purpose to make the world better, safer, and more<br />
connected. We’ve simply expanded how we do it.<br />
Booz Allen starts with characters. And you can<br />
be one of them. If you see yourself in these<br />
characters and you want to leave an imprint on<br />
the world, then join us.<br />
We’re waiting for you.<br />
BOOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS<br />
38 | BOOZ ALLEN STARTS WITH CHARACTERS<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles<br />
| 39
THE<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
CONSULTANT<br />
Management consulting is a $200 billion global industry of analyzing<br />
problems and developing plans for better performance. It’s about determining<br />
which business models to follow, products to build, investments to grow,<br />
and how to structure management when an organization undergoes change.<br />
And it’s in the middle of a <strong>transformation</strong>.<br />
Digital technology has disrupted the status quo of businesses everywhere<br />
and changed the paradigm for how the management consultant delivers<br />
solutions. The shift to a data-driven economy, led by the rise of cheap, powerful<br />
cloud computing, has clients demanding new answers for increasingly<br />
complex, technology-centric problems.
SOFT SKILLS, HARD PROBLEMS<br />
The management consultant understands their<br />
client’s mission as their clients do. They frame<br />
problems correctly (and frame correct problems),<br />
Classic Problems the<br />
Management Consultant Solves<br />
+ + Businss and IT Strategy<br />
+ + Organizational Design and<br />
Development<br />
+ + Shared Services<br />
+ + Change Management<br />
+ + Business Process Reengineering<br />
+ + Customer Relationship Management<br />
+ + Performance Management<br />
gather valuable data, and<br />
synthesize a practical<br />
answer. Their recommendations<br />
are born of knowledge<br />
and experience,<br />
not intuition. They’re the<br />
ultimate change agent,<br />
committed to helping<br />
clients win support and<br />
institute the <strong>transformation</strong>s<br />
they need.<br />
These characteristics<br />
have always defined<br />
the management consultant. Challenges excite<br />
them, and fitting pieces together to solve a client’s<br />
puzzle is what they savor most. Since 1914, the<br />
Booz Allen management consultant has devised<br />
business and IT strategies, implemented organizational<br />
redesigns and developments, reengineered<br />
business processes, and managed change for<br />
some of the world’s biggest and most dynamic<br />
organizations.<br />
The challenges these dynamic organizations face<br />
require equally dynamic individuals focused on<br />
solving them. The management consultant is just<br />
that—a creative, collaborative, business-savvy<br />
connector who moves fast, yet stays grounded in<br />
economics and business operations.<br />
Traditionally, the management consultant has<br />
been seen as a generalist: a voracious learner who<br />
can add value to just about everything. While they<br />
may not know the single answer to a problem,<br />
they do know the dozen analyses that need to be<br />
performed to find it.<br />
Tomorrow’s management consultant, however,<br />
won’t settle for generalities.<br />
TODAY’S FUTURE IS TOMORROW’S PAST<br />
For much of the last 50 years, consultants created<br />
value through clever financial restructuring,<br />
mergers and acquisitions, and strategic positioning<br />
recommendations delivered to a client in a<br />
final presentation after<br />
a few months of work.<br />
Most, but not all, graduated<br />
from top-tier MBA<br />
programs and deployed<br />
generalist business strategy<br />
skills to solve client<br />
problems.<br />
Digital Disruption<br />
CEOs expect to make 40% of corporate<br />
revenue from digital channels<br />
by 2019, and digitally driven management<br />
consulting will grow by 12.6%<br />
CAGR in that same time frame.<br />
Today’s clients have been to business school,<br />
have a CPA, or have been consultants themselves.<br />
They are increasingly asking outside experts<br />
to bring non-traditional solutions to address their<br />
top priorities.<br />
Whether it’s “Uber-ifying” a mobile app to create<br />
a frictionless customer experience, deploying<br />
data scientists and enterprise architects to build<br />
a new financial product platform, or creating<br />
an IT strategy that works with existing clouds<br />
and sales tools, the problems have changed.<br />
Traditional generalists simply aren’t equipped<br />
to solve them.<br />
They’re the ultimate change agent, committed<br />
to helping clients win support and institute the<br />
<strong>transformation</strong>s they need.<br />
In a world where business value is increasingly<br />
created on software platforms, the Booz Allen<br />
management consultant will be a strategist who<br />
can also program in Python, or an engineer who<br />
can pragmatically explain new business models<br />
enabled by distributed ledgers.<br />
TOMORROW’S MANAGEMENT<br />
CONSULTANT<br />
Tomorrow’s biggest challenges chiefly include<br />
growth, digital <strong>transformation</strong> and user experience,<br />
cost cutting, environmental and social responsibility,<br />
security and risk, and change management.<br />
And the management consultant creates value by<br />
coupling business insights with knowledge of technology,<br />
analytics, and service design to solve those<br />
challenges. They fall into one of three types.<br />
Tech-savvy strategists are classic generalists who<br />
“minor” in a technology or information disciplines<br />
like analytics, digital UI/UX, or DevOps. They work<br />
to identify technological ways to increase revenues,<br />
cut costs, or outmaneuver competitors. They join<br />
Booz Allen from top-tier programs and look to<br />
invigorate clients with modern spins on traditional<br />
consulting approaches.<br />
Business-savvy technologists speak in business<br />
language and have experience in designing,<br />
testing, and launching new services<br />
and products. They embrace a lean<br />
startup mindset and believe in prototyping<br />
with real clients and customers.<br />
Whether you’re from Silicon Valley or<br />
Silicon Alley, you can help introduce<br />
leading tech nology platforms to some of the biggest<br />
federal and commercial clients out there.<br />
Industry-savvy quants have backgrounds in<br />
research, analytics, and core mission-oriented<br />
functions and have a sixth sense for what it takes<br />
to drive change within a client’s organization.<br />
We love evolving them into light data scientists,<br />
schooled in emerging modeling techniques and<br />
technologies to inform problem-solving.<br />
These new pioneers are<br />
user-centered, digital, and<br />
diverse. They never stop<br />
learning and stay one step<br />
ahead of their clients.<br />
They are management<br />
consultants, after all.<br />
Tomorrow's Management<br />
Consultants<br />
+ + The Tech-savvy Strategist<br />
+ + The Business-savvy Technologist<br />
+ + The Industry-savvy Quant<br />
42 | THE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 43
THE<br />
CLOUD<br />
ARCHITECT<br />
Rapid evolution of the cloud market has introduced new IT challenges, as<br />
organizations move from closed, proprietary systems to open agile enterprises.<br />
Organizations struggle to traverse this digital terrain alone. They must swap<br />
heavy capital investments in storage systems for variable, but on-demand,<br />
virtual computing resources. They want more speed and agility and can’t<br />
afford to guess at infrastructure capacity, nor the high costs of running and<br />
maintaining data centers.<br />
While many see these challenges as frustrating, the cloud architect thinks<br />
differently. They see digital not as it is, but as it could be.
