Friday, Jul. 07, 1961
Brains for Hire
Pakistan needed an economic development program, Morton Foods Inc. of Dallas wanted a better potato chip, and General Electric had run into problems building an optical scanner. For help, all three turned to the same place: Arthur D. Little, Inc., a 74-year-old Cambridge, Mass., company that has nothing to sell but brains.
The largest commercial research company in the U.S., A. D. Little has only 1,460 employees. Its offices are unpretentious, and compared with other think-for-pay organizations, its fees are high. But Little's success in solving complex scientific and managerial problems has been so unvarying that it counts among its clients 270 of the 500 companies on FORTUNE'S list of top U.S. corporations. And Little's clientele is steadily growing. Says Reid Weedon Jr., sales vice president: "Nearly half the dollar volume we have done in our entire history has been done in the last 3 1/2 years."
In the Clouds. The firm was founded in 1886 by the late Arthur D. Little, a meticulous Massachusetts Yankee with a passionate belief in the importance of scientific research for industry. Reflecting Little's personal interests, the company at first concentrated largely on chemical research. But over the years A.D.L.'s skills and resources have grown so diverse that it now has six divisions, with specialties ranging from space flight to flavor research. Among the 1,400 projects on which A.D.L. men are at work:
P: A scheme to eliminate extraneous noise from radar signals from outer space. Method: chilling electronic circuits to --452DEG F. with liquid helium.
P: A system of refining iron ore with natural gas instead of coke. If successful, A.D.L.'s "fluid-bed" furnace would enable coal-poor countries, such as Venezuela, to develop their own steel industries.
P: A study designed to disprove the accepted theory that lightning is caused by the friction of rain in the atmosphere. A.D.L.'s theory is that lightning comes first, causes rain by rearranging a cloud's electrical field. If true, this could open the way to making rain by firing bolts of electricity into clouds.
The Barbecue Team. To win industrial clients, A.D.L. keeps the jobs it does for them secret until they request publicity, will not even admit it has ever worked for a company unless the company gives express permission. To avoid the suspicion that it might use information gleaned from one client to benefit another, Little will take no job if it has ever worked for a competitor on a similar task.
Once a client has signed up, Little tackles its assignment with what its scientists call "the can of worms approach"--the assembling of experts from half a dozen different fields to "brainstorm" every aspect of the problem. When the Husky Oil Co. asked Little to help it develop a barbecue briquet made of lignite instead of charcoal, Little put eleven men on the job. Two R. and D. men studied ways to get the briquet to light and burn evenly. Two researchers from Little's Life Sciences Division found a way to eliminate the sulphurous odor of burning lignite. Four Energy & Materials engineers developed a bonding agent to keep the briquet from crumbling. And once a lignite briquet appeared feasible, a Management Services man ran a market survey to determine demand, an engineer drew up plans to convert a Husky plant to briquet production, and an artist designed the bag in which the briquets were to be sold.
The Bitter Edge. Little's executive suite is currently occupied by Acting President Ray Stevens, 67, who sparkplugged the company's diversification, was president from 1956 to 1960. Ostensibly, Stevens is simply sitting in for President James M. Gavin, 54, onetime chief of Army research and development, who three months ago took leave of absence from the company to become Ambassador to France. Because Gavin does not hesitate to step on toes to get a job done, not all A.D.L. staffers are delighted by his avowed intention to return when his diplomatic days are over. But Gavin is generally credited at Little for helping spot Government research projects--one-third of Little's business--that promise to have important industrial applications.
Despite these topside uncertainties, Little has no trouble recruiting--and keeping --some of the nation's ablest scientists. A.D.L. drives its men hard; it is not unusual for a scientist to be working on as many as eight projects at a time. With jobs strung across 37 nations, staffers often find themselves traveling for months at a stretch.
In return for the rigorous performance it demands, A.D.L. pays salaries that are on the anemic scale of academic wages. As partial compensation, senior staffers are insured handsome retirement benefits by membership in the Memorial Drive Trust, the employees' fund that owns 100% of A.D.L.'s stock and collects the company's average 7% profit. (Though A.D.L. keeps its earnings secret, insiders estimate that last year's gross was about $23 million.) But the real compensation for most A.D.L. men is not monetary at all. Says one A.D.L. scientist: "Our reward is being at the bitter far edge of engineering and blazing our own trails."
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