Andy Reed
“I am a firm believer that capitalism is the most efficient means of expanding technology and leveraging its capabilities to solve problems.”
EM: Can you tell our readers about your background and how your experiences prepared you for your current role as Executive Vice President/General Manager?
In short, I have spent my adult years solving problems . . . and I enjoy it! I armed myself with an Engineering degree from Vanderbilt University which provided the framework of how to go about solving technical problems. Truth be told, I have never done a day of engineering per se, but have certainly used that framework throughout my career.
I was fortunate to spend over seven years on active duty with the U.S. Navy flying carrier-based, all-weather attack aircraft . . . . thus solving problems doing 500 mph several hundred feet above the ground at night.
After resigning my commission, I entered the business world, undertaking positions at both large (Westinghouse), start-up (WorldLinks), and medium-sized [Globecomm] companies. These stints mostly involved helping customers solve their needs / problems. To this day, the greatest satisfaction I get from my job is delivering a solution / service that solves one of our customers’ problems or needs.Â
ExecutiveBiz: Within the current markets that you serve, where do you see expansion opportunities with the company? Where do you see Globecomm bringing the most value?
Working with our government customers around the globe, I continue to hear the mantra that “they have to do more with less.” Budgets have shrunk, most new starts and even programs that have been ongoing for years are being assessed by government decision makers for value and appropriate “Return on Investment (ROI)†factors. While some begrudge this, I believe this makes our entire industry stronger and certainly Globecomm stronger. We serve a combination of government and commercial customers, and continual customer assessment of their ROI is the norm with the enterprises we serve.
ExecutiveBiz: How can the public and private sector work together improve the federal acquisition process?
I might suggest we look at the project acquisition process from the view of the taxpayer who obviously provide the funds for the government to buy goods and services. No one wants to see money wasted and spent on things that are not needed, not useful and provide no value. On the other hand, I believe the vast majority of taxpayers are value-minded, meaning they prefer the purchasing of material and services that maximize the benefit of the money being spent. Most people, in their own lives, purchase items that balance cost versus quality, and do not always buy the lowest cost item. Thus, procurement of government goods and services should more closely match this behavior.
ExecutiveBiz: Can you characterize the types of solutions and services that Globecomm focuses on? What kind of programs do you pursue?
In general, Globecomm undertakes complex communications solutions . . . usually involving multiple technologies to ensure the voice, data or video gets from Point A to Point B. Moreover, these solutions are engineered with an eye towards achieving requisite availability and supportability requirements.
For our government customers, we provide integration communications infrastructure, managed global network services, and life-cycle support engineering services. As the world becomes more and more connected, we look to be a leader of leveraging RF and IP-centric technologies to help our customers implement enterprise-level solutions.
ExecutiveBiz: What are the biggest challenges the military faces in regards to C4ISR?
The “battlefield†is becoming more and more connected. While on the surface, this is highly advantageous, the amount of data to be processed is staggering. Developing how a battle element – whether that be a soldier or battalion, or a sailor or battle group – ingests, processes and analyzes all the data that is being made available into an actionable offense or defense is DoD’s greatest task. Furthermore, this actionable data needs to be disseminated across organizations, agencies and units in a timely, non-political manner to maximize its usefulness. This requires the elimination of stovepipes and parochial organizational boundaries.
Globecomm and its telecom industry peers are focused on facilitating data collection, transport, aggregation, storage and application development to assist the DoD in the broad context of the C4ISR mission.
ExecutiveBiz: What role do you see Globecomm playing in the future of government solutions?
I am a firm believer that capitalism is the most efficient means of expanding technology and leveraging its capabilities to solve problems. As such, Globecomm will continue to derive and implement commercial solutions that can be leveraged by its government customers. Whether it is the creative use of space segment, innovations in RF and IP technologies or the development of platforms and applications that optimize the connected world, Globecomm will continue to bring these innovations to its government customers for their use within their usage domains.
