In my last post I started with the early 1960s. When the firm upgraded the system from mechanical punch cards to an electronic computer. And ended with John Higgins’ charismatic leadership that provided all the key ingredients for the “special sauce”, which is a mixture of moxie, drive and the willingness to commit the necessary resources.

By the late 1960s unprecedented changes were buffeting societies and businesses around the world. Arthur Andersen’s entrepreneurial culture helped produce new ways of creating and measuring business success. The consulting division’s rapid growth, coupled with changes in technology and a tumultuous world economy, created new challenges for partners. Innovative consulting leadership enabled Arthur Andersen to emerge as a dominant global consulting firm by the end of the 1970s, and assured that the consulting practice would play an increasingly important role within Arthur Andersen. Read more…