SHERPAS OF SCALE<br />
Technology is evolving at a pace most struggle to<br />
keep, and tension exists between the operational<br />
necessity to maintain lumbering legacy systems and<br />
the imperative to invest in higher-order business<br />
needs through a modernized enterprise. From baremetal<br />
interfaces to community-driven DevOps<br />
practices that scale micro-services across a multicloud<br />
environment, every organization is somewhere<br />
along the spectrum of cloud transition.<br />
Cloud-First,<br />
Says the President<br />
In 2011, the White House<br />
released the Federal Cloud<br />
Computing Strategy report,<br />
mandating that government<br />
agencies must evaluate safe,<br />
secure cloud computing<br />
options prior to making any<br />
new investments in IT.<br />
The cloud architect is the Sherpa<br />
who guides the journey. They<br />
assess a client’s IT maturity,<br />
work with them to articulate<br />
and capture their blueprint for<br />
the future, and set a course to<br />
get there together.<br />
They’re trusted, resourceful<br />
leaders. They possess strategic<br />
knowledge of on-demand technology,<br />
platforms and providers, and know how to<br />
match the right tool to the right business problem.<br />
RELATIONSHIPS ARE EVERYTHING<br />
The cloud architect builds the connections<br />
between executives and application deployment<br />
teams. But they build confidence in cloud projects,<br />
too. They have an aptitude for managing vendor<br />
relationships, defining computing loads, negotiating<br />
licenses, and understand the dynamics of a<br />
virtual work environment in order to find the<br />
right cloud solution for a client.<br />
Booz Allen’s open source cloud broker platform allows<br />
clients to manage, automate, and control complex cloud<br />
environments. An intuitive front-end interface connects<br />
buyers to cloud products, and simplifies decision-making<br />
for enterprises with multiple cloud services. In December<br />
2015, the platform integrated with ManageIQ, the upstream<br />
open source community that forms the basis of Red Hat<br />
CloudForms. This integration marked a major step forward<br />
for cloud brokering and the unified management of infrastructures<br />
and applications in hybrid cloud environments.<br />
EXPLORE THE CODE AT: https://github.com/projectjellyfish,<br />
OR VISIT: projectjellyfish.org.<br />
It’s a job that requires related, yet distinct skills.<br />
Chart a cloud adoption plan. Design a cloud application.<br />
Broker a cloud management and monitoring<br />
strategy. The cloud architect maps application<br />
architecture and deployment in virtual environments—public,<br />
private, and hybrid clouds—and<br />
acts as a companion who keeps clients up to date<br />
on the latest trends and issues.<br />
But above all, the Booz Allen cloud architect leads.<br />
They’re adept at translating business problems and<br />
requirements into practical solutions that technical<br />
teams can build. This requires a communicator’s<br />
tongue, matched with a project management eye,<br />
attributes that allow them to overcome pressure to<br />
deliver on time and on budget.<br />
What Happens When a Cloud Bursts?<br />
Worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow at a 19.4% compound<br />
annual growth rate, from nearly $70B in 2015 to more than $141B in 2019.<br />
Source: Forbes, Roundup of Cloud Computing Forecasts and Market<br />
Estimates, 2016<br />
MANY FIRMS ARE BIG. SOME ARE AGILE. FEW ARE BOTH.<br />
boozallen.com/digital<br />
46 | THE CLOUD ARCHITECT
THE<br />
DATA<br />
SCIENTIST<br />
The data scientist has<br />
changed the perspective of<br />
business. Techniques like<br />
deep learning augment<br />
human intelligence and<br />
enable people to work more<br />
effectively and efficiently.<br />
The Biggest Problems<br />
The data scientist dares to take on the<br />
most challenging problems in government<br />
and industry.<br />
+ + LIFE SCIENCES:<br />
Prescribing new research and<br />
development processes for biopharmaceutical<br />
companies<br />
+ + DEFENSE:<br />
Creating tools for the Navy to predict<br />
patient behavior and evaluate different<br />
scenarios at medical centers<br />
+ + FEDERAL REGULATORY:<br />
Streamlining medication review for<br />
regulatory bodies<br />
+ + SPORTS:<br />
Helping sports franchises optimize<br />
performance on the field, off the field,<br />
and in the stands<br />
Changing the World<br />
with Data Science<br />
+ Participates in the Booz<br />
Allen-sponsored Data<br />
Science Bowl, the world’s<br />
largest data science competition<br />
for social good<br />
+ Takes part in the Hackathon<br />
for Hope to create analytical<br />
models to prevent genocide<br />
+ Partners with a nonprofit<br />
that maps human trafficking<br />
networks<br />
+ Sponsors workshops to get<br />
middle and high school<br />
girls interested in STEM<br />
The wearable revolution<br />
is democratizing data for<br />
a new generation of sports<br />
and fitness enthusiasts.<br />
Not everyone is willing to take the risks to solve the big problems. Even fewer<br />
are equipped to do so. They’re afraid of failure, and fixing a symptom instead<br />
of the underlying condition.<br />
But, when the data scientist asks questions of data that nobody else thinks to<br />
ask, they cure healthcare inefficiencies, build anti-money-laundering models<br />
to thwart crime, program the future of artificial intelligence, drive advances<br />
in connected vehicles, and diagnose climate change.<br />
The data scientist doesn’t care how big your data is, and they’re not interested<br />
in incremental change. They dare to transform society.<br />
They’re grounded in<br />
Hadoop, Python, and<br />
R. These languages allow<br />
them to run complex<br />
algorithms over raw data<br />
using techniques such<br />
as data classification,<br />
regression, and clustering.<br />
An Eclectic & Diverse Team<br />
Booz Allen’s data scientists include<br />
a former artist, an architect, two<br />
rocket scientists, a forester, and<br />
multiple physicists. What’s more,<br />
Booz Allen employs the most female<br />
data scientists in the industry.<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 49
THE<br />
INTELLIGENCE<br />
ANALYST<br />
There are questions that terrify millions and stir world leaders and CEOs in<br />
their sleep. Will North Korea develop a hydrogen bomb? Will Turkey continue<br />
to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party separatist group? Which Fortune 500<br />
company will be the target of the next crippling network attack?<br />
Rarely are there easy and immediate answers to these questions. Along with<br />
their scale and significance, it’s the element of mystery that makes them so<br />
scary. But it’s also what attracts the intelligence analyst to Booz Allen.<br />
The intelligence analyst sleuths to solve the major economic, military, diplomatic,<br />
and scientific problems with no clear answers. It’s a job as complex and opaque<br />
as assembling a 3-D jigsaw puzzle without the box cover.<br />
The intelligence analyst seeks out raw information<br />
to establish connections and develop hypotheses<br />
of the most likely situational outcomes. It’s crucial<br />
for their analysis to be actionable, with predictions<br />
and options for leaders to best allocate resources<br />
and counter threats. Human lives and critical<br />
infrastructure are often at stake.<br />
Critical thinking is a fundamental trait. They’re<br />
equal measure predictive detective and proactive<br />
entrepreneur. Tirelessly, they search for the<br />
signs that point to what might happen next, and<br />
constantly consider new methods and tools to<br />
reach those conclusions faster.<br />
Strong research skills are likewise essential,<br />
as the intelligence analyst must scrutinize and<br />
synthesize information from a wide variety<br />
of sources. They’ll switch between long-term<br />
research to determine the decades-long effects<br />
of the UK’s potential exit from the European<br />
Union and quick-turn projects to uncover<br />
whether a terror group is planning an attack<br />
in the Sinai Peninsula.<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 51
Articles<br />
N o . 002<br />
BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON<br />
THE SOFTER SCIENCES<br />
The intelligence analyst is grounded in the social<br />
sciences, and sometimes, military intelligence.<br />
They couple traditional skills with domain experience<br />
in a particular region, language, or culture,<br />
or with technical expertise in engineering or<br />
programming.<br />
KNOWING JUST TO KNOW<br />
Do you ever realize you’ve spent an hour cruising<br />
through Wikipedia articles when you only meant<br />
to look up one topic? The intelligence analyst finds<br />
fun in knowing things just for the knowing and<br />
drawing connections among things in the world<br />
around them. They’re inquisitive, creative, and<br />
Adopting the Attitude<br />
Like a gumshoe on stakeout, the intelligence<br />
analyst blends into the culture<br />
of the client they are serving. They’re<br />
typically embedded on-site in civilian<br />
and military agencies.<br />
intellec tually curious,<br />
with highly analytical<br />
minds. And<br />
they’re also voracious<br />
readers.<br />
Coming to Commercial<br />
The value of intelligence is growing beyond military and<br />
clandestine applications. Today, the commercial sector seeks<br />
the intelligence analyst's expertise. Industries include:<br />
+ + Retail<br />
+ + Financial Services<br />
+ + Automotive<br />
+ + Oil and Gas<br />
AN INTEGRAL INVESTMENT<br />
The intelligence analyst plays an essential role in<br />
protecting our nation. With latitude to see their<br />
ideas put into action and the space to collaborate<br />
with beautiful minds, they discover skills and<br />
techniques critical to cracking their next case.<br />
Critical thinking is a fundamental trait.<br />
They’re equal measure predictive<br />
detective and proactive entrepreneur.<br />
Discover your next challenge at:<br />
BOOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS.<br />
A COLLECTION OF<br />
ORIGINAL STORIES<br />
DOWNLOAD TODAY<br />
BY SEARCHING ‘ENVOI ARTICLES’ IN YOUR APP STORE<br />
52 | THE INTELLIGENCE ANALYST
THE<br />
INTERNS<br />
It’s 7:35 PM at a downtown Washington, D.C., restaurant. A plate of half eaten<br />
dumplings and soft drinks drank to the dregs litter the table. Every few minutes,<br />
an idea floats out from one of the half-dozen interns. It’ll land however it does—<br />
either challenged, or celebrated—before they move on to the next.<br />
10:30 AM the next morning, and the scene isn’t much different. Laptops running<br />
shell scripts and regression analyses replace the dumplings, and expo markers<br />
scatter the tables of a conference room. But the opinions keep flying. The problems<br />
they’re solving are big ones, as the intern challenges at Booz Allen range from<br />
ending human trafficking, to engineering a polygraph machine for Twitter, to<br />
installing cameras into quad-copters to find victims in the wake of a disaster.<br />
