Dear Colleagues,

It’s been two months since the birth of Abt JTA, Abt Associates’ new Australian subsidiary, so I wanted to send out an update on what we’ve been doing and progress to date on alignment activities.  The first flurry of activity surrounded the launch events to announce the acquisition.  The same day that Kathleen announced the acquisition to Abt staff worldwide from Cambridge, Jane Thomason and I made a similar announcement to JTA staff, albeit 15 hours ahead in Brisbane time.  Launch events followed in Brisbane and in Abt JTA’s two country offices in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Suva, Fiji. Staff around the globe seemed to welcome the news because they are looking to expand opportunities through new projects, clients and geographies, and through the additional technical depth in the organization.

During March 18-20 we held a strategic planning retreat with ambitious goals, a full agenda and great participation of senior leadership from Abt JTA and Abt Associates.  Key retreat issues included: discussion of what it means to be a subsidiary and how we work together, Abt JTA strategy, joint business development processes and plans, pricing models that constrain or drive collaboration, and updates on the alignment playbook -- the nuts and bolts activities that will enable and facilitate our working together.  Outputs from the retreat include:

·        The goals for the acquisition are growth -- creating revenue above and beyond what the two firms could generate independently; diversification – expanding into new countries and sectors; and leverage – utilizing Abt expertise on Abt JTA contracts.

·        We chose to define Abt JTA’s role in a One Global Abt Strategy rather than have parallel strategies for Abt and Abt JTA. 

·        We identified significant opportunities for synergy on business development, so developing systems to collaborate on business development and jointly positioning for these opportunities are high priorities for the coming months. 

·        We committed to ensuring regular communication on alignment activities, so please look for additional updates in the future.

If you have questions or suggestions on making the acquisition and alignment process as effective as possible, please direct them to Susan Scribner, our Director of Strategic Alignment.

Regards,

Jay

Jay L. Knott | Executive Vice President-Global Business | Abt Associates

O: 301-347-5896| F: 301-828-9739 | www.abtassociates.com

Note: This email is sent bcc: to All Staff Abt and All Abt JTA