PA Consulting Group (formerly Personnel Administration) is a professional services firm that works with public, private and third-sector organisations. It was founded in 1943 by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour, who used a new approach to people management to increase productivity in munitions factories during World War 2. PA grew to become the world’s largest management consultancy by headcount in 1970.
[The story of the PA Consulting Group 1943-1992’, Christine Jackson and Mark Smalley]
Today, PA employs more than 4,000 people globally. It has also acquired seven specialist consultancies since December 2017: Nyras, a UK-based international aviation consultancy;
Sparkler, a London-based digital insight and strategy consultancy;
Essential Design, a Boston, Massachusetts-based innovation strategy and product design business;
We Are Friday, a London-based digital service design and engineering agency;
4iNNo, an innovation company based in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, Ohio;
Astro Studios, a brand strategy and product design agency based in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, California;
and Cooper Perkins, a technology development and engineering company with offices in Boston and San Francisco.
PA works with organisations of all sizes across seven industries: consumer and manufacturing; defence and security; energy and utilities; financial services; public services; healthcare and life sciences; and transport. It operates in these industries from offices across the UK, US, Nordics and Netherlands.
It is also a member of the
United Nations Global Compact
The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princi ...
, a non-binding UN pact that encourages businesses to adopt sustainable practices, and the
WePROTECT Global Alliance, a network of governments and companies aiming to tackle online child exploitation and abuse. PA produced the first two Global Threat Assessments for WePROTECT.
The company is privately held, with 65% of shares owned by Jacobs Engineering Group and the remaining 35% owned by current and former employees.
Staff can buy shares during an annual share-trading period.
History
1940–1950
PA was founded in 1943 as Personnel Administration by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour. Britain's war effort created great demand for munitions and goods, which had to be produced by a relatively unskilled workforce. Butten and his colleagues formed Personnel Administration Limited to provide advice to industry as to how to improve the productivity of their workers.
[Pagano, Margareta (30 January 2011]
A perfect partnership between the geeks and suits
The Independent
Like the other three firms that dominated consulting in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, PA was an offshoot of the pre-war
Bedaux Company. Bedaux in turn had been developed based on the 'scientific management' theories of
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up ...
and
Frank Gilbreth
Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and ce ...
. Butten sought to take the mechanistic and task-orientated concepts of scientific management and add a human dimension to them. The chief idea, along the lines of
Douglas McGregor
Douglas Murray McGregor (September 6, 1906 – October 1, 1964) was an American management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954. He also taught at the Indian Institute of Management ...
's '
Theory Y
Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human work motivation and management. They were created by Douglas McGregor while he was working at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1950s, and developed further in the 1960s. McGregor's work was root ...
', was that by involving the worker in the process of change and a suitable form of ownership, greater gains could be made both by the worker and the organisation.
PA's first assignment was to train volunteer women to assemble the tail gun section of Avro Lancaster bombers, as part of Britain's policy of bringing women into the factories to free up male workers for the armed forces.
[Power, Helen (15 August 2008]
Britain's biggest private companies: Expertise at your service
The Daily Telegraph
1950–1970
By 1964, PA had dropped the name Personnel Administration and was known as simply PA Consulting Group. PA expanded and, by 1970, was the world’s largest management consulting firm by headcount.
[Hill, Andrew (11 November 2013]
FT.com PA had also expanded geographically, mostly along the lines of the
Commonwealth, with its operations in Australia providing about a third of the firm's revenue.
In the 1960s, PA diversified its business significantly by developing the use of the 'newspaper box' advertisement for recruitment.
Butten retired from PA in 1970, having earlier sold his 100% shareholding in PA to the Butten Trust in 1958. The Trust was intended as a long-term guardian of PA's fortunes and an assurance that the company would be 'owned by the employees'.
1970–1992
During this period, PA found success in advising companies on potential applications of technology to business issues. This led to them building technology centres in
Melbourn, UK, and Princeton, USA.
Towards the end of the '80s, after an upsurge in the industry, PA's management decided it wanted to take the firm public. The Butten Trust, after an application to the courts in the UK, agreed to give 15% of its shares to its employees as part of a long-term plan to float. However, the company suffered in the subsequent consulting industry downturn of 1989 to 1992 and changed its strategy to one of staff ownership.
1992–2015
Between 1991 and 1994, PA reduced its workforce by almost half. In 1992,
Jon Moynihan
Jonathan Patrick Moynihan OBE (born 21 June 1948) is a British businessman and venture capitalist, who served as the CEO and executive chairman of PA Consulting Group.
Early life
Moynihan was born on 21 June 1948 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, ...
was appointed as chief executive of PA, with a remit to turn the company around. With a new strategy, aggressive cost-cutting and an industry upturn, the turnaround succeeded and, in 1995, PA made record profits.