Collaborative challenges consume the intern from early morning to late<br />
evening. They have a perspective, and they’re not shy about sharing it.<br />
That’s by design. In diverse teams, it’s the ability to debate and examine<br />
their thinking that leads to greater clarity.<br />
STANDING OUT IN A CROWD<br />
But the intern isn’t limited to a group. They’re<br />
encouraged to pursue their own ideas. After hours,<br />
they scribble, scrap, and scheme up a pitch to<br />
solve a problem plaguing society. The winner gets<br />
invited back the following semester to create<br />
a proof of concept for their pitch.<br />
Whether alone or in groups, the intern shapes<br />
their own experience. With each brainstorm,<br />
answers become sharper and more defined. When<br />
they have an idea or a new opinion, they’re compelled<br />
to share it with their colleagues. Buzzing<br />
teammates on GroupMe, or scheduling a pickup<br />
kickball game, the intern is always available to<br />
debate and collaborate with their peers. In this<br />
constant conversation, the intern finds not just<br />
inspiration, but friends, and the chance to make<br />
a difference in the world.<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 55
THE<br />
CREATIVE<br />
Anyone can add more stuff to a deliverable: more fluff, more words, another<br />
idea, and extra details. But the creative see things differently. They know<br />
complex problems don’t always need complex solutions. In fact, more often<br />
than not, it’s the opposite. A complex problem, fully understood and elegantly<br />
presented, is simple to understand.<br />
The creative takes the time to learn the complexities of their clients’ audiences,<br />
to scrub their data, to comb through their research, and to extract the insights,<br />
but deliver something simple. Something enduring. Something memorable.<br />
The creative feels compelled to refine meaning by removing information.<br />
For them, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
MAKING > TALKING<br />
A TEAM OF TRADES<br />
BIG PROBLEMS TO SOLVE<br />
THE TASTE OF SUCCESS<br />
“Where do your original ideas come from?” For<br />
the Booz Allen creative, they aren’t conjured up<br />
by magic, but discipline. They are the output<br />
of a process-driven mandate to think differently<br />
through the assembly of associative, divergent,<br />
convergent, collaborative, and usually caffeinated<br />
thinking, combined with deep craftsmanship.<br />
Like their consultant and technical peers, the<br />
creative starts with a clear understanding of<br />
the problem. Research forms their common<br />
sense foundation. It’s a perpetual exercise in<br />
sifting through details and statistics, rotating<br />
ideas through associative contexts and market<br />
research—stepping back to let the notes and<br />
connections ruminate—and transforming divergent<br />
debate to informed opinions. Only then do<br />
they arrive at an original perspective that others<br />
haven’t considered.<br />
At times this means the creative will serve up<br />
answers to questions their clients didn’t ask or<br />
couldn’t have imagined. They do this because<br />
they’re not interested in listing out a menu of all<br />
the possible solutions (they’re not solely production<br />
artists, after all). They’re attracted to the<br />
business problems implied by a client’s request.<br />
The creative builds success not as a lone inventor,<br />
but as part of a diverse team of highly skilled<br />
tradespeople who chisel, plane, and join together<br />
the different parts of a single idea. They don’t just<br />
value collaboration; they’re inspired by it.<br />
The Booz Allen creative touches<br />
every part of business.<br />
Daily, they roll up their sleeves and join forces with<br />
writers, strategists, and technologists. They share a<br />
common desire to make something useful that will<br />
also amaze. It’s why they get in early and stay late.<br />
Creative vs. Art<br />
Creative is the original idea that solves a business problem.<br />
Art is the applied expression of that creative. It can take<br />
the form of a product design, a mobile app, a speech, visual<br />
identity, video, brand strategy, event experience, or whatever<br />
is needed to solve the problem.<br />
Creative Roles at Booz Allen<br />
+ + Creative Director<br />
+ + Art Director<br />
+ + Designer<br />
+ + Animator<br />
+ + Producer<br />
+ + Videographer<br />
+ + Copywriter<br />
The Booz Allen creative touches every part of<br />
business. They’re at their best when the problems<br />
are big and when<br />
they’re associating the<br />
ideas of management<br />
consultants with thinking<br />
from engineers, data<br />
scientists, and others.<br />
The engineer can<br />
show you how to build<br />
something, but the<br />
creative motivates you to<br />
pick it up and play with<br />
it. Together, they tackle<br />
the business problems of motivation, experience,<br />
awareness, engagement, and participation.<br />
+ + Brand Marketing Strategist<br />
The Value of Creative<br />
"Creativity will rise from the 10th<br />
most valuable business skill in<br />
2015 to 3rd by 2020."<br />
—Future of Jobs Report,<br />
World Economic Forum<br />
Clients are becoming more astute about how they<br />
buy strategy, design, and creative services. They<br />
know the way their audiences experience things<br />
matters. Giving them a flavor they enjoy and one<br />
they’ll want to try again is essential to success.<br />
These clients have the ability to wonder but often<br />
lack the skill to execute. The creative helps deliver<br />
on that promise.<br />
Getting the flavor of those experiences just right<br />
is a delicate balance. Too bland and the taste won't<br />
linger. Too rich and people will assume the solution<br />
is either artificial or overbearing. But when<br />
the recipe is just right, the experience creates<br />
something memorable and enjoyable that spills<br />
over long after the moment has passed.<br />
We’ve all tasted it. It’s the difference between the<br />
right word and the almost right word in a line of<br />
copy, the intuitive functionality of a web app that<br />
anticipates your behavior, or the experience design<br />
of a training that motivates you to keep learning.<br />
It’s that taste that clients have come to expect.<br />
More importantly, it’s what creatives have come to<br />
expect from themselves.<br />
Sound fun? You bet it is.<br />
But, like the developer who would rather ship code,<br />
or the engineer who prefers to prototype a minimum<br />
viable product, the Booz Allen creative knows that<br />
making something creates more value than talking<br />
about it. And they have the splinters to prove it.<br />
58 | THECREATIVE<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 59
THE<br />
TALENT AGENT<br />
As the consultant’s consultant, the talent agent is at the heart of the Booz<br />
Allen experience. They work to attract talent to Booz Allen and to discover<br />
and promote the things that keep them here. Yet, when you peel away the<br />
analytics, development, actions, and empathy, the talent agent cultivates<br />
the answer to a single question: “Why Booz Allen?”<br />
THEY CONNECT YOU TO CLIENTS<br />
The talent agent is the face and the voice of<br />
Booz Allen recruiting. The job requires constant<br />
balance of client needs and technical skill, with<br />
cultural fit and marketing savvy. The talent agent<br />
collaborates with teams across the business to<br />
analyze market and growth opportunities and<br />
couple those insights with creative strategies to<br />
find compelling, qualified candidates.<br />
THEY CARE ABOUT YOUR WORK<br />
Careers at Booz Allen are an assembly of multiple<br />
jobs and experiences. Talent may work on several<br />
projects over the course of a career. It’s a function<br />
of expanding interests and business realities.<br />
As client engagements end and original capabilities<br />
emerge, the talent agent connects teams to<br />
potential clients and talent to fresh opportunities.<br />
Facilitating new ideas and perspectives is essential<br />
to maintaining an inspired workforce.<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 61
BECAUSE IDEAS TAKE TIME<br />
You know it, and we know it. A great idea starts out life as<br />
little more than a hunch. At Booz Allen, we offer our talent<br />
dedicated iTime to devote to their passions and creative ideas<br />
—and be recognized for it. Whether you’re toying with an<br />
early intuition, developing the details, or pitching a complete<br />
solution, there’s iTime.<br />
THEY ARE INVESTED<br />
IN YOUR GROWTH<br />
Learning and development<br />
is inextricably linked<br />
to advancement at Booz<br />
Allen. Whether it’s acquiring<br />
new skills to broaden<br />
perspective or further refining the depth of one<br />
particular capability, the talent agent helps here,<br />
too. They have developed and instructed more<br />
than 1,000 virtual and in-person courses that<br />
expand the potential of Booz Allen’s talent with<br />
skills the business needs.<br />
THEY KNOW DIFFERENCES MATTER<br />
Diversity isn’t just a core value at Booz Allen—it’s<br />
a necessity. Booz Allen’s clients represent diverse<br />
backgrounds, ideas, and agendas, and the talent<br />
agent knows the firm must do the same—and<br />
more—to inspire them. It’s why they create space<br />
for conversations and empower agendas and<br />
forums that champion a culture of inclusion. It’s a<br />
business imperative. Original ideas are the output<br />
of divergent viewpoints and backgrounds that are<br />
given the support to experiment and fail forward.<br />
The talent agent collaborates with teams across<br />
the business to analyze market and growth<br />
opportunities and couple those insights with<br />
creative strategies to find compelling, qualified<br />
candidates.<br />
THEY RECOGNIZE THE WORK YOU DO<br />
The talent agent knows life doesn’t stop once you<br />
leave the office and understands that total rewards<br />
make a difference. Adoption assistance, elderly<br />
care, wellness programs, compensation tailored to<br />
fit individual needs, and more are all components<br />
of a competitive package that extends beyond salary<br />
and close of business.<br />
Learn more at BOOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS.<br />
Join us, and start playing with the ideas that inspire you.<br />
CAREERS.BOOZALLEN.COM<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 63
THE<br />
ENGINEERS<br />
Imagine a company where people tinker with UAVs to detect and rescue<br />
survivors within disaster response zones. Or reconfigure handheld facial<br />
recognition devices to help contain the spread of deadly disease. Or blast<br />
a micro-satellite the size of a coffeepot into space to measure the energy<br />
effects of shooting a sodium laser guide star directly at it.<br />
Building the awe-inspiring technologies of the future is part of the day-to-day for<br />
the Booz Allen engineer. Daily, they experiment with the latest scientific and<br />
mechanical tradecraft to make the world a better, safer, and more exciting place.
A GALAXY OF PROJECTS<br />
At Booz Allen, the stuff of science fiction is<br />
becoming reality. For the engineer, boredom is<br />
impossible here.<br />
They transcend multiple work environments—<br />
from whiteboarding in collaboration spaces to<br />
operating heavy machinery in prototyping labs—<br />
and are encouraged to experiment with different<br />
techniques and tools.<br />
In rapid prototyping and production labs, for<br />
instance, they work with “pick and place” machines<br />
to assemble custom circuit boards, drills and<br />
milling equipment, laser cutters, “shake-and-bake”<br />
machines to test prototype durability, microscopes,<br />
and x-ray machines to debug circuit boards.<br />
And they have to work fast. The engineer must<br />
design, prototype, and iterate through multiple<br />
versions to ensure technical solutions keep pace<br />
with rapidly changing client missions. Right now,<br />
Booz Allen’s engineers are:<br />
+ + Protecting the lives of civilians and warfighters<br />
by countering explosive devices and stopping<br />
ballistic missiles with identification and tracking<br />
algorithms<br />
+ + Creating biometric (face, eye, and fingerprint)<br />
recognition systems<br />
+ + Improving water purification systems<br />
+ + Intercepting, identifying, and jamming RFID<br />
communication signals<br />
+ + Designing “five degree of freedom” flight<br />
motion systems<br />
+ + Configuring satellite and wireless communication<br />
infrastructure to better serve citizens<br />
+ + Discovering new applications for medical laser<br />
technologies<br />
ALLIANCES THAT ACCELERATE<br />
For the engineer, project teams of five to six<br />
are the norm. But it’s the ability to reconfigure<br />
teams, and swap out experts with distinct skill<br />
sets as needed that propels original solutions.<br />
The engineer routinely collaborates with security<br />
experts who specialize in network vulnerabilities,<br />
and data scientists who apply daring analytics<br />
techniques to extract new insights from data.<br />
The engineer knows diversity inspires ingenuity.<br />
THE MINDSET OF A MASTER<br />
Strong communication skills are foundational for<br />
the engineer, who must translate systems requirements,<br />
characteristics, and capabilities to a wide<br />
variety of non-technical audiences.<br />
Academic equations lifted from textbooks have<br />
their applications, but the engineer isn’t welded<br />
to them. The skill of the Booz Allen engineer is to<br />
augment tradecraft with inquiry and build something<br />
original that solves the most significant<br />
challenges facing our world today.<br />
Engineering<br />
Roles<br />
The Booz Allen<br />
engineer’s work<br />
falls under a<br />
variety of categories,<br />
including:<br />
+ + Electrical<br />
+ + Mechanical<br />
+ + Forensic<br />
+ + Biometric<br />
+ + Bionuclear<br />
+ + Optical<br />
+ + Industrial<br />
+ + IT infrastructure<br />
+ + Aeronautical<br />
+ + Marine<br />
+ + Life sciences<br />
+ + Environmental<br />
Are you ready to blueprint your next career?<br />
Become a Booz Allen engineer. B OOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS<br />
Make Your Imprint<br />
We achieved great feats in our first 100 years.<br />
We pioneered management consulting. We navigated<br />
the U.S. Navy into the dominant presence of World War II.<br />
We invented Harvey Balls. We coined the phrase<br />
supply chain management.<br />
And, in 1969, we were involved in the theoretical strategy for Apollo 11<br />
that sent man to the moon.<br />
We achieved all of this in 100 years.<br />
But the real question is: What do you want to achieve?<br />
What problems will you solve<br />
in the dawn of our second century? Where will you<br />
lead us next?<br />
Our work has plumbed the depths of oceans,<br />
transformed the way entire industries work,<br />
and made an imprint on an airless moon.<br />
It’s time to make yours.<br />
Join us, and solve a problem<br />
that matters.<br />
BOOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS<br />
66 | THE ENGINEER
THE<br />
DEVELOPER<br />
It’s Saturday night, and the software developer needs to make a grocery run.<br />
Before he leaves, his wife tells him, “Buy a gallon of milk, and if there are eggs,<br />
buy a dozen.” So he makes the trip, purchases the dairy, and returns home.<br />
When he walks in, though, his wife is confused. “Why did you get 13 gallons<br />
of milk?” she exclaims. “…Because there were eggs!” the developer replies.<br />
Though the developer may have missed the eggs, his literal interpretation was<br />
sound. For rational, black-and-white thinking is what allows him to communicate<br />
with machines and program them to do amazing things, from translating<br />
foreign languages to automating airplane landings.
They’re disciplined implementers, meticulous in deconstructing and<br />
translating complex instructions, and creative dreamers, spending<br />
downtime imagining new ways that code can transform how we live<br />
in and interact with the world.<br />
At Booz Allen, we ask a lot of our developers.<br />
Write clean code. Stand up databases. Stand up<br />
servers. Use Github to manage and curate code.<br />
Script automation software to test updates and<br />
develop new versions. Yet above all, work within<br />
a set of constraints—time, budget, technology,<br />
and more—and publish a tangible experience<br />
that dazzles users.<br />
The developer thrives amidst this pressure,<br />
motivated by big challenges, from improving<br />
drug labels to reimagining how Americans<br />
visit national parks. But most of all, it’s the thrill<br />
they seek—because there’s nothing like watching<br />
your script change into a living application.<br />
A Bright Outlook for Coders<br />
17%—projected growth in software developer employment from<br />
2014 to 2024. The average growth rate for all occupations is 7%.<br />
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor,<br />
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition.<br />
Living in Languages:<br />
+ + Java<br />
+ + JavaScript<br />
+ + Ruby on Rails<br />
+ + Python<br />
+ + NET<br />
+ + C#<br />
+ + AngularJS<br />
+ + Ember<br />
Problems our Developers Solve:<br />
+ + React<br />
+ + PHP<br />
+ + Architecting modern client systems<br />
+ + Developing open frameworks and standards<br />
+ + Transforming online experiences to improve business processes<br />
70 | THE DEVELOPER
THE<br />
SECURITY<br />
PROFESSIONAL<br />
According to his congressional testimony, the U.S. Director of National<br />
Intelligence ranks cyber crime as the number one national security threat,<br />
ahead of terrorism, espionage, and weapons of mass destruction. Criminal<br />
exploitation of a single vulnerability could destabilize governments, crash<br />
economies, cripple industrial systems, or disrupt our way of life with nothing<br />
but keystrokes.<br />
The Booz Allen security professional is a software engineer who thinks like<br />
the bad guys. They deploy the same shadow techniques and tools as the<br />
criminals they’re trying to catch and defend against. Knowing how malicious<br />
hackers think and operate—and acting faster than they do—is how<br />
the security professional prevents attacks before they happen.
