private company industry management consulting founded 1886 formally incorporated as adl in 1909 headquarters brussels belgium 1 key people ignacio garcia alves global ceo products management consulting services number of employees 1000 2 website www.adl.com arthur d. little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in boston massachusetts united states and formally incorporated by that name in 1909 3 by arthur dehon little an mit chemist who had discovered acetate . arthur d. little pioneered the concept of contracted professional services . the company played key roles in the development of business strategy operations research the word processor the first synthetic penicillin lexisnexis and nasdaq . today the company is a multi national management consulting firm operating as a partnership . contents 1 early history 2 after 2001 3 current partnership organisation 4 rankings 5 publications 6 career education 7 controversy 8 notable current and former employees 9 publications 10 references 11 further reading 12 external links early history edit the arthur d. little inc. building at 30 memorial drive in cambridge massachusetts near mit which opened in 1917 . photo 2009 entrance to 30 memorial drive adl building photo 2009 the roots of the company were started in 1886 by arthur dehon little an mit chemist and co worker roger b. griffin russell b. griffin another chemist and a graduate of the university of vermont who had met when they both worked for richmond paper company . their new company little & griffin was located in boston where mit was also located . griffin and little prepared a manuscript for the chemistry of paper making 4 which was for many years an authoritative text in the area . the book had not been entirely finished when griffin was killed in a laboratory accident in 1893 . 3 little who had studied chemistry at mit collaborated with mit and william hultz walker of the mit chemistry department forming a partnership little & walker which lasted from 1900 to 1905 while both mit and little s company were still located in boston . 3 the partnership dissolved in 1905 when walker dedicated his full time to being in charge of the new research laboratory of applied chemistry at mit . 3 little continued on his own and formally incorporated the company arthur d. little adl in 1909 . 3 he conducted analytical studies the precursor of the consulting studies for which the firm would later become famous . he also taught papermaking at mit from 1893 to 1916 . 5 in 1916 adl was commissioned by the canadian pacific railway to do a survey of canada s natural resources . 6 in 1917 the company moved to a building of its own the arthur d. little inc. building at 30 memorial drive on the charles river next to the campus of mit which had moved to cambridge from boston in 1916 . 3 7 in november 1953 adl opened a 40 acre site for their acorn park labs in west cambridge massachusetts near arlington massachusetts which is about 6 miles 10 km from mit . 7 the memorial drive trust a tax exempt retirement trust for the benefit of its employees was set up . 8 in 1981 adl produced the european commission s first white paper on telecommunications deregulation having completed the first worldwide telecommunications database on phones installed markets technical trends services and regulatory information . 6 it also helped privatize british rail generally regarded as one of the most complex privatization exercises in the world . after 2001 edit by 2001 arthur d. little reached its peak . a new management team had mismanaged the company s core business engaged in manipulation of the memorial drive trust and attempted a sale of the technology and product development business . citation needed the adl board of trustees replaced this management team but the damage had been done and arthur d. little filed chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 . 9 at an auction in 2002 paris based altran technologies bought the arthur d. little brand name for of the non u.s. offices . under altran s ownership arthur d. little rebuilt its core practices in oil and gas telecommunications automotive and manufacturing and chemicals and reopened its us offices . arthur d. little continues to be active and recognized for its expertise in areas combining aspects of technology innovation and strategy . current partnership organisation edit a group of partners prepared a management buyout from the altran group in 2011 . 10 the mbo was completed on 30 december 2011 with the majority of adl directors becoming partners and shareholders a small number of principals as well as the cfo and coo are also shareholders . the firm is led by the elected global ceo ignacio garcia alves who was also the leader of the mbo team . 11 currently the firm operates with an elected board an elected compensation committee an elected partnership committee and an elected audit committee . since the mbo adl has opened several new offices in the us as well as offices in turkey norway buenos aires and singapore . 12 rankings edit arthur d. little was rated 9 and 6 in vault s 2016 consulting rankings 13 for europe and asia respectively . publications edit arthur d. little publishes a number of regular global studies including the future of urban mobility study 2014 version in cooperation with international association of public transport 14 which is a comprehensive global urban mobility benchmarking report the annual arthur d. little exane bnp paribas report 15 which has provided in depth analysis of the telecoms sector every year since 2001 the global innovation excellence study 16 17 which benchmarks innovation performance is published every 2 3 years and is in its 8th iteration socioeconomic effects of broadband speed 18 a collection of adl thought leadership called arthur d. little prism is published twice a year . 