October 24, 2023 • 23 mins
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(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by iHeart Media. Let's
meet Panaka Patel. He is aCEO for IT Concepts based in Northern Virginia.
They have a wide range of andinformation technology services, data service and
management consulting services. Before we talkmore about Panocket's company, I first asked
him to talk a little bit abouthimself, where he's from and his origin
(00:24):
story. I went to school inRutgers, but originally I'm from India,
and you know, my father andmom came from a little village we had.
We had a farm in India rightoutside of a pretty decent sized city
called Bardorda where actually we have somestaff there working now, which is to
bring a full circle. But yeah, we grew up in a little farm
(00:46):
and I came to the US whenI was about eight years old and we
landed in New Jersey. I stillremember coming off of the plane as it
was in November Tiphram and there wassnow coming down, and then all the
hecticness in JFK where we had landed, you know, Panakanaut. When I
do this series, one of thefortuitious things for me as an interviewers,
(01:07):
I get to meet so many diversepeople, and I think you'll be happy
to hear this that a lot ofthe CEOs that I talked to are immigrants
and not originally from this country andhave made such wonderful strides of running their
own companies. And you're just inanother in the long list. So I'm
really proud to talk to you.I know you've served and I want to
talk about in just a second,and we are here to talk about your
company, it concepts. I knowyou're going on twelve plus years running this
(01:30):
company. You've got a really coolbackground though, as far as your resume
and also serving, and I'd liketo kind of get some context before we
start talking about your company, aboutwhat you did before you started the company,
So can you share that with us? Yes, sir, absolutely,
So. You know, grew upin the Jersey area. We come from
very humble beginnings. As I mentioned, my dad was a farmer, so
(01:52):
really I think maybe ninth eighth gradeof education and that's Indian education. That
didn't speak any English when he camehere, so did a lot of labor
jobs. And I think one ofthe benefits of Jersey was there was a
small community there already so he hadhe had a lot of help, or
we had a lot of help aswe were trying to navigate the space in
(02:14):
the new country. And you know, my dad did labor jobs. We
lived in a one bedroom apartment,and he saved his money throughout the eighties
to buy a little, small conveniencestore. So I saw that entrepreneurship bug
sort of hit me early. AndI worked that store, you know,
all through high school and a littlebit in college, but mostly through high
school. And you know, watchinghim work twelve fourteen hour day, seven
(02:37):
days a week, and just justthe hustle that he put in without being
able to speak the language properly.Right, So as a as a you
know, eighth grader, I'm runninginventory in the store, I'm running payroll,
I'm running so on and so forth, right at various operations. So
I got to see the system sideof things as well, a little bit
knowing that my dad, you know, may not have all the money in
(03:00):
the world to pay for school.And I was the youngest of four,
so I had a brother and twoolder sisters. I had always been very
interested in in the patriots side ofthings, and I joined at the RTC
program in high school where where Iexcelled and I became one of the core
(03:21):
commanders actually my senior year of theprogram. So just just found a place
where I learned a lot learned andfound uh the leadership frates very early on
that that I could own and develop. But yeah, I parlayed that into
my education in college. And Idid RTC and in college as well at
(03:42):
Rutgers and and and JET which wasa joint program. And again rights as
a college kid waking up at sixin the morning to work out, Uh,
it gives you a different perspective ofgoing out sometimes in the evenings and
make me sure you make the workoutsand so on and so forth. Being
on college and on campus walking aroundin uniform right where some of your friends
(04:06):
are like, what are you doing? Why are you walking down? You
just that standing out. But Ican't shy away from it. I always
say I needed a military more thanthe military needed me. Well, you
know what, there's also a commonthread that I want to talk about.
And by the way, thank youfor your service. Anybody that serves on
our program. We're always just youknow, it's very excited to me because
(04:28):
there's any correlation and I'll just tellyou quickly. I come from a sports
background, and as you know,in sports, there's also some structure and
they can apply in business, andwe always talk about those kind of things.
But the military service and then runninga company, there are a lot
of similarities to the structure of itand leadership abilities and all those things.