BETTER THAN BAD<br />
The security professional<br />
is a specialist in binary<br />
reverse engineering and<br />
malware analysis with<br />
expertise in mobile, Windows application development,<br />
and programming languages like C, Ruby,<br />
and Python. Their intuition, knowledge, and<br />
techcraft give them preemptive perspective over a<br />
client’s attack surfaces and potential vulnerabilities.<br />
They’re committed to engineering inspired<br />
solutions to imperfect systems. Assignments are<br />
often characterized by small, elite teams having<br />
to beat goliath-sized problems and opposition.<br />
The occupation is a calling.<br />
Cyber attacks come from a<br />
variety of sources, such as:<br />
+ + Phishing attacks, or emails<br />
designed to look legitimate<br />
but contain malicious links<br />
+ + Peripheral networked systems,<br />
such as those that control<br />
enterprise systems<br />
If a weakness is<br />
exploited, however, the<br />
security professional is<br />
experienced in systematically<br />
isolating and<br />
removing malware and<br />
patching the software.<br />
But they don’t stop<br />
there. They then reverse<br />
engineer the malware<br />
to determine how it was<br />
developed, how it infiltrated<br />
the infected system, and how the same code<br />
can be administered against the malicious hackers to<br />
limit or destroy their ability to conduct future attacks.<br />
+ + “Zero-day” vulnerabilities, or<br />
software holes previously<br />
unknown to the vendor<br />
+ + Security system misconfigurations<br />
INCORRUPTIBLE INTEGRITY<br />
The security professional serves as a guardian<br />
over their clients’ most sensitive information.<br />
They take that responsibility seriously.<br />
Yet, they’re investigative by nature. They’re<br />
"Employment of security professionals is projected<br />
to grow 18% from 2014 to 2024, much faster than<br />
the average for all other occupations."<br />
trained to sniff out vulnerabilities in network<br />
data, code, and firmware that would seem meaningless<br />
to the ordinary person.<br />
Incorruptible integrity, therefore, is essential.<br />
They know the value of silence and responsible<br />
disclosure.<br />
TENACIOUS ETHIC<br />
Defending an industrial control system or<br />
building a honey pot to trap malicious actors is<br />
a relentless occupation. No one knows when the<br />
next attack will happen. Just that it will.<br />
The security professional has to operate with persistent<br />
fortitude. They don’t take shortcuts. And they<br />
never give up. But they<br />
don’t find it exhausting. Booz Allen security professionals<br />
They’re fascinated by<br />
were solving IoT problems before<br />
their craft. Productive<br />
there was an Internet of Things<br />
even in downtime, they<br />
spend their evenings tenaciously working on their<br />
own projects—from building robots, to tinkering<br />
with Aruino chipsets, to hacking into their home<br />
thermostat systems.<br />
Like the systems and adversaries they defend<br />
and besiege, the security professional never<br />
turns off. They can’t afford to. They work as part<br />
of a patriotic band of coders, technologists, and<br />
analysts who solve the impossible parts of wicked<br />
problems—before they become CNN headlines.<br />
You can, too. B OOZALLEN.COM/CAREERS.<br />
—Bureau of Labor Statistics<br />
A S P E N I D E A S<br />
F E S T I V A L 2 0 1 6<br />
ASPEN, COLORADO • JUNE 23–JULY 2<br />
In 2015, Booz Allen co-developed and sponsored the inaugural<br />
Aspen Ideas Award, celebrating those original ideas with the<br />
potential to impact our society and global communities. Over 100<br />
Festival presenters and Aspen Scholars submitted ideas last year,<br />
ranging from delivering better healthcare to addressing global<br />
sustainability. In 2016, who knows what ideas might change the<br />
world. We’ll find out in Aspen.<br />
74 | THE SECURITY PROFESSIONAL
THE<br />
PRODUCT<br />
MANAGER<br />
The pace of change is potent at Booz Allen. It’s a constant whirl of new<br />
programming languages, new partner investments, and new contracts moving<br />
in step with client problems, fresh ideas, and alternative revenue models.<br />
Booz Allen has led the professional services industry for more than a century. But<br />
there’s need for new skills as client delivery models are refined and expanded to<br />
productize services and software. Working out what solutions to commercialize,<br />
analyzing where to invest, how to sell, and being smart enough to know when<br />
to change nothing requires a new type of ringleader: The product manager.<br />
But for all the speed and orchestration, their intuitions are balanced by a single<br />
question: Is the problem persistent, pervasive, and something a market is<br />
willing to pay to solve?
NEW VALUE—NOT JUST NEW THINGS<br />
A typical product company will look for a problem<br />
to solve, invent a way to solve it, and build a sales<br />
pipeline to export it. Productization at a services<br />
company, however, is more intricate. The product<br />
manager is essential for a consulting firm<br />
experimenting with alternative revenue models.<br />
There’s more to consider. And the approach is<br />
often more sophisticated.<br />
Booz Allen Products<br />
Visit pit.bah.com to explore<br />
the products<br />
+ + Argo<br />
+ + Cyber4Sight<br />
+ + E3<br />
+ + HealthMap<br />
+ + MedWatcher<br />
+ + Nemesys<br />
+ + Pilotmate<br />
Potential products from service<br />
companies are usually created<br />
from solving specific client<br />
problems. The product manager’s<br />
research and skills are<br />
vital to determine if the solution<br />
can and should be productized,<br />
or whether to keep it as a proprietary,<br />
internal tool.<br />
It starts with market analysis.<br />
Understanding the competitive<br />
landscape, investigating how Booz<br />
Allen’s scientists and engineers<br />
are solving a problem, and sizing<br />
the scope of potential opportunities<br />
underpin how potential products<br />
could build business for the firm. The product<br />
manager’s mission is similar to other roles at Booz<br />
Allen: build new value—not just new things.<br />
+ + Project Jellyfish<br />
+ + Polaris<br />
+ + Raptor 7<br />
+ + Sailfish<br />
MULTILINGUAL<br />
The product manger speaks several languages.<br />
They have to, as they’re often the conduit between<br />
technology and business. They’re technically<br />
proficient enough to debate new features with<br />
developers and engineers and translate those<br />
insights to business analysts through a financial<br />
and marketing vocabulary.<br />
As a result, the product manager routinely aggregates<br />
their time around short bursts of dedicated<br />
efforts on several disparate topics. They regularly<br />
spin between finance, creative, and strategy in a<br />
single day.<br />
THE SWEET SPOT<br />
New business models and revenue streams are<br />
indispensible to growth. A vibrant products business<br />
adds to conventional client delivery models.<br />
In fact, the most successful products and managed<br />
services are those that augment Booz Allen’s<br />
consulting solutions.<br />
Whereas some product companies seek to sell<br />
units of software and hardware, Booz Allen<br />
propels our core business through products.<br />
The best products are those where the firm has an<br />
existing market presence and the product creates<br />
opportunity to deliver related consulting services.<br />
Is the problem persistent, pervasive, and<br />
something a market is willing to pay to solve?<br />
By licensing a product, Booz Allen can both generate<br />
incremental growth after a contract ends and<br />
build affinity with a client in order to win future<br />
business.<br />
Whether through reseller agreements, additions<br />
to existing work, or entirely new business models,<br />
the product manager directs it all.<br />
DVR<br />
SOLUTIONS<br />
RAPTOR<br />
Booz Allen has a 100-year history of consulting and providing valuable solutions<br />
to our clients. Now, we're racing into the future with a portfolio of products and<br />
managed services. Visit the Product Information Tool (The PIT) today to browse<br />
our software and hardware solutions that span forensics, security, project<br />
management, and surveillance.<br />
78 | THE PRODUCT MANAGER
THE<br />
SYSTEMS<br />
INTEGRATOR<br />
Systems power our world and our way of life. They’re what enable healthcare<br />
to function efficiently, military branches to connect and share information<br />
instantaneously, materials to be transported across the country, and the<br />
lights to stay on. They’re big in scale and bigger in significance. They’re also<br />
the biggest, most challenging, and most complex technical development<br />
projects to execute.<br />
The systems integrator knows what it takes to make massive systems function in<br />
harmony. They combine the art of agile development with the science of change<br />
management, and they smile at the challenges. Because it’s the systems<br />
integrator who ensures that, when you finally turn the system on, it works.
