The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 17, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 10.
Next is Chief Growth Officer finalist in the Private Company, >$500M category, Carl Buffington, CGO at Koniag Government Services. Here, he talks success in his current role, focus areas going forward, career advice and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2022/2023?
The biggest key achievement was the continued growth of our organization by $100 million in revenue year over year. Prior to my joining KGS about 4.5 years ago, we were a small $130 million company, and our first goal was to get to $500 million in annual revenue. We will close our Fiscal Year the end of March 2023 at nearly $650 million in annual revenue.
Although this was a total team effort, as the chief growth officer, I am ultimately charged with driving our aggressive growth objectives by ensuring that we have the proverbial people, mature processes, and tools in place to not only ensure that we are growing, but that we maintain performance excellence during the growth process.
This was a huge milestone for us and now we are setting our focus to becoming a $1 billion organization, not just by revenue but by maturity as well with automations like RPA, and process improvements across all our shared services.
What has made you successful in your current role?
I continue to challenge my organization to think bigger and better every day, never feeling satisfied with where we are. We are not the only organization with aggressive growth goals, so we must think and be different in developing our value proposition.
You must always expect better from yourself and those around you. Continuous improvement is a mantra I follow. I very much believe you are either getting better or falling behind.
What was a turning point or inflection point in your career?
Being acquired by a large systems Integrator. I was working at Vistronix, a successful 8a/small business at the time, and we had gone through a series of acquisitions ourselves adding to the company, but then we were bought by a billion-dollar systems integrator. Working for them, I was driven to “think bigger” as small business-sized opportunities don’t move the needle for a billion-dollar organization. I learned the discipline that it takes to capture large-scale opportunities and have used those lessons during my tenure with KGS.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
Two things.
- Our Mission. As an Alaskan Native Corporation, it is our responsibility to raise dividends for our Native Communities to help them maintain a way of life. The larger we grow, that affords us the ability to provide more for these communities that are really struggling. That is so much more rewarding to me and our entire leadership team.
- Our Culture. It is one of the most wonderful things about KGS and working alongside the members of our Executive Leadership Team, we have developed one of the best corporate cultures in the GovCon industry. We like to call it the “Koniag Way,” and it is built on trust, loyalty, sharing the catch. These are two very special things that I am most proud of being a part of at KGS.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
Giving back and paving the way for the next generation of leaders is one of my main focus areas going forward. As I work through my career and gain all the experiences and lessons learned, I challenge myself to find ways to pass those on to other emerging leaders. I do this at KGS and I also do this at my alma mater (University of Northern Colorado) by participating in the College of Business board.
Continuing to find ways to help mentor others is very important to me as no one really accomplishes anything alone. People have helped me along my journey and there is no better way to thank them than by paying it forward.
How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?
At KGS, I supported the development and implemented a lot of programs to help the next generation of leaders. Our Next Gen Leadership Program is a yearlong program for 30 selected emerging leaders from within the company. They are tutored and mentored on all aspects of leading the “Koniag Way.”
I am very proud when one of the graduates of the program is selected for a new leadership position within the organization. We are currently working with our third KLP leadership class.
What’s one key thing you learned from a failure you had?
Earlier in my career, the competitor in me made it very difficult to accept losing while pursuing new business opportunities. I got very emotionally attached and deemed the loss as a personal failure on my part. I realized that not only was this unhealthy, but it is also unrealistic to expect to win every opportunity just as an athlete does not win every athletic event.
I learned that it is okay to prepare to win, expect to win, however, you have to accept defeat. Learn from it, grow from it, and move on. I learned to live on a plane, be levelheaded, and not get too up with the highs or get too down with the lows.
Which rules do you think you should break more as a government/industry leader?
Maybe not rule, but more challenging your own biases. I have been going through an intense evaluation of our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan and our coach challenged us to examine our tendencies. Who do you trust and why? Who is in your network? What professional or personal groups do you belong to?
We tend to stick with things we are familiar with as it feels safe but maybe we should look at other things that are not quite as comfortable and challenge ourselves to better understand how a group that we may not be familiar with views things. Something that I think we all should be self-aware of.
What’s the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken?
Leaving my previous role where I was established and comfortable with the security of working for a billion-dollar organization with plenty of available resources and outstanding compensation plans. I took a massive cut in compensation with increased C-level responsibilities. I bet on myself welcoming the challenge of aggressively growing a small organization knowing that if I were successful then I would make up the lost compensation and then some. Zero regrets.
Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
I am most proud of what I am accomplishing right now at KGS. It is a very special place with lots of loyalty and shared successes. We support a tremendous mission that I am very proud to support. Creating a culture like what we have at KGS is not easy, but we have an amazing team, and tremendous leaders at all levels. I often say that a team and a culture like this will be very hard to ever come by again, certainty in my career.
What was your biggest career struggle and how did you overcome it?
Transitioning roles from being a Subject Matter Technical Expert to a Senior Leader was a struggle. I started in the GovCon industry as a software developer on a program. As you move up the ranks, you must abandon the things that you were comfortable with.
For example, as a developer, I was hands-on all the time, building software. Then as you transition to a task lead, then a project manager, then a program manager, director, VP, C-level, your role changes and you have to transition to teaching and mentoring more than other duties. I overcame this struggle by learning to delegate.
As a leader, you must surround yourself with competent people and then let them do what you hired them to do. You do not have the time to be as hands-on as you once were, trusting your people and that process can be a challenge but one you have to embrace and something I try and teach others about.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Don’t ever let anyone convince you that being a C-level leader is impossible. Leaders are made, not born and everyone has the ability to lead somewhere deep inside them. You just have to choose that you want to lead and not have someone choose that you can’t for you. Have a mission statement.
Beyond financial targets, have a focus that defines your career. For me, it has been helping people around me. If people are better off from the time we started working together to whenever our time ends together, then we were successful.