user: Input: Federal Agents Search Orbital Sciences Offices
Rocket-maker Orbital Sciences Corp. said yesterday that federal government agents executed search warrants Thursday at its Dulles headquarters and at a design and manufacturing facility near Phoenix.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on "contracting procedures" related to "certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs."

The company's products -- sold to government and commercial customers -- include launch vehicles that send satellites into orbit, rockets used to test missile defense systems and interceptor booster vehicles designed to protect against missile attacks.

Despite some failed launches in recent months, Orbital Sciences has been involved in dozens of successful launches over the past decade, and it has attracted some high-profile talent: NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin is a former employee and on Wednesday the company named former Air Force secretary James G. Roche to its board of directors. Orbital has about 2,100 employees at its Dulles and Chandler, Ariz., facilities.

"We're not aware that we've done anything wrong or that we have any violations," said Barron Beneski, Orbital's spokesman. "We're going to be fully cooperative with the authorities . . . and we're working with the authorities to learn more about the nature of the investigation."

Sandy Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Phoenix, confirmed that Orbital is the subject of an "ongoing investigation" but she declined further comment. "Nothing about this is public," she said.

Orbital, a major Washington area defense contractor, reported $200 million in profit on $676 million in revenue last year. The company said 54 percent of that revenue came from work it did for the Defense Department and government intelligence agencies.

The raid surprised top officials at the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, a principal Orbital customer, according to a senior military officer at the agency. "That's nothing we initiated," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an official spokesman for the agency. "We're still waiting to learn the details of what triggered the raids and what it's about."

Founded in 1982 by three friends not long out of Harvard business school, Orbital in its first 20 years found a niche in the aerospace industry, supplying target missiles to the Pentagon but also making small rockets and lightweight satellites for NASA and other government agencies. Its business was concentrated on research and development programs, not major weapons systems.

That began to change in 2001 when Orbital was selected to supply some of the booster rockets for the Bush administration's ambitious new system for defending the United States against ballistic missile attack. As the government's other booster supplier -- Lockheed Martin Corp. -- floundered with its version, Orbital emerged as the lead producer.

Under a contract with Boeing Co., Orbital produces the booster rocket for the interceptor, which is designed to carry a "kill vehicle" into space that then separates from the booster and homes in on enemy warheads. Since last summer, eight such interceptors have been installed at launch sites in Alaska and California. Another six are scheduled to be installed by the end of this year.

The Pentagon has had difficulty carrying out recent tests to demonstrate that the program can work. Two attempts to launch interceptors at mock warheads have been aborted at the last minute for what defense officials blamed on minor glitches -- flawed software code in December and a faulty silo retracting arm in February.
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It's about: Rocket-maker Orbital Sciences Corp.  said yesterday that federal government agents executed search warrants Thursday at its Dulles headquarters and at a design and manufacturing facility near Phoenix.


Q: The Most Influential Business Thinkers

Corporate strategy sage C.K. Prahalad is the most influential management thinker in the world, according to the Thinkers 50, a biennial ranking of business gurus.

Prahalad, who serves as the Paul and Ruth McCracken distinguished university professor of strategy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, tops the list for the second time running.

"C.K. Prahalad's influence on the business world is immense," said Des Dearlove, co-creator of the ranking, in a statement. "He coined the term 'core competencies' in the 1990s, which set the strategy agenda for a generation of managers. More recently, his work on The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid has shown the role business can play in tackling world poverty."

In Pictures: The 10 Most Influential Business Gurus

Video: Present Like Steve Jobs

To create the list, leadership consulting firm CrainerDearlove surveyed 3,500 people around the world to identify the 100 most important business thinkers, and then consulted a panel of experts to rank the top 50. This is the fifth edition of the biennial list.

While Prahalad maintained his No. 1 slot from the 2007 edition, economic turbulence has significantly changed the rest of the ranking.

Thirteen thinkers make their first appearance on the list in 2009, including Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and author of Banker to the Poor. The economist surges onto the list in sixth place.

Names that have slipped off the list include Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who ranked third in 2007. All together, only 19 members of the original 50 members of the list still make the cut.

Who do you think are the most important business thinkers? Share your opinion in the comment section.

Stuart Crainer, co-creator of the list and partner at CrainerDearlove, says this year's ranking illustrates the slipping influence of business school academics--and the increasing influence of economists during the recession. Economists Paul Krugman (ranked third), Joseph Stiglitz (22nd) and Niall Ferguson (42nd) did not appear on the list in 2007.

"Managers are quite fickle," says Crainer. "They're looking for the next big idea all the time."

In Pictures: The 10 Most Influential Business Gurus

View the full list: 50 Most Influential Management Gurus

Video: Present Like Steve Jobs

Read more on the Thinkers 50 here.

A:

assistant: Experts rank management consultants and economists among the most respected gurus.