A few weeks ago WashingtonExec had the opportunity to catch up with Bill Graham, CEO, and Deb Oliver, COO, of the The SI Organization. The SI Organization is unique in that it is “like a start-up company sitting on 40 years of history,” said The SI Organization COO Deb Oliver. In just 35 days The SI Organization became an independent company from Lockheed Martin October of last year.
WashingtonExec asked Graham and Oliver their reflections on how the transition process went last year, how the new company will continue to thrive in a time of federal budget restraints, as well as what comprises The SI Organization’s company culture.
“One of the strategies that fuels our culture is our focus on building a strong pipeline of young engineers from some of our nation’s top universities,” said Graham.
WashingtonExec: How was the Year 1 transition process? Was it different from what you imagined?
Bill Graham: It’s been a good first year for the SI. In October 2010, when Lockheed Martin announced they had reached an agreement to sell us to Veritas Capital, we immediately began executing our transition plans, and we were able to close the transaction just 35 days after the announcement.
Deb Oliver: We were like a start-up company sitting on 40 years of history. Our primary goal during the divestiture was to make our transition seamless to our customers and our people. We had a lot of start-up activities we needed to accomplish, and we leveraged the systems engineering and program management strengths of our team to succeed. This past September, we completed our transition to an independent company by standing up our new cloud-based IT infrastructure. This was a monumental task that included a simultaneous launch of intranet, extranet, email, enterprise resource planning system, benefits administration, and payroll services. We are already seeing significant cost savings on IT operations and maintenance thanks to our cloud solution.
WashingtonExec: How do you plan on maintaining the growth that you have achieved in the last year with federal spending cuts looming?
Bill Graham: As an independent company, we are able to pursue contracts with organizations we were not allowed to pursue in the past, due to the organizational conflict of interest restrictions of being part of a large defense contractor. We now have a much bigger addressable market, and we have an opportunity to expand into new customers sets.
WashingtonExec: How would you personally describe your company’s culture?
Bill Graham: One of the strategies that fuels our culture is our focus on building a strong pipeline of young engineers from some of our nation’s top universities. This creates a large population of energetic, entry-level professionals with innovative ideas and different ways of solving problems. As we couple our new hires with senior engineers, we take great care to use mentoring and knowledge transfer programs to pass on best practices and lessons learned from our 40 year legacy.
WashingtonExec: Those are all of my questions. Do you have anything you would like to add?
Deb Oliver: I think it’s important to highlight that both Lockheed Martin and Veritas Capital were very committed to making the SI’s divestiture successful. There was no way we could have transitioned in 35 days without incredible support on both sides. Thanks to their support, we have built a strong foundation for the future success of our company.