Booz Allen Hamilton is looking ahead—very far ahead. In a new partnership with the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), Booz Allen Vice President Doug Himberger joined three other panelists—from NASA, Apple and EDS—in reaching out to students about the importance of embracing science and technology careers. The forum, "From Education to Enterprise: The Importance of Science and Technology in a Global Market," was held live and via Webcast Dec. 10. Himberger talked to Consulting about the panel and the importance of instilling in students the importance of science and the issues surrounding science and technology in the consulting world. Consulting: Who was your audience at this forum?
Himberger: It was an interesting audience. Part of the audience was live in [the Booz Allen] auditorium, about 100 folks, and then probably between 100 and 200 on the Web. In our audience were a lot of Booz Allen folks from our science and technology groups. There were at least a couple of folks who are alumni of the [CEE] program. That's something CEE is really proud of. They have just done enormously well with the students who have gone through some of their programs, and they say, and I believe it now, that their alumni and the folks who are involved with CEE are in the top 5 percent of high school students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). There were some local universities there; there were some Department of Homeland Security and NASA folks. A lot of other companies who either have an interest in the general sense of technology or interested specifically in sponsoring CEE [were there], so it was an interesting mix.
Consulting: What kind of topics did you address?
Himberger: The largest draw I think was [panelist] Steve Wozniak, the founder of Apple. He's a colorful guy who some interesting perspectives. The NASA astronaut was Col. Eileen Collins, and we had the EDS CEO Michael Jordan. We had a lot of common questions that each of us got an opportunity to answer. And then [moderator Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE president] targeted for each of us. As you might expect, there were discussions about the importance of STEM education and whether that's changing in the business marketplace [and] whether that's changing in our nation's competitiveness. So there were I thought fairly provocative questions that the audience seemed to be pretty engaged in. No one left; no one dozed—that's always a good sign.
Consulting: Why would a consulting firm be interested in this?
Himberger: Certainly we're interested in this because we'd like to be the employer of choice for these top science and technology folks, but also because it's becoming so important for us as a consulting firm [because] our clients are more invested—literally—both in terms of funding and the direction of their businesses in science and technology. So it's simply the need for us to support these clients in government and industry. No matter where our client base is, it's simply not something that we could be blind to.
Consulting: Why do you think there's more investment on the client side now?
Himberger: [For] some clients, it's an obvious thing. If it's someone like Apple computer or Motorola or somebody who has a natural science or technology base to their business, there's no surprise that they are vested in that and they want a consulting firm that's equally knowledgeable about that. But I think what's maybe more interesting is that it's all of clients are becoming more and more keyed into this because it's becoming sort of the foundational backbone of so much business now. There's hardly a business sector now that doesn't have some pretty robust part of their business plan and their business expectations that's built on science and technology.
Consulting: What other emerging trends do you see in the space?
Himberger: Well [the moderator] did ask one question that I think all of us were reluctant to answer. She said, "Well, where do you believe that your business or your sector will be in 25 years?" That's a troubling question, of course, because if there is any area that we found we can't be good at predicting the future on, it's science and technology. Twenty-five years is simply too long. I did chat a little bit in my response about information sharing, about the need for sensors and the integration of data from sensors and about the notion of communications. But the thing about science and technology is whatever the medium of communications is, whatever they approach for information sharing is, whatever we think it is now, we know that in two years it will be vastly different so 25 years is simply a timeframe that is beyond prediction.
Consulting: What is the biggest threat to the evolution of technology?
Himberger: I think it is not technological. That's the conundrum really. When we talk about STEM, when we talk about educating students in these areas of science and technology, frankly it would be easier if we said the solution is technological. I think the biggest impediment is cultural. Even when we have terrific technology to support information sharing, that doesn't mean that people do share information. It's the will to share information that sometimes goes beyond the technology. It's the cultural, it's the political, it's the organizational, and it's those sorts of aspects that sort of overshadow the technological burdens that we are facing.
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