19 career education edit the arthur d. little career education program arthur d. little school of management was spun off and became hult international business school . controversy edit in 1987 adl claimed that sabotage was likely the cause of the bhopal disaster which resulted in the death of thousands . 20 adl was paid by union carbide the company that owned the chemical plant responsible for the chemical disaster . 21 analysis by arthur d. little argues that the negligence argument was impossible for several tangible reasons . 22 notable current and former employees edit this section relies too much on references to primary sources . please improve this section by adding secondary or tertiary sources . august 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message business al angrisani angrisani turnarounds llc william j. j. gordon and george m. prince creators of synectics . bruce henderson founder of the boston consulting group charles koch chairman and chief executive officer koch industries royal little founder of textron inc. h. donald wilson first president of lexisnexis database politics and public service merrill cook former member of the united states house of representatives from utah . glen fukushima advisor to u.s. president bill clinton james m. gavin us army lieutenant general world war ii veteran com mander of the 82nd airborne division and later us ambassador to france david brown chief executive icheme institution of chemical engineers 23 other karl p. stevenson arthur d. little s president and chairman of the ad hoc committee on chemical and biological warfare that in 1950 expedited the creation of camp detrick s special operations division that consolidated chemical and biological warfare projects in one location . 24 winnett boyd engineer fischer black economist who co developed option pricing which led to a nobel prize for his co authors the nobel prize is not awarded posthumously philip chapman australian born american astronaut peter glaser inventor of the solar power satellite david levy inventor pamela low developed the flavored coating for cap n crunch cereal donald sch n academic jack treynor economist bernard vonnegut atmospheric scientist publications edit deschamps jean philippe ; nayak p. ranganath 1995 . product juggernauts how companies mobilize to generate a stream of market winners . boston harvard business school press . isbn 0 87584 341 7 . oclc 31330407 . public finance balance of smoking in the czech republic 2001 roussel philip a. ; saad kamal n. ; erickson tamara j. 1991 . third generation r & d managing the link to corporate strategy . boston harvard business school press . isbn 0 87584 252 6 . oclc 22596604 . jonash ronald 1994 . innovation premium . perseus publishing . isbn 978 073820360 7 references edit arthur d. little . arthur d. little locations . about us . a b c d e f scatter acorns that oaks may grow an arthur d. little exhibit massachusetts institute of technology the institute archives and special collections 2009 08 25 little a.d. ; griffin r.b. the chemistry of paper making together with the principles of general chemistry ; a handbook for the student and manufacturer new york howard lockwood & co. 1894 . report on the making of silk purses from sows ears 1921 massachusetts institute of technology the institute archives and special collections 2009 08 25 a b adl history timeline adl a b photographs early days 30 memorial drive cambridge arthur d. little acorn park cambridge massachusetts institute of technology the institute archives and special collections 2010 03 18 company news ; plenum bidding for arthur d. little . 14 july 1987 . glater jonathan 2002 06 02 . arthur d. little plans bankruptcy filing . ny times . retrieved 2012 07 26 . altran website the group signed on november 1st 2011 a termsheet for an mbo concerning the disposal of arthur d. little due to be finalised by the year end arthur d. little announces the successful completion of its management buy out business wire . arthur d. little announces more than 20 new partners through external hiring and promotions business wire . http www.vault.com company rankings consulting vault consulting 25 europe srankid 261 & ryear 2016 arthur d. little the future of urban mobility 2.0 available from adl website arthur d. little exane bnp paribas report available from adl website arthur d. little study says external business intelligence boosts innovation and profits the cio report wsj . wsj . adl global innovation excellence study available from adl website socioeconomic effects of broadband speed pdf . ericsson . september 2013 . prism is available from its website http www.adl.com prism.html or free on demand from any of the corporate offices . bbc . response union carbide and dow chemical . bbc website . retrieved 28 february 2013 . laymon brent . carbide consultant says sabotage caused bhopal tragedy . ap report . associated press . retrieved 28 february 2013 . jump up to a b c d e kalelkar as little ad 1988 . investigation of large magnitude incidents bhopal as a case study . london presented at the institution of chemical engineers conference on preventing major chemical accidents . http www.icheme.org pr and media latest news 24 10 06release.html a terrible mistake the murder of frank olson and the cia s secret cold war experiments a terrible mistake the murder of frank olson and the cia s secret cold war experiments h.p.albarelli july 1 2009 isbn 0 9777953 7 3 further reading edit james adams 1992 . bull s eye the assassination and life of supergun inventor gerald bull . chapter seven times books . eagar rick who says it can t be done a brief history of arthur d. little prism magazine 2006 issue for the 120th anniversary of the company peter herman 2006 . managing other people s business but not our own . www.adlbook.com e. j. kahn jr. 1986 . the problem solvers . little brown . external links edit arthur d. little official website arthur d. little 125 yrs anniversary website prism bi