Jeremy Asher
Jeremy Benjamin Gerald Asher (born 16 July 1958) is an English businessman and company director. He has been the chairman of Agile Energy Ltd since 2005. He has also chaired Tower Resources plc since 2011 and is senior independent director at Bl ...
became group CEO in 1998 and, during his three-year tenure, PA grew from about 2,500 staff to just under 4,000. The firm expanded significantly in the United States through the acquisition of Hagler Bailly Inc. in 2000 for around $96 million in cash.
PA revenues suffered during the consulting recession of 2001-2004, but saw a significant recovery between 2004 and 2006. This helped it to increase its focus on ventures, with 50% of PA's return to its main shareholder between 2002 and 2006 coming from non-consulting activities. This included the sale of a number of subsidiaries including
UbiNetics, Volume Product Technology and Meridica.
By 2005, the company was ranked 8th in the ''Sunday Times''
' list of Britain's biggest mid-market private firms.
Government figures released in 2010 showed that PA was the second largest beneficiary of UK Government contracts to consulting firms, receiving £11million over the first year of the
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
. It has gained publicity for its work on analysing what it has called the zombie economy. Other work includes its annual survey of opinion in higher education, and ongoing technological innovations, including a new type of round kitchen towel.
On 31 December 2013, Jon Moynihan retired as executive chairman, and was replaced by
Marcus Agius
Marcus Ambrose Paul Agius (; born 22 July 1946) is a British financier and former group chairman of Barclays.
Early life and education
Marcus Agius was born on 22 July 1946, the son of Ena Eleanora (née Hueffer) and Lieutenant Colonel Alfre ...
, the former chairman of
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
. In March 2014 the company launched a new logo (the third in its history), a new visual identity and redesigned website. Also in March 2014,
Health Select Committee
The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administr ...
member
Sarah Wollaston
Sarah Wollaston (born 17 February 1962) is a British former Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Totnes from 2010 to 2019. First elected for the Conservative Party, she later served as a Change UK and Liberal ...
MP questioned PA Consulting's uploading of a
pseudonymised extract of
Hospital Episode Statistics
NHS Digital is the trading name of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care in England, particularly th ...
to
Google BigQuery
BigQuery is a fully managed, serverless data warehouse that enables scalable analysis over petabytes of data. It is a ''Platform as a Service'' (PaaS) that supports querying using ANSI SQL. It also has built-in machine learning capabilities. Bi ...
.
The
Health and Social Care Information Centre
NHS Digital is the trading name of the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care in England, particularly th ...
confirmed that PA had used the data in accordance with the information sharing agreement in place.
2015–present
In 2015,
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and ...
bought a majority stake in the company, giving it a value of USD $1 billion.
Since the Carlyle investment, PA has grown significantly.
In October 2017, PA started acting on its plans for rapid expansion by relocating its global corporate headquarters. The firm moved from its 25-year home of 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London, to newly built offices at 10 Bressenden Place, taking over two floors of the office block in Westminster.
Then, in December 2017, the firm acquired Nyras, a UK-based international aviation consultancy. At the time, Nyras was the only consultancy in the air transport industry authorised by the
Financial Conduct Authority
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...
to undertake commercial and transactional advisory services in the aviation sector.
In April 2018, PA's Chairman, Marcus Agius, announced he would step down and assume the role of Deputy Chairman, with John Alexander replacing him. Alexander made the move from environmental and sustainability consultancy
ERM, where he took the company through two rounds of private equity funding and grew the enterprise value from US$525 million to US$1.75 billion. The next month, PA bought London-based Sparkler, a leading digital insight and strategy consultancy that works with the likes of
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
,
Diageo and
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
.
By October 2018, the consultancy expanded its acquisitions into the United States, acquiring innovation strategy and product design business Essential Design. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the company has helped
Woodford Reserve
Woodford Reserve is a brand of premium small batch Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey produced in Woodford County, Kentucky, by the Brown-Forman Corporation. It is made from a mixture of copper pot still spirits produced at the company's Wood ...
bourbon to strengthen its brand and designed the Hydrow connected home rowing machine.
In December 2018, PA bought another London-based company, the digital service design and engineering agency We Are Friday. They brought with them high-profile digital clients like
HSBC,
Nuffield Health
Nuffield Health is the United Kingdom's largest healthcare charity. Established in 1957 the charity operates 31 Nuffield Health Hospitals and 114 Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centres.
It is independent of the National Health Service and ...
and the
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...
.
In the same month, PA also announced it was appointing a new head of its Americas business, Ken Toombs, to drive rapid expansion in the United States. He brought 30 years’ experience in management consulting and moved to PA from his role as the Global Head of
Infosys Consulting
Infosys Consulting is a management consulting, IT consulting practice within the larger Infosys organization which works in strategy, IT transformation, change management and business analytics. Infosys Consulting operates globally and currently ha ...
.
