Fairfax, Virginia management consultancy James Martin & Co’s newly appointed president and chief executive believes the company is on the point of huge growth driven by the spread of technology into daily life. Ben Levitan who joined the consultancy last year and was appointed to his new role at the end of January, says the company is poised for a period of re- birth and renewal, and he believes international business will be behind significant growth over the next couple of years.
By Joanne Wallen
Founded by industry guru and prolific author James Martin, the company’s chairman, James Martin & Co last year turned over around $100m, but Levitan says this year will see considerable growth. What makes the company different from other management consultancies including the ‘big six’ according to Levitan, is its focus on vertical businesses – financial, utilities and supply chain in particular – and on making technology relevant to a vertical business. The company’s more than 700 consultants worldwide, specialize on planning and future strategy rather than simply project managing a problem, says Levitan. Obviously, one issue the company is busy with at the moment is Year 2000, although Levitan reckons this accounts only for about 20% or less of the company’s worldwide revenues to date. The customers James Martin sees, he says, are mostly treating Year 2000 as an opportunity for strategic change, developing entirely new business processes and using new technology to re-invent themselves. He is pragmatic about the apocalyptic view of Year 2000. Levitan believes companies and governments will have to make major decisions on what is important and what isn’t, and also draw up effective contingency plans. He has absolutely no doubt that many big corporations and government departments – the US Inland Revenue Service and the US air traffic control in particular – will not be Year 2000 compliant in time, but he is somewhat of an optimist and seems to think if they tackle the most important things and have adequate contingency plans in place, 2000 will come and go without too much doom and gloom.
Aircraft falling out of the sky
On the other hand, the company is dealing with embedded systems for flight simulators and aircraft companies, and Levitan says he certainly wouldn’t advise anyone to be flying around January 1, 2000. It seems to be generally agreed that tales of aircraft falling out of the sky are not entirely apocryphal. What if the UK air traffic control systems and aircraft systems are all fully compliant in time, Levitan asks, but a foreign airliner that isn’t compliant flies through British airspace? James Martin’s approach to Year 2000 is for customers to take a long hard look at which systems are really critical to the company’s business, before they start fixing anything. If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, as the saying goes, says Levitan. It is important to fix only that which really will cause a problem at this late stage. The company is more interested in designing new business processes that will take its customers forward into the future. Levitan also firmly believes the job should be done only once, so companies have to look at European Economic and Monetary Union, EMU, as well as Year 2000, and change their systems to cope with both. As with just about any business in technology these days, and particularly with the pressures of Year 2000, James Martin & Co is looking to recruit even more staff. It is hoping to attract more high-caliber consultants to work in its 15 worldwide offices. Given the worldwide skills shortage, Levitan applauds Monday’s announcement by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair about training up to 20,000 bug busters between now and next year (CI No 3,379), although he wonders where these 20,000 people will come from and whether they won’t inject even more bugs into the system than they find and fix. Year 2000 apart, Levitan says technology is the preferred method by which companies are re-inventing themselves and the company is being driven by new applications and technologies. He cites the Smart Card system implemented in Hong Kong for its transport system, where more than 4 million travelers are now carrying contactless Smart Cards to pay for all their public transport. James Martin consulted on this project and enabled the implementation of the system. Levitan agrees with a recent article in Wired magazine, which suggested we are in an economic period it describes as ‘The Long Boom’. While there may be occasional ripples, he thinks the growth curve is on its way steadily upwards, and believes that once Year 2000 fixing is out of the way, companies will immediately start developing the new systems they will have put on hold for a couple of years.