NEXT GENERATION<br />
PROJECT MANAGEMENT<br />
The culture of software development has<br />
fundamentally transformed. Water fall<br />
development processes that produce<br />
siloed systems have given way to agile<br />
methodologies that enable interconnected,<br />
interoperable enterprises.<br />
For years, there has been a tacit<br />
assumption that most systems development<br />
projects will run late and underperform<br />
when delivered. Not anymore.<br />
The systems integrator is a next-generation<br />
project and technology manager who oversees<br />
everyone embedded in large-scale software<br />
development projects. They understand the<br />
dependencies among roles and maximize the<br />
number of possible connections among people,<br />
technology, and services along the way.<br />
Who It Takes to Deliver a System<br />
+ + Data Architects<br />
+ + Data Engineers<br />
+ + Process Engineers<br />
+ + Project/Program Managers<br />
+ + Test Engineers<br />
+ + User Experience Engineers<br />
Booz Allen’s System of Systems Integrators<br />
+ + 3,000+ Systems Delivery Professionals<br />
+ + 1,400+ Microsoft Certified Professionals, Architects, Application<br />
Developers, Database Administrators, and System Administrators<br />
+ + 500+ Certified Scrum Masters, ICAgile Certified Professionals,<br />
and Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioners<br />
+ + 400+ Certified Systems Delivery Program Managers<br />
+ + 300+ Certified Software Requirements and Test Engineers<br />
+ + 250+ Certified Data Architects and Engineers<br />
+ + 125+ Certified Java/JavaScript Developers<br />
+ + 100+ Oracle Certified Database Administrators and Engineers<br />
+ + 80+ Amazon Web Services Cloud Certified Architects<br />
+ + User Support Analysts<br />
+ + Software Architects<br />
SYSTEMS NEED PEOPLE TO WORK<br />
The systems integrator is a technical generalist<br />
who understands business, software development,<br />
data, and security requirements alike,<br />
as well as associated challenges. And while<br />
they live and breathe ISO 9001 standards, and<br />
have the Agile Manifesto<br />
memorized by heart, they<br />
know systems need people<br />
to work.<br />
That’s why they value<br />
individuals and interactions<br />
over processes and tools,<br />
customer collaboration over<br />
contract negotiation, and<br />
delivering functional software over presenting<br />
documents and diagrams.<br />
+ + Software Configuration Managers<br />
+ + Software Engineers<br />
+ + Software Requirements Engineers<br />
KNOWING THE UNKNOWN<br />
The systems integrator changes how organizations<br />
engage and manage contractors, contracts,<br />
stakeholders, management, and above all, the<br />
end-user community for whom the systems<br />
intend to serve. They thrive in flux and demand<br />
dedication and practiced team persistence in<br />
every project they touch.<br />
They thrive in flux, and demand dedication and<br />
practiced team persistence in every project they touch.<br />
It’s what makes the moment so exhilarating when<br />
a system is finally built and ready to be turned<br />
on. But the systems integrator is prepared, having<br />
planned for this instant. They activate the system,<br />
and a wide smile spreads across a client’s face<br />
because it works like magic.<br />
Only it’s not magic; it just works like it should.<br />
Types of Systems Delivery Projects<br />
+ + Acquisition and Logistics<br />
+ + Case Management<br />
+ + Cyber Intelligence<br />
+ + Data Analytics<br />
+ + Digital Government<br />
+ + Financial Management<br />
+ + Fraud Detection<br />
+ + Knowledge Management<br />
+ + Mission Support<br />
+ + Payments and Grants<br />
82 | THE SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 83
THE<br />
EXECUTIVE<br />
Leadership demands perspective. The ability to translate vision into reality,<br />
to do the right things, and not just do things right. Each meeting, each<br />
employee interaction and critical decision is an opportunity to see across<br />
the business, to evaluate which opportunities to pursue and which to leave<br />
behind, to set a path forward, and to manage the risk of the journey.
0755–0845:<br />
TRIANGULATING BUSINESS<br />
0845–1230:<br />
BASE CAMP<br />
1230–1415:<br />
NAVIGATING CAREERS<br />
1415–1800:<br />
CLIENT SITE<br />
A herd of kids are shepherded down the driveway.<br />
After settling who gets the middle seat and what<br />
radio station to listen to (this time), a short beep<br />
on the horn gets the convoy under way. Inside<br />
the car, a ringtone punctures backseat chatter<br />
and Taylor Swift lyrics. The executive glances<br />
down at the controls on her steering wheel. It’s<br />
a typical school run.<br />
"It's a work call," says the oldest, eyes glued to<br />
Snapchat. It’s her second call of the morning—first<br />
from the road—and already she has solved breakfast,<br />
a homework dispute, and a budget issue.<br />
Days of back-to-back meetings are the norm, and<br />
so these early morning calls are essential. Usually<br />
scheduled within the last 48 hours, these calls<br />
give the executive brief moments with her peers<br />
to triangulate their agendas and move their<br />
respective businesses forward. Subjects vary from<br />
proposal captures to staffing decisions, strategy<br />
discussions to business operations. And amidst<br />
serious business talk, there’s always time for a<br />
joke or a question about the news.<br />
This morning’s first road call, however, is different.<br />
A young woman hopes to steal a few minutes<br />
one-on-one in-between meetings. “Absolutely. We’ll<br />
make it work. I’ll find some time and let you know<br />
when I get in,” says the executive. She has mentored<br />
this employee for the last year, and making<br />
the time to counsel her is time worth protecting.<br />
The executive’s office is a base camp. It’s a place<br />
to set out from. She spends less than half her<br />
time there, as a workday can traverse three cities<br />
and span company and client offices.<br />
The executive’s office is a base camp. It’s a place to set<br />
out from.<br />
The morning is split between conference calls<br />
and in-person meetings. It’s a flurry of setting<br />
the direction for teams, weighing decisions, and<br />
connecting clients to talent, talent to resources,<br />
and resources to emerging problem sets. It<br />
requires an enterprise perspective. The executive<br />
is charged with seeing across the business,<br />
setting a vision, managing risk and operations,<br />
and evaluating what opportunities to pursue.<br />
It’s a job of constant movement, balanced by an<br />
uncanny ability to dedicate her full attention to<br />
the task at hand.<br />
The executive is charged with<br />
seeing across the business, setting<br />
a vision, managing risk, and<br />
evaluating what opportunities<br />
to pursue.<br />
Booz Allen is a fluid organization. It’s structured,<br />
but pliable. While executives are accustomed to<br />
the pace and shift in priorities, acclimating to<br />
it takes time. That’s the message the executive<br />
gives her mentor during their conversation. Her<br />
next meeting is with a client in a different city.<br />
But she removes the sense of urgency from the<br />
moment to answer her mentee's questions and<br />
offer warm advice.<br />
The connections you make at Booz Allen are<br />
invaluable. Yes, you’ll meet colleagues and<br />
clients. Some may become close friends. But it’s<br />
the ability to manage those relationships, extract<br />
value from them by asking for help at the right<br />
moments, and giving back to them without<br />
being asked that is the mark of a leader. It’s how<br />
you navigate a successful career at Booz Allen,<br />
and how the executive guides business opportunities<br />
for their people to grow into.<br />
Booz Allen prides itself on its ability to move<br />
leaders around the business. About 10 percent<br />
of executives are rotated to new markets or positions<br />
each year. They enjoy the challenge and<br />
know it’s one of the ways Booz Allen invests in<br />
their careers. Rotation builds a more rounded,<br />