Then, in June 2019, PA looked again to the US and acquired 4iNNo, an innovation company based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
One year later, PA acquired San Francisco-based Astro Studios, a brand strategy and product design agency that works with the likes of
Nike
Nike often refers to:
* Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory
* Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment
Nike may also refer to:
People
* Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...
,
Bose
Bose may refer to:
* Bose (crater), a lunar crater
* ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha
* Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name)
* Bose, Italy, a ''frazioni'' in Magnano, Province of Biella ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
.
Most recently, in November 2020, PA acquired San Francisco- and Boston-based Cooper Perkins, a technology development and engineering company.
The group announced Ken Toombs as CEO in October 2020, following on from Alan Middleton who stepped down after 13 years as CEO of the consultancy.
In November 2020, PA’s Board announced its recommendation to accept a proposal by Jacobs Engineering Group to acquire a 65% stake in PA. Following a vote by PA shareholders and UK Court approval, the deal was finalised on 2 March 2021, valuing PA at £1.825 billion.
Since 2021, PA has expanded and strengthened its leadership team. John Cala joined to lead PA’s business in the Americas, bringing experience from
IBM and
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
.
In 2022, PA appointed a new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer, and created new roles for a Chief Research Officer, Head of Alliances, Platforms and Products, and Head of Markets.
Chartered Accountant Will Lambe joined as
CFO
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
, moving from
KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
, while Kelly Olsen joined as
CIO, having previously served as
CIO for the NHS Property Service and having been named in the ‘top 10’ at
CIO Magazine
''CIO'' is a magazine related to technology and IT. The magazine was founded in 1987 and is now entirely digital. The name refers to the job title chief information officer.
''CIO'' is part of Boston-based International Data Group's enterprise ...
’s CIO-100 Awards.
Charlene Li, co-author of
Groundswell and founder of
Altimeter
An altimeter or an altitude meter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth under water. The m ...
, became Chief Research Officer. Rina Ladva joined the firm as Head of Alliances, Platforms and Products, making the move from
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
. And Tracey Countryman took on the role of Head of Markets, joining PA from
Accenture.
Also in 2022, PA established The PA Foundation, committing £10 million over five years to support disadvantaged groups globally. The company has also said its people will volunteer their skills and experience, working alongside the Foundation. The Foundation is chaired by Anita Chandraker, a former PA Partner and Board Director who retired from the company in 2021 after more than 20 years there.
Technology and innovation
![Mastiff and Panama Remote Controlled Vehicle MOD 45159065](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Mastiff_and_Panama_Remote_Controlled_Vehicle_MOD_45159065.jpg)
PA has a strong focus on technology dating back to its work with the earliest computers in the 1950s.
Its Global Innovation and Technology Centre, designed by
Richard Rogers and founded by Professor Gordon Edge in 1970, helped create the Cambridge Phenomenon where the city became a centre for the UK’s technological companies.
Innovations developed at the centre over the past 50 years include: the original brushless servo motor; medical injectors that mean the patient does not need to see the needle; a self-monitoring device for people with diabetes that measures blood glucose levels; micrometers; and 4G wireless test equipment.
During the Iraq War, PA developed the "Panama System" to protect UK troops from improvised explosive devices, winning the Management Consultancies Association's top prize for innovation.
![EV chargepoint concept prototype](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/EV_chargepoint_concept_prototype.jpg)
More recently, the Centre has made several significant advances in sustainability. It designed a prototype electric vehicle charging point that aims to be “as recognisable as the red post box or black cab” with the Royal College of Art for the UK Government; developed the manufacturing equipment needed to mass produce
edible water bottles for Notpla; and helped build the world’s biggest battery in California with Vistra Energy.
PA ventures
PA's venture programme (PA Group Ventures) was established in 2000 to exploit the ideas and intellectual capital generated from its consulting work.
Ventures include a third-generation mobile phone business called UbiNetics that was sold for a total of $133 million in 2005; and Meridica – a drug delivery system company – that was sold to Pfizer for $125 million in 2004. PA demerged its venture arm, Ipex Capital, in June 2008.
Other recent ventures include:
Exacsys, which develops solutions to improve Point of Care (PoC) diagnostic systems. One application of this technology is the self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) to help people manage their diabetes.
ProcServe, which provides a cloud-based procurement system. The ProcServe Trading Network covers more than 17,000 organisations and is used by central government, and the National Police Procurement Hub, as well as commercial sector customers including Orange and Xerox.
Argenti, a business that innovates
telecare
Telecare is technology-based healthcare such as the monitoring of patient vital organs so that they may remain safe and independent in their own homes. Devices may include health and fitness apps, such as exercise tracking tools and digital medica ...
technology in partnership with local councils in the UK to improve adult social care.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
International management consulting firms
Management consulting firms of the United Kingdom
Computer companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in the City of Westminster
Consulting firms established in 1943
1943 establishments in England