Letters: ADL's Consulting Business Boasts "a Healthy Backlog"

Your recent article, "ADL's Golden Egg" (July, p. 36), presents a fine view of ADL's technology and innovation business, but it unfairly slights our management consulting business. In fact, management consulting constitutes the great majority of ADL's business and has been a key element for our growth and success over the years. It distinguishes itself with the same solid grounding in technology and deep industry knowledge and experience that is the hallmark of ADL across all of its lines of business. In management consulting, we have thriving practices in such diverse industries as chemicals, energy, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and natural resources, in addition to our work for governments around the world.

       Moreover, our strongest relationships with these clients and others take advantage of ADL's unique blend of technology and management expertise. Now more than ever, strategic plans in nearly every business require a knowledge of the growing role of an expanding array of technologies in a wide range of a firm's operations. I must also note that while we have had some cash flow problems earlier in the year, as you reported in the article, contributions from all of our lines of business have been crucial in alleviating them. ADL has now restructured its debt and is maintaining a healthy backlog at a time when many of its competitors are seeing a dramatic falloff in business.

Pamela McNamara

Chief Executive Officer

Arthur D. Little, Inc.