William McCormick
Kevin Leonard, president and CEO of Technica, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding his choice to join the company back in September as well as the core values that drive its substantial growth and company culture.
In addition, Leonard also discussed Technica’s growth from a $30 million company to more than $123 million in the highly competitive federal marketplace, and his strategic goals to continue that momentum and keep the company growing during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
“At Technica, one of the core values that we don’t always write down is that we’re responsive. In the last six months, I’ve seen how agile we can be as an organization. The agility we are offering as well as our success-driven culture and our commitment to our customers is beyond belief. If a client of ours asks for something, we’ll figure it out. We’re responsive and dependable for them.”
You can read the full interview with Kevin Leonard below:
ExecutiveBiz: What can you tell us about how you’re driving value for Technica and your customers through contract awards, acquisitions and other aspects across the federal sector?
“Anytime you move between different organizations or head into a new leadership position. The challenge of figuring out how you want to try to make things better. I don’t think there’s a single leader who looks at everything and just wants to keep everything the same.
As I came into Technica last September, I saw a company that had built a substantial growth curve over the past three years as our company continues to secure some significant contract awards and drive our revenue and overall performance as well as our operations and culture.
As the story goes, I was going on vacation and Amy Roddey invited me to Charleston. I went down there and spent some time with her and walked away from the city very impressed with everything that she’d accomplished with Technica by that point essentially on her own from a top leadership standpoint.
Towards the end of that week, she asked me if I’d be interested in running Technica. That wasn’t the reason why I was down there, but after sharing ideas and talking, it became the focal point of the conversation.
Technica has grown from a $30 million company to over $123 million. The key is to adapt to that growth and how your processes need to change to keep that momentum going to continue to grow with the company in the future.
As far as what Technica has been able to accomplish in its processes, which include human resources, finance, contracting and operations. My concept coming into the job that I discussed was that I’d like to introduce program management reviews and a governance framework.
In that project governance framework area, we need to plan, win and deliver for our clients. As we think about planning, that’s a strategic mindset of what you’re going to do and how. We put together a plan and the focus is on how to build for each project manager and process that you are constantly monitoring and impacting each project to bring that up to the corporate level.
As we’ve done this, we’ve developed our business reviews at the corporate level as well. Technica just did our first quarterly business review and it was really an eye-opener to take all of our huge projects and look hard at ourselves across all functional areas. It was very powerful.
It showed us a lot of improvements that we could make in safety, procurement management, and recruiting in particular. Technica has to go out in the market and secure new work. We need some business development professionals to join us, and we need a bigger team and group of people. We also need to write proposals on a level that competes with the bigger names in government contracting.
Technica has done that, but the other significant aspect is delivering for the customer. You can make all the promises in the world to get the contract and you can win all the work in the world, but it means nothing if you don’t deliver and make good on your word to the customer.
ExecutiveBiz: What are your growth initiatives and strategic goals for the coming year? What do you hope to accomplish and any new markets that you’re keeping an eye on in the federal sector?
At the risk of sounding too cool, Technica has really grown our top-line revenue. I promised that Technica would grow our top-line revenue and that we would grow our profit by a minimum of ten percent, which is combined with our annual growth rate over the next four to five years.
We’re very excited about our 10 percent result. We looked at absolutely everything that Technica has under its umbrella as well as all the work that’s out there in the federal space. When I came into the company…I thought our goals should be feasible and focus on the “art of the possible.”
That’s where we said, ‘Okay, let’s aim for ten percent revenue growth.’ Technica earned some work with the DLA and expanded our footprint in that space. We continue to go after a lot of work in Africa and other places where the market is undervalued by a lot of people. The truth is you don’t need to always obtain your business from the usual clients.
I have my eye on the commercial sector as well, especially the shipping industry. There are a few shipping firms with a massive presence in Africa. Those are the angles we’re looking for across the globe. Technica has a global focus rather than stopping at the Atlantic ocean.
Technica has been very heavily weighted toward working with the U.S. Army or the DLA and GSA among others. I want to expand our reach for ourselves and our customers. We’re interested in working with the Navy as well as the Air Force and I already see a lot of opportunities for us to work together.”
ExecutiveBiz: What are the core values that are important to your company’s culture? How has your team developed its workflow and ability to drive success in such a competitive market?
At Technica, one of the core values that we don’t always write down is that we’re responsive. In the last six months, I’ve seen how agile we can be as an organization. The agility we are offering as well as our success-driven culture and our commitment to our customers is beyond belief. If a client of ours asks for something, we’ll figure it out. We’re responsive and dependable for them.
Another keyword that I’d use is relentless. I think that’s the fabric we use at Technica. The last word that I’d highlight is determined. Technica won’t quit under almost any circumstances. It’s just not in our DNA to give up. It’s not what I’m made of and it’s not a trait of our people either.
The more time you spend with Technica, you realize that we have a new team of leaders, which includes myself and we brought in Robert Griffith, our chief operating officer. He has a strong NASA background with a lot of touchpoints. Jarrod Staller also came in as our CFO.
Monica Shoffeitt was brought in as our vice president of business development. Monica has been a leader in a number of different companies. It’s been six months since I came in and I’m old news already. It has been unbelievable…and we’re managing the changes we need to make over time.
We are working very hard to ensure we don’t shock the system. Amy Roddey had a vision for this company about 17 years ago. We’re driving our business forward, growing very consistently and expanding our teams as well as our footprint in new markets. Technica is one to watch.”
