40 years of DAI

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ECIAfrica as a reliable service provider with USAID, the U.K. Department for International Development, and other clients. Ben Feit, based there from 2005 to 2008, led a successful effort to develop business with South Africa’s Department of Treasury and provincial governments. Saffer came back to DAI headquarters in 2003, Grant in 2006, and Feit in 2008. After growing very quickly to be a $10 million company, certainly one of the largest Africa-based development firms, ECIAfrica hit a rough patch as its new and inexperienced South African executive team lost the confidence of the marketplace and of their own staff. For many of those monitoring DAI’s globalization efforts, the ratio between the costs and benefits of managing subsidiaries seemed to be trending in the wrong direction. Saffer’s new brief as DAI’s VP for Strategy and Diversification included expansion to Brazil, a country where DAI’s first foothold was a small advisory contract financed by the InterAmerican Development Bank. Lara Goldmark, DAI’s resident advisor, found that her project with the National Development Bank of Brazil was moving at a slow pace, but as she became known and trusted, she began fielding ad hoc requests for analytical studies from various organizations in Brazil, and referred them to DAI to undertake the work. Operating with a tiny business development budget (only $5,000 in the first year), she generated more than $200,000 in contracts under the informal umbrella of DAI Brasil, a company that did not yet exist. Being genuinely local was an imperative if this initiative were to be continued, so the virtual company Photo by John Bowman, DAI became officially registered in 2003. Goldmark was returning to the United States, so Saffer appointed a Brazilian managing director and assigned Nate Bourns, a young professional from DAI’s home office, to the new office in Rio de Janeiro. DAI Brasil tried to carve out a niche on terms that the parent company could support: hiring several full-time staff, paying them normal benefits, and adhering to consistent ethical business standards. All of these practices ran counter to the “consultancy culture” in the country, which thrived on informal arrangements, minimization of tax obligations, and lots of winking and nodding to secure business with Brazilian government clients. When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected President, many observers expected to see a big increase in development and poverty alleviation programs. Lula surprised everyone by taking a fiscally conservative Stymied by shifting political winds, DAI faced difficult challenges in Brazil—perhaps even more challenging than those in Africa. Above: Amazonian deforestation. 73
Above: Said Abu Hijleh at the 2002 staff conference. Tony Barclay, cutting the cake at DAI Palestine’s opening ceremony in 2004. Jim Packard Winkler stands behind Barclay. 74 approach, however, and the boom in domestically financed development initiatives did not materialize. After two years, the management team departed, and DAI exited this investment, transferring the small contracts in the portfolio to the remaining Brazilian staff. Brazil had been an experiment, and both entry and exit had been handled with more discipline than some previous diversification efforts. It was the wrong market environment for a company with DAI’s value system and business model. But the Latin American door was not permanently closed, and several years later, in Mexico, DAI developed a localization formula that had better prospects and was better aligned with the company’s strategic vision. In the Middle East, where political turmoil was endemic, DAI moved boldly and unexpectedly to establish a permanent presence. The firm had begun working in the West Bank and Gaza in 1994 on small business development, moving later into trade expansion and market access programs for local businesses. Its staff developed a unique knowledge of the Palestinian private sector. The expats, including Tim Smith, Jim Packard Winkler, Gary Kilmer, and Denis Gallagher, put a premium on developing local staff consulting skills, and DAI’s face to the market was increasingly Palestinian with each year that passed. Despite what Jim Packard Winkler called “the roller coaster of the peace process,” the series of projects that DAI undertook for USAID was
Page 3 and 4:
2 DAI, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA www.
Page 6 and 7:
FOreWOrd There are three reasons we
Page 8 and 9:
chapter One Something to believe In
Page 10 and 11:
Chapter One Something to Believe In
Page 12 and 13:
Development By 1979, the notion tha
Page 14 and 15:
It was Charles Franklin “Charlie
Page 16 and 17:
law in Delaware, where many small c
Page 18 and 19:
ects in Africa. Hatch held a newly
Page 20 and 21:
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 72 and 73: Mickelwait knew that Barclay had in
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 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
show all

40 years of DAI

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?