Sharon Joseph, Co-Founder and CEO, Harlem Lanes The competitive analyses Harlem Lanes co-founder and CEO Sharon Joseph churned out as a consultant in Booz Allen Hamilton's financial services practice helped get a community-oriented entrepreneurial venture rolling. Joseph and her aunt, Gail Richards, were struck by the same thought as they walked through Harlem in late 2001: Why is there so little interactive, family entertainment in rapidly revitalizing Harlem?
"I treated the question as a consultant would, and set out to solve the problem," says Joseph, whose ensuing survey work, competitive analyses of the bowling and roller-skating "industries," pricing studies, business planning and fund-raising activities culminated in the 2006 opening of Harlem Lanes at 126th Street and Seventh Avenue.
The two-story facility, which offers family friendly lanes on the ground level and a hipper, singles-oriented vibe upstairs, is located in the newly renovated historic Alhambra Theater. Joseph and Richards made history as the first African-American women to own a bowling alley in the U.S. In addition to bowling, Harlem Lanes also features a sports bar, a conference room and meeting area, and a children's activity area. Harlem's first bowling alley in more than 20 years (since Lennox Lanes closed) also hosts community and corporate meetings, and offers team-building sessions.
The company's growing number of corporate customers includes American Express, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Amnesty International and Island Def Jam Records among other notable organizations. The list reads like a consulting firm's client roster for good reason. Joseph has remained tight with her former colleagues since leaving Booz Allen in 1999.
"That's the great thing about Booz Allen," she asserts. "It's a family, and they really keep in touch with you." She credits former colleague Reggie Van Lee, currently a Booz Allen senior vice president who co-leads the firm's not-for-profit engagements, with providing significant help in building her current business.
Joseph first encountered the firm as a Columbia Business School student. She took a class, "Inner-City Consulting," taught by a Booz Allen consultant. "I really liked what I learned in that class, and I really liked the people I met at Booz Allen, who encouraged me to interview with the firm," she recalls. Based on her prior experiencing in banking, the profession she pursued after graduating from Tufts University, Joseph knew she wanted to remain in the industry, but she also wanted broader experience.
"I thought consulting would help me hone basibusiness schools and broaden my view," she says.
It did just that, and after two years as an associate serving on international and New York-based engagements, Joseph returned to the client side where she sharpened the fund-raising skills she later tapped while raising seed money for her new business.
Yet it's her consulting skills that still receive the most frequent workout. "I constantly put on my consulting hat to identify how actual conditions differed from our plans, continually evaluate the marketplace and keep an eye on new competitors," she says.
Those tools came in handy as she and Richards analyzed what sort of business would best meet Harlem's need for more interactive family entertainment. They discovered, for example, that nearly 30 percent of Manhattan's downtown bowlers lived uptown and endured a long ride to bowl. They also evaluated the viability of opening a roller-skating rink, an option Joseph rejected because it would have generated lower returns per square foot.
Yet her Booz Allen experience failed Joseph in an important area. "The one thing consulting didn't teach me," she laughs, "was how to bowl. I can barely break 100 … with the bumpers."
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