more connected leader and invigorates businesses<br />
with original perspectives.<br />
About 10 percent of executives are rotated to new markets<br />
or positions each year.<br />
A new city brings fresh challenges. Many of the<br />
executive’s teams work on client sites, and she<br />
always makes a point to meet with them when<br />
they’re in the same office. Leaning against the<br />
wall in a conference room, she chats casually<br />
with them before the day’s big meeting.<br />
In this collaborative session, the executive and her<br />
team talk through challenges, celebrate successes,<br />
and share updates on the business. On more<br />
than one occasion, she admits to not knowing an<br />
answer, but she smiles nonetheless, because she<br />
knows who to call to find out.<br />
The last meeting of the day is with another client.<br />
It’s a chance to shape a new opportunity and rise<br />
up the project lead on the existing task order.<br />
After setting some context around Booz Allen’s<br />
capabilities, she positions the project lead to run<br />
the meeting. They share a similar vision and the<br />
executive is committed to creating the space for<br />
the lead to develop his executive voice.<br />
86 | THE EXECUTIVE<br />
We Are Innovators > ENVOI Articles | 87
1800–2045:<br />
STRIKING BALANCE<br />
On the way out of the client’s office, the executive’s<br />
phone rings. A senior partner in another<br />
account needs advice on a capture strategy and<br />
a staffing issue, and invites her to dinner at a<br />
nearby restaurant, but she’s coaching her kids’<br />
soccer team this evening. A late-afternoon call<br />
from the car will suffice.<br />
She's relentless in her pursuit to connect people<br />
to new ideas and assemble the right capabilities<br />
to solve big problems. But she anticipates the<br />
need to strike a balance.<br />
A rich social and family life is a valuable and<br />
essential commodity for a leader. She's encouraged<br />
to enjoy time outside of work. Soccer<br />
practice offers an alternative challenge and a<br />
different perspective. It’s a moment to relax and<br />
a time to let new connections and strategy build<br />
in the subconscious.<br />
Tomorrow is an exciting prospect.<br />
“She's relentless in her pursuit to<br />
connect people to new ideas and<br />
assemble the right capabilities to<br />
solve big problems.”<br />
BECOME A PART<br />
OF THE MOVEMENT<br />
DOES YOUR ENTIRE ENTERPRISE RUN ON DATA?<br />
IF NOT, YOU'RE FALLING BEHIND.<br />
Turn data into action, and learn how to build and run your own in-house<br />
analytics group from Booz Allen's Data Science team.<br />
Download today:<br />
TIPS FOR BUILDING A<br />
DATA SCIENCE CAPABILITY<br />
www.boozallen.com/datascience<br />
88 | THE EXECUTIVE
I GET IT. You’re used to it and your clients are, too. Everyone<br />
on your team knows how to use it, and there are a million<br />
old templates you can reuse.<br />
PRESENT<br />
LIKE YOU'RE<br />
EINSTEIN<br />
By Karam Singh Sethi<br />
No one contests PowerPoint’s convenience. But rethinking<br />
the way you use it to present will thrill your clients, project<br />
teams, and creative subconscious, I promise.<br />
PowerPoint wasn’t always a safety net for the presenter<br />
impaired. It has transformative roots. When Bob Gaskins,<br />
a Berkeley PhD, and his band of computer scientists first<br />
created the graphics program in 1987, it made presenting<br />
easier, cheaper, and more efficient—words every consultant<br />
loves. That’s because the old way<br />
required clunky 35-mm slides,<br />
expensive projectors, and of course,<br />
graphics expertise. PowerPoint, by<br />
comparison, put the tools of presenting<br />
into the hands of the presenter,<br />
cutting out intermediaries.<br />
Version 1.0 generated text-and-graphics<br />
that a photocopier could turn into<br />
overhead transparencies, slashing<br />
the time from idea to presentation.<br />
In the years following, PowerPoint<br />
climbed and coiled around communications<br />
in every industry. Teachers<br />
could more effectively deliver courseware,<br />
engineers could better visualize<br />
complex conclusions, and even<br />
company heads could better explain<br />
the direction and strength of industry<br />
bellwethers.<br />
In these ways and more, a simple<br />
computer program that gave us the<br />
power to edit and assemble a string<br />
of slides lowered the barrier to crafting<br />
presentations. But our current<br />
application of presentation programs<br />
like PowerPoint have paradoxically<br />
diminished our ability to present.<br />
Our current application<br />
of presentation programs<br />
like PowerPoint have<br />
paradoxically diminished<br />
our ability to present.<br />
You’ve undoubtedly been on the receiving end of such a<br />
predictably boring presentation—locked away in a conference<br />
room as someone drones through a deck packed cold with<br />
content. Between the incessant clicks, they read each slide<br />
aloud, word for word, leaving no room for dialogue about<br />
the ideas they’re pitching. Your focus, along with Gaskins’<br />
ambitions, wanes. It’s another promising keynote soured by<br />
a forgettable presentation.<br />
So how do you keep your pitches fresh? First, remember that<br />
building a deck is different from presenting one. You’ll likely<br />
have longer to compile it than you will to pitch it. While your<br />
deck may be full of detail, only raise the most important points<br />
and let your audience read the rest if they choose. Second, never<br />
let the presentation do the presenting. Any slides or props you<br />
might use should only aid in your explanation of the content, not<br />
replace it. Third, remember that there is a difference between<br />
talking with people versus at them. Reciting slides words for<br />
word removes the opportunity to dialogue and discuss ideas that<br />
may shape and strengthen your perspective.<br />
90 | PRESENT LIKE YOU'RE EINSTEIN<br />
Innovation Education > ENVOI Articles | 91
HOW TO GET<br />
90% OF YOUR<br />
INTERNS TO<br />
WORK FOR YOU<br />
By Brenna Thorpe<br />
Finding, and hiring, smart people is<br />
a business imperative. Top organizations<br />
invest millions of dollars<br />
a year in recruitment strategies.<br />
Student internship programs account<br />
for a significant portion of that<br />
investment. Whereas some companies<br />
view these programs as a way<br />
to augment the business of fetching<br />
coffee and scheduling meetings,<br />
smart companies view internships<br />
as extended interviews and an opportunity<br />
to position their company as one<br />
that millennials want to work with.<br />
INTERNSHIPS, THE OLD WAY<br />
Traditional internships at Booz Allen focused on billable<br />
work—interns worked on client-facing projects and executed<br />
tasks driven by the existing scope of work. Because the projects<br />
differed in content and context, the experiences varied<br />
dramatically. Some interns never realized that Booz Allen,<br />
“looks at and solves the most complex problems the world<br />
over,” according to Lead Associate Alexe Weymouth, who<br />
was one of the pioneers behind our new intern program.<br />
“Instead of giving [the interns] little bits of billable work,<br />
we wanted to create a standardized experience that allowed<br />
them to work on the big issues.”<br />
It was time to build something new that appealed to millennials<br />
—a demographic projected to make up half of America’s<br />
workforce by 2020. In addition, research shows that members<br />
of this generation are distinguished by their desire to find<br />
careers that are both technologically original, and that have an<br />
altruistic undercurrent. Thus, Booz Allen created the competitive<br />
10-week Summer Games internship program.<br />
The numbers prove this idea. The average industry<br />
acceptance rate for full time employment offers by interns<br />
is only 50%. For all the time and toil companies spend on<br />
their interns, successfully converting them to employees<br />
is a statistical coin toss.<br />
At Booz Allen, however, that acceptance rate is over 90%.
