William McCormick
Mike McGovern, vice president of business development with Day & Zimmermann Government Services, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding his first year with the company as well as his strategic goals to grow its government business and how his team is diversifying in the highly challenging and competitive federal market during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
You can read the full interview with Mike McGovern below.
ExecutiveBiz: After completing your one-year anniversary, what can you say about your reasons for joining Day & Zimmerman Government Services, and what they look like now?
Mike McGovern: “The two key reasons I joined Day & Zimmermann were the people and the mission. I quickly saw that we have a team of talented, and incredibly passionate people that are dedicated to serving a noble and critical mission.
I recently completed my one-year anniversary and this continues to hold true. I’ve gained a deeper understanding of our business and appreciation for our folks supporting the U.S. National Security Mission around the world.
Our D&Z Purpose Statement really says it well: ‘We put people to work, we protect our freedoms, and we help our customers power and improve the world.’ This holds true across our integrated security, architectural & engineering, and operations & maintenance business areas serving the U.S. Government and partners.
I remain excited about having an impact on helping us diversify and grow this business.”
ExecutiveBiz: What are your strategic goals with Day and Zimmerman and where have you focused your attention in the market?
Mike McGovern: “In addition to learning our business and collaborating with the executive leadership team to strengthen our strategy, a key focus has been on the people—building relationships. This starts with the Business Development team I have the honor of leading.
A major priority has been working with the talented team I joined, as well as bringing in new folks who are aligned with our vision, strategy, culture, and values. We also need to arm them with the right tools to be successful; this includes their personal development.
We’ve made training a leading priority this year. Investing in our team’s skills and knowledge is something I strongly believe in.”
ExecutiveBiz: What are the critical issues D&Z Government Services is tackling?
Mike McGovern: “Across all of Day & Zimmermann, we’re focused on four strategic opportunities:
1.) winning the war for talent
2.) building customer intimacy
3.) maintaining the base
4.) diversification
These four pillars extend to our Government Services business and our growth strategy. Beginning with the war for talent, it all begins with our most valuable resource— our people.
As we’ve navigated through the common industry challenges resulting from the pandemic, we’re constantly looking for ways to better engage with our teams—safely, seeking diversity and inclusion in our talent, and also the solutions we develop.
For customer intimacy, we’ve stepped up our account planning and client engagement. It’s been refreshing for all of us to get back out and meet face-to-face with our customers and discuss ways we can support their missions; this extends to our key business partners as well. To achieve growth, it’s critical to first maintain the base – and a major way to do that is through superior existing contract performance.
We’ve been supporting the Department of Energy for 75 years and are a leader in securing the research and development of Category I Special Nuclear Material that supports the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
We provide security and emergency services operations solutions 24×7 for five DoE sites, providing protection of personnel, equipment and facilities. We’re proud to have recently received a two-year sole-source extension at one of these critical sites — due, in part, to our outstanding performance.
This success has directly led to other opportunities and wins in an adjacent DoE organization for our system integration business. We also won a key re-compete to continue to provide high-threat security services for the Department of State, protecting the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and assets throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Based on more than two decades of terrific support on multiple design projects—and by offering an innovative approach,—our Architecture & Engineering business, Mason & Hanger was recently awarded a pair of task orders that will further enhance the FBI’s training capability at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
From a growth perspective, we have a number of diversification efforts underway, addressing both new accounts and new capabilities.”
ExecutiveBiz: Tell us more about how you’re diversifying your business and your success to date.
Mike McGovern: “D&Z has been supporting The Intelligence Community for many years —providing high-threat security, explosive detection canines, cyber security, cleared staffing services, security design, and architecture and engineering.
Opportunities exist to bring these offerings to new accounts across the IC. We’ve brought talent on board with decades of IC experience to help and opened the aperture on the capabilities we can bring to this set of customers.
One such area is our system integration services. We’ve enjoyed recent success with a series of contract awards to provide site surveys, system engineering, logistics and installation of security solutions in some very austere overseas environments.
This offering really brings together the strengths of our entire organization, including engineering, physical and cyber security, logistics and supply chain management, life support, and operations and maintenance, while working in high-threat OCONUS regions.
D&Z also is providing integration services for the federal and state corrections/prison market in the area of managed access of illegal cellular devices.
We’ve experienced success selling an innovative offering to several corrections locations and have continued investment in building an additional contraband phone detection and location set of offerings through some strong technology partnerships. These capabilities and more are being marketed to the IC.
We’re also diversifying through our partner relationships. D&Z is leading a consortium of cyber security companies, bringing together the talent and expertise of complementary companies to meet our collective customers’ emerging needs.
This includes joint ventures with corporations that complement and strengthen our combined services, with a solid partnership working as one team to support integrated security as well as aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul opportunities and within our A&E portfolio.”
ExecutiveBiz: So, has anything surprised you since you joined D&Z?
Mike McGovern: “Actually, yes. We’re very well known in the high-threat security and architecture & engineering markets. Our qualifications and reputation are equally strong. What I’ve found is that we are less known in several areas where we are actually quite successful, serving as the silent hand supporting the Mission for many decades.
For example, with our system integration expertise and capabilities, and strong talent, we are well-positioned to significantly provide enhanced support for our customers with new solutions against emerging security threats—which will continue to grow in this area.
Our blend of mission-support capabilities, with security as a common thread, brings tremendous value to our customers seeking a trusted resource to answer their complex challenges when facing these evolving threats.
Another example is that we have been providing global logistics and life support services for nearly two decades—especially in the more challenging and austere environments.
We’ve continuously assessed the risks, built the solutions, and successfully performed to support our customers where many companies choose not to go —again, this sets us apart as a reliable resource to deliver safe operations.”
ExecutiveBiz: As we closely follow the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, how is D&Z preparing for ongoing efforts with U.S. Allies to support Ukraine?
Mike McGovern: “First of all, we have been supporting the U.S. National Security Mission on thousands of projects, in 165 countries. Our unwavering support of the Mission continues and will not change.
We stand ready to meet developing needs in Ukraine and surrounding European countries —coordinating with the U.S. Government, industry partners, and directly with in-country agencies.
We have strong working knowledge in Eastern Europe, having supported and designed a number of U.S. Government Facilities in numerous countries across Europe, including Ukraine.
We believe we’re well-positioned both now during the conflict and subsequent reconstruction. We’ve leaned forward, added resources to execute and are proud to already be supporting requirements.”