So I'd like you to share withour audience about your service as it applies
(04:50):
to running a company, because Ithink there's a lot of similarities there that
you can use. No, No, you're absolutely right, right. I
think, like I mentioned, Iodd the entrepreneur bug hit me very early
on, but that that structure andthat discipline more importantly to processes and the
reason for some of these things andreason for the structure and the discipline I
(05:14):
really gained within the military absolutely earlyon. My first assignment was in Tampa,
Florida, and I get down thereand you know, I'm one of
two or three lieutenants in the teamof thirty forty airmen and then another team
of fifty sixty airmen then one ofthe youngest, right, so to be
able to be able to understand,hey, you know what, here's the
(05:36):
structure that's in place. Even thoughyou may be the lieutenant or the captain
or so on and so forth,the officer that's in charge, there's already
a structure that the military has thatfor you to be able to succeed and
jump on. You know, Iwasn't there reinventing the wheel. I jumped
on with my senior and listed advisorsand n CEOs and learned from them more
than more than anywhere else, andthey took me under their wing. And
(05:59):
you know, I still remember earlyon, I was like, you know,
senior, message start just starts here. You obviously know everything that's happening.
I'll just do this, this andthis. And he's like, no,
Lt, You're still in charge,you know, just because I know
what's happening, or I've been herefour or five years and I understand this,
You're still making the decisions. AndI think that that helped me tremendously
right to know that not to pushoff responsibilities that are yours, and that
(06:25):
it's okay to use some help tomake sure you get things done appropriately.
And I've relied on some of thoselessons all the way through now well even
with my team. Now, yeah, well that's good. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. Okay, in just a moment, we're going
to ask you about the mission statementof the company and then also your capabilities
and programs and get into the weedsa little bit. But can you also
tell me the origin story about comingup with IT Concepts because I'm fascinated by
(06:49):
entrepreneurs like you. You know,you've got a great idea, but it
takes a lot of guts. Ittakes a lot of fortitude, tenacity,
also a little bit of luck intotiming and a lot of other things to
start your own company. You obviouslysaw a hole in the industry, You're
obviously good at something, but youjoined the company zero employees. Tell us
(07:11):
about the whole thing about joining itand starting basically with nothing and then growing
it into where you over have threehundred and eighty five employees. Now it's
an amazing story. Yeah. Intwenty eleven, I decided to start IT
Concepts with two of my colleagues thatI had been working with previously, Amy
Johnson and John Trolenger. And youknow when I went to Amy and we
(07:31):
started talking about the business itself,well, she mentioned that she already had
a company. You know that itdidn't have personnel or any of those things,
but the company itself in the structurewas in place, and that it
just made sense for me to jumpon with her and John because there was
already some past performance that was builtand we started from zero, like I
had mentioned, you know, andthe niche that we really saw was that
(07:56):
there wasn't really a place for smallsystem integrators. In essence, most of
the smalls we're very very focused whetheron a technology space, our customer.
So we were looking to kind ofstart as a small system integrator, UH
with with a unique level of attentionthat we can provide to our customers,
which we've now we call our hightouch approach, you know, And really
(08:20):
the core of our brand is thatcustomer experience and making sure that the level
of competency is always there in ourdelivery. In the essence, what we've
always tried to do is provide thattotal experience with that customer experience, right
to make sure we're teaching our employeescritical skills like design, thinking, empathetic
(08:43):
listening, being able to relate toour customers even even prior to us sort
of providing any innovations or any anyway that we deliver anytime we kick off
a project, we go through aset of things where we can get to
know our customers a lot better andunderstand the business needs and the requirements that
they have from a technical perspective,but get to understand them as a person.
(09:05):
What are the things that are drivingthem? Why is this so important
to them? You know? Wherewhere does it relate back to? From
a high touch capability perspective? Youknow, are we meeting everything that they're
asking for? And I think youknow, over time, we've we've been
able to hone that we've have overfifty some contracts over eighteen government agencies,
(09:28):
and each one of these government agencies, we've been able to develop these customer
profiles that allow us to be ableto communicate to our customers in the ways
that they want to be able toprovide the services that they'd like, be
able to chat with them and understandexactly where their needs are and where they'd
like to go. So I wouldsay the heart of our brand is really
(09:48):
that that unique level of attention,with the level of with a certain level
of competency and innovation and our delivery. Okay, it sounds like you've touched
on a little bit, But whatis your official mission statement? I would
say driven to deliver innovative solutions witha high touch experience. I like that.
It's a short and sweetened to thepoint and it makes a lot of
(10:09):
sense, especially after you gave itsome context a little bit earlier. Okay,
if somebody is being introduced to ITconcepts for the first time, panok.
