William McCormick
Sinclair Harris, vice president of Client Relations for LMI, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding the attributes of the company and its mission that attracted him to the organization as well as how the influence of emerging technologies continues to drive digital transformation efforts for its customers in the ever-evolving and competitive federal landscape.
In addition, Harris, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, also discussed the various charities and work LMI does to make a difference and how people can get involved during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
“Our growth strategy moving forward is driving business in the areas where we’ve received the greatest challenges for our clients and worked to innovate. We can take our internal research and development funds to quickly innovate around the highest interest areas as well as find the top talent we need to drive the mission and address these challenges for our government clients.”
You can read the full interview with Sinclair Harris below:
ExecutiveBiz: Why did you want to join the company and what were the attributes of its mission that attracted you to the role? What do you hope to accomplish with the company?
Sinclair Harris: “Over the course of my six years with LMI, I served as the Director of Business Development for the company’s U.S. Navy market. In January, I took on my current role as the vice president of Client Relations.
I’ve been with LMI since 2015 and I originally joined the company and stayed because of its strong culture as well as its reputation in our industry and what we accomplish for our clients. I had a great passion to share when I learned about LMI coming out of the military, I’ve maintained the same passion for our government clients, and we work hard to provide practical solutions.
LMI has been in business since 1961 and we’ve gone through several transitions over that time. We’ve been able to maintain the same core values and leadership at every level and program throughout our history.
It doesn’t matter if you’re client-facing or the ones who work inside our company. They are LMI leaders in their area and are expected to lead to provide that clarity, vision, and the drive to motivate and continue our progress.
Leadership has always been at the heart of LMI. When I first joined the company, there was a familiar feeling to being a government employee. They were focused on helping our clients improve and get better as fast as possible. Our employees are focused on the internal operations to LMI or client-facing. Those are both significant to our culture and to maintaining our core values.
The final one that I’d like to mention is innovation. We’ve seen a lot of innovation at LMI Over the past six decades. We were a very early adopter of leading-edge techniques in data science and engineering. We’ve certainly led innovation in terms of how the government has built its logistics and data processing techniques and LMI has continued to lead the curve of innovation.
Our president and CEO, Doug Wagoner, made it his mission to drive integrity and ethical practices as a part of our core values, which only enhances our leadership as well as our mission focus and drive for innovation together. We can all work understanding that we perform at the highest level with the highest integrity. Our clients feel complete trust in our products and the way we do business.”
ExecutiveBiz: With the influence of emerging technologies impacting every aspect of business, how has your company been able to drive digital transformation efforts to stay ahead of innovation in the federal landscape for yourself and your customers?
Sinclair Harris: “The challenges surrounding digital transformation are out there across the federal government and all its agencies. There was a report that said up to 80 percent of these efforts are failing and trillions of dollars have been spent on these attempts at digital modernization and migration to the cloud as well as data analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.
LMI has been at the forefront of the work to rationalize these complex challenges and develop the practical ways to apply the various tools that continue to evolve in a holistic and human-centric way to help our government clients in their transformation. I believe we’ve been able to help them transform in a more resilient and holistic way.
The Army is a good example. Another good example is we want a seat with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Consortium. We’ve done a lot to ensure that we have practical ways to apply AI, data sciences, as well as robotics and automation in a human-centric way.
From my perspective, LMI will continue to do that for our military and wherever else we can help. We’re going to provide those capabilities for our warfighters and for the government to have the innovative and holistic solutions to address their challenges, including the critical areas of chemical, biological, radiological and defense.
LMI wants to provide the steps to help our government make the right decisions with the appropriate logistics and processes to adapt more quickly than our competitors and global adversaries.”
ExecutiveBiz: An important part of a company having strong business ethics in the federal sector is about helping and giving back to the greater community. Can you speak to the various charities and work with other organizations that your company does to make a difference and how people can get involved?
Sinclair Harris: “LMI is always looking to the future and we’re always playing the long game, which includes upholding our integrity and ethics above all else. You can make unethical decisions and prosper on short-term rewards all you want, but you’ll end up paying a bigger price down the line. The long game is to keep our posture as a trusted partner and innovator for our clients.
I used to say that LMI is the one organization that will tell a client what they need to hear. If it’s the truth and it’s morally right, any wise client would understand the benefit of that. When I was in the military, the commanders, decision-makers, and government officials all needed people to tell them the truth. That’s important to us because of our integrity and we will remain good stewards.
With LMI, we’re very philanthropic and we have several activities that we volunteer with that are both internally and externally. We’re a huge supporter of Martha’s Table in DC. We are heavily involved in supporting great organizations where people need help the most. LMI has been a longtime supporter of the Children’s Hospital.
We will continue to do all these things going forward. LMI is also involved with the Fisher House Foundation and Girls on the Run. We want to increase the awareness and opportunities to mentor and inspire young women in our community. It’s a huge part of our mission to create new opportunities and give back to the community like only LMI can.”
