LMI

In September 1961, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara sent a memorandum to President John F. Kennedy, advising “that we can achieve major breakthroughs in logistics management, where we spend half of the Defense budget, by sponsoring the establishment of a special, full-time organization of highly talented business management specialists.” President Kennedy agreed, and three weeks later—October 3, 1961—the Logistics Management Institute was born.

The Early Days
LMI’s Certificate of Incorporation established LMI’s objectives, which included engaging in and procuring research, development, engineering, and advisory services for the United States Government or any nonprofit organization operated exclusively for scientific, educational, or charitable purposes. Secretary McNamara summarized LMI’s original intent this way: “LMI is to be a fact-finding and research organization, designed to seek solutions to [highly complex logistics] problems.”

The first group of LMI Trustees included such luminaries as Charles H. Kellstadt, former Chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, writer and management consultant Peter Drucker, Professor Carlton Pederson of Stanford University, Dean Stanley E. Teele of Harvard University, and Professor Sterling Livingston of the Harvard Business School.

Today
Today, LMI is still governed by an esteemed Board of Directors and operates with complete integrity, free of commercial and political interest. We continue to act as a trusted advisor to government managers and to bring the best, most creative management and technical minds to bear on solving complex issues.

We still operate the world’s most advanced logistics consulting group, but have expanded our scope to provide world-class expertise in the following:

• Acquisition and financial management
  
• Infrastructure management
  
• Information management
  
• Organizational improvement
  
• Policy and program support.

• Defense
  
• Intelligence
  
• Healthcare
  
• Homeland Security
  
• Energy and Environment
  
• Civil government.

Ask the people who work at LMI what the corporate culture is like and you will invariably hear the same things: collegial, teamwork-oriented, supportive, stimulating… a place to stay. As a not-for-profit business, LMI takes pride in always working in the client’s best interest. We strive to work only on programs of demonstrable value to the public sector, with the result that our work is both challenging and rewarding. LMI employees build strong bonds by working together in pursuit of a shared, and worthy, goal—helping government work better. We also value our relatively flat organizational structure, which contributes to an atmosphere of mutual respect and support for the work each one of us does. LMI nurtures our employees, both personally and professionally. We provide a broad array of technical, management, and individual skills workshops, seminars, conferences, and classes, both on- and off-site, to help our employees reach their full potential. And we are active in our community through direct volunteer work and fundraising for a number of important causes. Yes, we take care of our employees—with competitive compensation, great benefits, and flexible schedules—but LMI’s culture brings even more. The opportunity to make a difference by doing work you love to do. To learn from the recognized experts in their field—by working side by side with them. And to go home at the end of every day knowing your contributions have added value that goes way beyond the profit motives of a typical consultancy.

LMI offers a comprehensive and industry-competitive benefits package, available to all salaried employees who are full-time and eligible part-time employees. As an overview, our benefits include the following:

• Health Insurance
• Flexible Spending
• Accounts
• Retirement
• Annual Leave and Holidays
• Sick Leave
• Tuition Assistance and Professional Development

People come to LMI because they want their work to have meaning and their contributions to have value.

In a crowded field of consultancies, LMI stands apart. We have never had a “cog in the wheel” mentality. Our expectation is that each one of our employees will play an active and immediate role in solving our clients’ complex issues. We hire people with the bright minds and collaborative spirit needed to get things done. And we support them once they join LMI.

We value openness and inclusion. You’ll see broad diversity of ethnicity, gender, age and beliefs at all levels of our organization. Our staff is a mix of experienced hires from the private sector, military veterans, retired federal civilian employees, and graduates fresh out of a university.

Our value to our clients lies in the ideas and solutions coming from the innovative minds of our people. That value is what has enabled LMI to grow steadily over the past 50 years into the successful and stable organization we are today. In contrast to other firms, LMI is not a large systems integrator, outsourcer or seller of proprietary hardware.
We protect and grow the investments we have made in each hiring decision by offering competitive pay, generous benefits, continuing education opportunities, flexible schedules, performance rewards programs, and a range of rich work-life programs.
Year after year, LMI wins recognition for being a great place to work:

• Chosen as one of “Washington’s Great Places to Work”, Washingtonian magazine.
  
• Recipient of The Principal® 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security award.
  
• Chosen as a “Best for Vets” top career option by Military Times EDGE magazine.

To tackle those complex problems, Secretary of Defense McNamara recommended establishing an organization of specialists. Three weeks later, in October 1961, LMI was born. Since then, LMI has evolved, growing and building on its rich history of public service by bringing the best management and technical minds to address intricate issues across the federal government. As administrations, priorities, and policies have changed over the last 50 years, LMI’s mission has remained constant.

Our employees come from diverse backgrounds: government and defense, business and industry, and academia and research. More than half are either veterans or former civil servants, and more than 70 percent have advanced degrees. They work for LMI because they believe in our mission of improving the management of government.

Federal agencies value our not-for-profit status services in logistics, acquisition and financial management, infrastructure management, information management, organizational improvement, and policy and program support. We have comprehensive experience in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, health care, and energy and environment markets.

LMI also invests in a research program that brings additional rigor, precision, and predictability to government decision making. We encourage our employees to expand their expertise and use the results of their research to find new solutions to government’s greatest management challenges.

Since 1993, LMI has been a Department of Defense Training with Industry partner. This program gives military personnel and civilians in federal, state, and local governments the opportunity to gain valuable, practical experience working in a commercial industry. Once accepted into the program, candidates are designated Resident Research Fellows and are considered full-time members of our project teams for up to 12 months. By participating in this program, Resident Research Fellows

• increase their knowledge of logistics and acquisition,
  
• sharpen their analytical skills,
  
• experience federal government processes from a management-consulting organization’s perspective,
  
• and gain a working knowledge of the private sector.

What makes LMI such a great place to work? It’s more than the great benefits and competitive pay. It’s more than the personal satisfaction so many of our employees find in working in our not-for-profit environment to improve the business of government management. It’s even more than our congenial and collaborative corporate culture.

It’s also about how LMI respects and values each employee as an individual, with a whole life to balance outside of the office. We want to nourish our employees’ whole selves, and to that end, we offer a broad array of work-life programs that rank among the best in the area.

• First-Class Facilities
  
• Pentagon Federal Credit Union
  
• Social Programs
  
• Recognition Awards
  
• Community Connections
  
• Long-Term Care Insurance
  
• Family Matters @LMI Program
  
• Employee Assistance Program
  
• Annual Health Fair and Flu Shots

2000 Corporate Ridge
McLean, Virginia 22102-7805
(800) 213-4817
(703) 917-9800