40 years of DAI

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Mickelwait knew that Barclay had introduced much-needed business discipline to DAI, but he could not help worrying, as Max Goldensohn put it, that Barclay’s overall direction was toward “more business and less development.” This concern was not really warranted, but Barclay understood it. “It was almost like a father feeling that he’d been raising his kids to play a good role in society and he doesn’t want them going to work on Wall Street,” he acknowledged later. The directors faced a classic dilemma: how to guide a transition of leadership from a charismatic founder of a successful business to a younger, more buttoned-down successor who would be able to provide capabilities and strategy more attuned to the company’s future needs. Barclay developed the 1999 strategic plan, which envisioned acquiring IQC “franchises” to protect DAI’s market share and revenue level with USAID (then $60 million). Aiming for $100 million in revenue by 2003, he assumed that 40 percent would come from nontraditional sources, including Bannock (European revenue), ECIAfrica (revenue from southern Africa), and other new initiatives. Barclay believed in making a commitment to specific targets, including stock appreciation. Mickelwait had always been more open-ended in his thinking and less focused on financial targets. On March 6, 1999, the directors approved the new strategic plan and brought the succession process to a conclusion. On April 9, the last day of DAI’s 1999 staff conference, Barclay became CEO. John Buck, Charlie Sweet, and Don Mickelwait all attended a “Built to Last Blast” held that evening. Mickelwait ended the day as DAI’s official “Founder and Director.” There had been some talk of providing him with a founder’s corner office upstairs from Barclay’s. But Mickelwait cared too much about the future of the company to hover over his successor once the process was complete. He moved to Bangkok and began spending lots of time in China, which was, as he later put it, “as far away as I could get.” 63
64 USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives supports peacebuilding activities and funds reconstruction in crisis zones and war-torn areas such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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2 DAI, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA www.
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FOreWOrd There are three reasons we
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chapter One Something to believe In
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Chapter One Something to Believe In
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Development By 1979, the notion tha
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It was Charles Franklin “Charlie
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law in Delaware, where many small c
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ects in Africa. Hatch held a newly
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Most staff members who joined DAI i
Page 22 and 23: tise, energy, and especially money.
Page 24 and 25: Barclay encountered Charlie Sweet,
Page 26 and 27: after Barclay. In early 1978, he be
Page 28 and 29: norm after this. The offering docum
Page 30 and 31: gathered in the well-appointed surr
Page 32 and 33: Chapter Two Learning by Doing, 1981
Page 34 and 35: spending, and demand in the technic
Page 36 and 37: several senior managers, including
Page 38 and 39: Back on the Growth Path Don Mickelw
Page 40 and 41: second was that the firm was ready
Page 42 and 43: spurs and become assets in the firm
Page 44 and 45: A Different Direction By 1981, soon
Page 46 and 47: in rural enterprise development and
Page 48 and 49: cided to begin providing annual cas
Page 50 and 51: DAI began to grow again, he grew re
Page 52 and 53: front, it seemed likely that ICF wo
Page 54 and 55: Chapter Three The Fresh Faces of De
Page 56 and 57: household word. USAID had commissio
Page 58 and 59: epublics. For the work in Poland, D
Page 60 and 61: tion. Calculating the growing impor
Page 62 and 63: to development policy, but no chang
Page 64 and 65: to realizing Mickelwait’s vision
Page 66 and 67: in the forefront, serving an unprec
Page 68 and 69: find alternatives as long as the Go
Page 70 and 71: Transition These successes and fail
Page 74 and 75: Chapter Four Farther and Faster, 20
Page 76 and 77: Barclay could not have known then t
Page 78 and 79: Tactical deployment of grants was t
Page 80 and 81: DAI on track to cross the $100 mill
Page 82 and 83: ECIAfrica as a reliable service pro
Page 84 and 85: highly successful. Said Abu Hijleh,
Page 86 and 87: able expertise in federal procureme
Page 88 and 89: When new projects first appeared in
Page 90 and 91: Transformation and Transition The e
Page 92 and 93: to improve as soon as this change o
Page 94 and 95: Chapter Five Pulling Together, 2005
Page 96 and 97: in the ESOP were distributed throug
Page 98 and 99: Ownership, however, could be figura
Page 100 and 101: advantage, USAID would favor a comp
Page 102 and 103: As Jim Boomgard noted, “Developme
Page 104 and 105: governments on all levels to better
Page 106 and 107: In his role as COO, empowered by Ba
Page 108 and 109: the mid- and late 2000s, the compan
Page 110 and 111: the mid-1990s, DAI had begun to ext
Page 112 and 113: immense—and DAI’s projects are
Page 114 and 115: ard Winkler. Few will dispute that
Page 117: DAI Advancing Human Prosperity
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