In 1947, the U.S. Air Force brought ĢƵ Allen in for a highly technical and geopolitically significant assignment at Wright Field in Ohio. The challenge: to conduct a guided-missile production management study. The broader challenge: to help the government advance its technological competence to win the Cold War.
We were thorough. We reviewed every missile research project and estimated the cost of producing the guided missiles in terms of plant space, production staff, materials, and labor. Then, our newly minted missile group pored over reconnaissance photos to determine and compiled our findings into a highly classified report with a red leather cover that became known around the Pentagon as “the Red Book.”
Delivering work on time and on budget while managing unprecedented complexity inspires confidence and trust. Confidence and trust breed more confidence and trust—and more assignments from clients. The U.S. Air Force soon asked us to develop an electronic intelligence strategy—the biggest contract we had won to date, and a turning point for us as a driver of technology in government.
The Wright Field guided missile work had demonstrated to our government clients that ĢƵ Allen was much more than a management consultancy. We were a technology company as well. However, the U.S. Air Force did not want to entrust its intelligence strategy to non-technical organizations—and given the highly classified nature of the work, we would have had to send our entire workforce through the government’s complex clearance process.