This structure combined the two key things<br />
millennial applicants crave: the chance to play<br />
with new technology and the opportunity to<br />
solve problems that lead to a better world.<br />
10%<br />
90%<br />
Team Project Development<br />
Individual Research<br />
BUILDING A STRONG<br />
INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE<br />
1. AUTONOMY—give interns a<br />
degree of freedom to direct their<br />
own path with independent and<br />
team research.<br />
2. MASTERY—allow interns the<br />
chance to develop capabilities<br />
by going in-depth and honing<br />
their craft.<br />
3. PURPOSE—give interns<br />
real-world problems with serious<br />
ramifications.<br />
THE SUMMER GAMES<br />
Summer Games participants spend 90%<br />
of their time working with a matrixed<br />
“challenge team” to solve tricky problems<br />
solicited from across the firm each spring.<br />
“We take a cross-disciplinary approach,<br />
placing a robotics engineer with a coder<br />
with a policy major with a historian,”<br />
says Alexe. “This juxtaposition of ideas<br />
and perspective helps explore a variety<br />
of ways to problem solve.”<br />
In 2015, 85 interns were split up into 13<br />
challenge teams, with their solutions<br />
judged by a panel of Booz Allen executives<br />
who would determine the winners<br />
of the Challenge Cup. The experience<br />
gave interns the rare opportunity to meet<br />
Booz Allen’s highest leaders, not just to<br />
network, but also to pitch and defend ideas.<br />
This structure combined the two key<br />
things millennial applicants crave—<br />
the chance to play with new technology<br />
and the opportunity to solve problems<br />
that lead to a better world. The winning<br />
group of interns in 2015 was Pulse, a<br />
team that developed sensors to detect<br />
human heartbeats in cargo containers<br />
as a method to combat human trafficking.<br />
“These interns didn’t just bill hours for<br />
a company they didn’t truly belong to<br />
yet,” says Alexe. “They dedicated several<br />
months to something they truly saw<br />
value in. That is what differentiates<br />
the Summer Games.”<br />
STUDENT ISSUE INCUBATION<br />
With the remaining 10 percent of their<br />
time, each intern participates in the<br />
“Incubator,” exploring an issue of their<br />
choice. One notable project from last<br />
year involved using heart rate data<br />
from wearable fitness devices to track<br />
when drivers were falling asleep at the<br />
wheel, and sending vibrations to jar<br />
the driver awake.<br />
The Incubator is akin to time policies<br />
adopted by other large technology<br />
companies. Discretionary time to build<br />
and tinker with ideas that most interest<br />
them further sparks their imagination.<br />
What’s more, Incubator winners are<br />
invited back in the spring, while still<br />
enrolled as students, to better refine<br />
and pitch their ideas.<br />
INTERNS TODAY,<br />
CONSULTANTS TOMORROW<br />
After the 2015 Summer Games, 90%<br />
of eligible students accepted full time<br />
offers. And as of January 2016, over<br />
1,000 students from academies, colleges,<br />
and universities across the globe<br />
have applied to this year’s Summer<br />
Games. Over the course of 10 weeks,<br />
these interns will refine a tradecraft<br />
and enroll in a disciplined process for<br />
transitioning into full time employees<br />
through a bold new model transforming<br />
the business of internships.<br />
94 | HOW TO GET 90% OF YOUR INTERNS TO WORK FOR YOU
HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE TOURS through quaint<br />
streets lined with pastel-colored mansions are among the<br />
evocative images of Charleston, SC. The backdrop of history<br />
and hospitality, however,<br />
belies the emerging technology<br />
industry that has joined<br />
the mint juleps and BBQ as<br />
a staple in the Lowcountry in<br />
recent years. Around 43 newcomers<br />
move to Charleston<br />
each day to join the city’s<br />
vibrant startup community.<br />
This Southern entrepreneurial By Amanda Strungs<br />
spirit flavored the creation<br />
of agile software developer<br />
SPARC in 2008. Like Charleston, SPARC has a reputation<br />
for a laid-back atmosphere. Dogs roam the office on Fridays,<br />
and flip-flops and shorts replace brogues and cufflinks as<br />
office attire.<br />
“Work hard, play hard” has always been the SPARC way.<br />
We’ve scaled quickly since 2008 thanks to our culture and<br />
our perspective that software delivery should always be<br />
people focused. Thousands of companies develop amazing<br />
software through agile methodology, but few take time to<br />
appreciate the people using it. At SPARC we have narrowed<br />
our attention. Our focus isn’t on software—it’s on people.<br />
People drive every part of SPARC’s business. Our clients<br />
have an open invitation to work side-by-side with our<br />
development teams. They routinely call into stand ups,<br />
attend sprint reviews, and are encouraged to become an<br />
integral part of the software development experience.<br />
SPARC attracts hands-on clients who want more than just<br />
a new piece of technology, and prefers to work with clients<br />
that have a vested interest in building something that<br />
makes a difference for people—because we believe the success<br />
of a project is inextricably linked to the strength of the<br />
people and the partnership that built it.<br />
In 2015, Booz Allen acquired SPARC, presenting an exciting<br />
and collective opportunity to reboot the software delivery<br />
practices that support some of the world’s largest and most<br />
complex organizations. Because the mission of SPARC, like<br />
our town, is growing.<br />
THE CULTURE<br />
OF SOFTWARE<br />
96 | THE CULTURE OF SOFTWARE<br />
External Innovation > INNOVO | 97
A DOCKERIZED<br />
A GOVERNMENT<br />
DOCKERIZED<br />
GOVERNMENT<br />
By Chris Cyrus, Director of Enterprise Sales at Docker<br />
By Chris Cyrus, Director of Enterprise Sales at Docker<br />
According to the 2014 Government Accountability<br />
Office report, IT spending on cloud services<br />
increased only 1% among the seven major agencies<br />
from 2012 to 2014.<br />
Why the slow progress? Well, agencies are only<br />
required to move to the cloud whenever a "secure,<br />
reliable, and cost-effective" option exists. It’s a<br />
sensible, safe, and fiscally prudent provision.<br />
But, many lumbering, legacy technology investments<br />
fall outside this mandate.<br />
Forty-seven percent of all government IT applications,<br />
for example, run on legacy technology,<br />
and almost half of the government’s annual IT<br />
budget remains shackled to maintaining them.<br />
To release the efficiency and cost savings of a<br />
cloud-first government requires a modernized<br />
approach to the way it builds, ships, and runs<br />
applications.<br />
That’s precisely what we do at Docker.<br />
To reduce software waste,<br />
containerization technology like<br />
Docker’s… allows organizations<br />
to transition their enterprises to<br />
microservices-based architectures.<br />
MONOLITHS TO MICROSERVICES<br />
Traditional software development practices<br />
built giant, stovepiped applications, bloated with<br />
replicated services that run on different technologies.<br />
A big organization or agency may duplicate<br />
a search function, for instance, multiple times<br />
across its enterprise due to the lack of integration<br />
among monolithic applications.<br />
eliminates redundancies by reusing common<br />
services in multiple instances, rather than<br />
replicating them over and over again.<br />
What’s more, the Docker platform allows developers<br />
the freedom to create and deploy original<br />
business applications faster and easier without<br />
sacrificing control of IT operations to standardize,<br />
secure, and scale the environment.<br />
By building applications for a common services<br />
platform, developers can deliver software in<br />
weeks or days instead of months through an<br />
improved ability to surge on smaller chunks<br />
of software. This increases their ability to ship<br />
better software, reduces security review cycles,<br />
and improves customer-centric services, all<br />
while decreasing costs.<br />
DOCKER AND GOLIATH<br />
Some federal agencies, like the General Services<br />
Administration (GSA), are leading the open sourcefirst<br />
and cloud-first movement within the government.<br />
Through its Integrated Award Environment<br />
(IAE) Common Services Program, for instance,<br />
the GSA is consolidating ten legacy applications<br />
onto a single public cloud platform through<br />
Docker containers.<br />
By transforming monolithic applications into small<br />
and transportable containers, the GSA streamlined<br />
its application development cycles and re-architected<br />
its legacy IT systems. Through Docker<br />
technology, the GSA can now securely build, ship,<br />
and run distributed "Dockerized" applications<br />
anywhere—and without cloud vendor lock-in.<br />
While still only a startup, Docker is transforming<br />
the way government agencies deliver secure, reliable,<br />
and scalable services to organizations and citizens.<br />
Docker is helping build a cloud-first government.<br />
ESSENTIAL PARTNER<br />
BOOZ ALLEN SERVES AS<br />
AN ESSENTIAL PARTNER TO<br />
GSA AND GO-TO MARKET<br />
PARTNER FOR DOCKER<br />
ON THE IAE PROJECT.<br />
TOGETHER, WE’RE AS-<br />
SEMBLING NEW VALUE<br />
AND BUILDING AN OPEN<br />
GOVERNMENT.<br />
To reduce software waste, containerization<br />
technology like Docker’s—which places a piece of<br />
software in a complete file system that contains<br />
everything it needs to run: code, runtime, system<br />
tools, and system libraries—allows organizations<br />
to transition their enterprise to a microservicesbased<br />
architecture. This modular approach<br />
SOFTWARE CONTAINERS ARE<br />
LIKE SHIPPING CONTAINERS<br />
Docker takes software and its dependencies<br />
and packages them up into a lightweight container.<br />
Similar to shipping containers, software<br />
containers are simply a standard unit of<br />
software that looks the same on the outside<br />
regardless of what code and dependencies are included on the inside.<br />
This enables developers and system administrators to transport them<br />
across infrastructures and various environments without modifications.<br />
98 | A DOCKERIZED GOVERNMENT External Innovation > INNOVO | 99
SPECIAL THANKS TO:<br />
WHAT DO<br />
CLOUD<br />
BROKERS<br />
& JELLYFISH<br />
HAVE IN<br />
COMMON?<br />
They both are responsible<br />
for maintaining the balance<br />
of delicate, complex ecosystems.<br />
START MANAGING YOUR CLOUDS AT WWW.PROJECTJELLYFISH.ORG<br />
WOLFF & COMPANY, INC.<br />
BOOZ ALLEN’S<br />
INNOVATION CENTER<br />
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD<br />
AZHAR BAIG<br />
ADAM PORTER PRICE<br />
NIRMAL MEHTA<br />
JULIA HU<br />
BRIAN ZITO<br />
VISHI CHOPRA<br />
DENNIS DULANEY<br />
NICOLE PELLEGRINO<br />
ASHLEY PETER<br />
SANDY MARSHALL<br />
LINDA LABARGE<br />
PAUL CHI<br />
PAUL D’ANGIO<br />
LAURA CROFT<br />
SETH CLARK<br />
JOE GILLESPIE<br />
HILLARIE FLOOD<br />
THERESA LYNCH<br />
ANGELA ZUTAVERN<br />
ROB RUYAK<br />
WAYNE CHEN