One of the world's oldest consulting firms, founded in 1886, with offices in London and Cambridge.
Arthur D. Little (ADL) is a management consulting firm that links technology, innovation and strategy. Clients hire it for questions such as which new technologies to back, how to enter a new market, or how to cut carbon. It describes its job as helping senior leaders turn challenges into opportunities. Recent work includes carbon strategy, hospital R&D strategy and smart-city projects, and in 2025 it was sole commercial due-diligence adviser on the Hyperion AI mega-campus.
A business magazine and the firm's own timeline describe it as the first technology-focused consulting firm. It was started in Boston in 1886 by an MIT-trained chemist, Arthur Dehon Little, and Roger Griffin, and was incorporated in 1909. In 1917 it moved to a base beside MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1957 it opened its first European office in Zurich. Wikipedia gives its headquarters as Brussels. A jobs-board profile lists UK offices at 55 Fetter Lane in London and in Cambridge, with about 2,500 staff worldwide (Wikipedia gives about 1,500, so treat headcounts as rough). The firm is in the Gold tier of the 2026 Consultancy.uk UK ranking.
We did not find a current mission statement. Its 1907 slogan was "other people's troubles are our business", and today it describes linking people, technology and strategy. The firm's timeline marked 140 years in 2026.
The timeline lists a long record of named projects: it organised General Motors' first R&D laboratory (1911), helped build SABRE, the first real-time airline reservation system, with IBM and American Airlines (1960), designed key stock exchange systems for NASDAQ in London and Tokyo (1968), and designed a laser reflector experiment placed on the Moon during Apollo 11 (1969). It also helped design Puerto Rico's Operation Bootstrap development programme (1942). In 1980 it produced a European Commission paper on telecoms deregulation and helped with the privatisation of British Rail, according to Wikipedia. It publishes a magazine, Prism, and studies such as the Global Innovation Excellence Study.
A third-party guide describes the culture as close-knit and less hierarchical than the biggest strategy firms, with heavy travel and long hours at times; that is an outsider's view. We did not find a UK graduate scheme. The firm has advertised a UK Business Analyst Intern role in London (posted 26 March 2026), which asks for final-year students or recent graduates in a quantitative or analytical subject, prior internship or research experience, strong Excel and the right to work in the UK; it lists no pay, length or deadline. Earlier London Business Analyst internships were advertised for 2024 and January 2026 starts. Applications use a CV and cover letter on ADL's website.
Website: www.adlittle.com
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE