Booz Allen Hamilton: Top-Notch Learning for Top-Notch Service

The old axiom “Our people are our greatest asset” has become a rather hackneyed expression that holds little actual meaning for many of the organizations that espouse it. However, for international strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, its 17,000 employees are not only the greatest asset, they are the sine qua non—Latin for “without which not.” Consequently, Booz Allen takes a workforce-centric approach to its operations, part of which involves keeping talent in the firm by providing employees with plenty of opportunities for personal development. To that end, it has an organization within an organization: the Center for Performance Excellence (CPE), which offers a variety of learning programs in order to attract, retain and develop Booz Allen’s most crucial resource—human capital.

“Everything is a derivative of the people strategy,” said Ed Cohen, senior director of Booz Allen’s Center for Performance Excellence. “Our CEO has the philosophy that he’d rather see Booz Allen on your business card than your résumé. Based on that philosophy, we make a lot of decisions that all fall into the category of ‘do the right thing for our people, and they’ll do the right thing for us.’ (CPE’s) philosophy is based on everything being aligned to competencies. Everything we do aligns to the needs of the firm. Our mission is basically to build the skills of the staff, but also to impact behavior and change across the firm at the same time.”

“We are a top-notch learning organization that develops our associates so they can better serve our clients,” said Sharon Babajko, senior manager and a member of the CPE’s leadership team. “Over the past seven years, Ed has grown the Center for Performance Excellence to focus on business drivers. The team is really focused on bringing the right programs to the right learners.”

CPE has an array of offerings to bring the competencies of all of its employees, who work with both the private and public sectors, closer to organizational objectives. Content delivery modes include more traditional and familiar methods like seminars, workshops and classroom-based training, as well as novel and innovative techniques, such as strategic gaming and Web radio broadcasts.