And maybe you're pitching yourself to acompany whether they're small, medium,
and large, and they didn't knowwhat you were doing exactly, what exactly
do you do and how you doit? Yeah, I would say,
you know, we really have fourverticals within our business space, and then
(10:31):
along those verticals, I would saywe have three or four horizontals that we
really focus on. So we're reallyfocused in on the federal health IT space,
We're in the intel space, We'rein good and then we're in federal
civilian within those agencies, but withinthose agencies were really from an IT services
(10:54):
perspective, we do a lot ofcloud work, a lot of data migration,
data science, data analytics, managementconsulting, and even the management consulting
more platform based management consulting services rightlike COTS implementations, commercial off the shelf
systems, implementations like service now youknow, Salesforce and things like that.
(11:16):
But what I really say, whatwe you know, what the reason why
customers love working with us and knowus, as I would say, is
because we're trustworthy, We're engaged atthe executive level. We provide authentic experts.
You know, all of our wewe've got over sixty percent of our
staff that has some sort of certificationand in the area that they're expertise,
(11:37):
and you know, we we makesure we have thought leaders and technical innovators
and trusted advisors. And then secondly, we also want to make sure we're
the best place for our employees togrow. I would say those are the
things that really bring our customers backto us, because within this government space,
there's tons and tons of folks andtons and tons of companies that provide
(12:00):
data analytics and you know, andhave these expertise. But I think it's
that level of competency as well asthat experience, is what makes this unique
and a little bit different. Well, that makes a lot of sense,
and that kind of answers my nextquestion about differentiating yourself from the competition,
which is rampant out there and itsounds like between customer service, follow up
(12:22):
communication, and just that like gloveexperience, it sounds like that's something that
you really installing your employees and somethingyou're very proud of as well. Yes,
sir, absolutely, and I thinkyou know, as I was talking
to it's a two way street,right. I think that second part of
that total experience is exactly what youjust touched on, is the employee side.
And I think that's been one ofthe most important things while we've grown
(12:45):
from zero to where we are isto maintain that culture and maintain that growth
mindset for our employees. And youknow, to me, what that really
means is being able to adopt tochange, being able to explore outside of
stacies you're comfortable, and being ableto listen to your employees, being able
to add to your skills and continuinglyto grow your skill set as well as
(13:07):
your person And we've really been ableto do that really really well with our
employees over the last six seven years. I would say, I want you
to share with our future CEOs andthe current CEOs that are listening about your
growth. Now you've done over adecade and then a couple of years there
to grow this company to over threehundred and eighty five employees that work for
you that are spread out around theUnited States. And I know you also
(13:30):
do some international work as well,but domestically is where you work. But
that's an extraordinary leap to that manyemployees. So, without getting too much
into the weeds and talking a littleabout your leadership, sustainability, and growth,
how did you start from zero twelveyears ago to almost four hundred employees?
How did it happen? We jumpedin places where we were providing some
(13:52):
services already, so our government customersthat we're working with us, you know,
when we started the firm, basicallywe're like, oh wow, you
John and Amy are starting your owncompany. I'd love to work with you
guys again. And we leveraged alot of the small business programs that were
out there right so the A DayProgram as well as the joint ventures that
(14:16):
are out there that's available to theA Day program. So we leveraged some
of those things to be able towin the work initially and build our experience
and capabilities within agencies we already knew, and we already knew the mission of
those agencies and how to deliver itwithin those customer spaces. Uh, And
that's really how we got started,and then just added on to that,
(14:39):
uh, from from the beginning ofit. And then I think, you
know, I would say the toughestpart has been to the employee side and
making sure that we've got things wherethey're feeling like they're providing the customer same
level of experience they're expecting. Soin order to do that, we have
to make sure our employees deal likethey're getting that that service as well from
(15:00):
our company. So you know,we've put in structures in place where it
hopefully it makes things easier for ourprogram managers or employees with templates and so
on and so forth that they canleverage. We've got a mobile app for
our employees as well where they cango on and you know, look at
all of the things that are happeningwithin the company, being able to get
to resources that they may be ableto serve their customers and so on and
(15:24):
so forth. So I think beingable to keep that customer and employee centric
mindset as we've grown has really allowedus to expand and then secondly investing right
back within the company itself, youknow, as the company's grown, We've
invested right back within it and tomake sure that we've got a learning management
system. We've got some additional capabilitiesthat provide our employees with the resources that
(15:48):
they need to get the job donewell. It sounds like between the work
life balance that you are for theemployees, probably competitive prices because everybody's looking
for that out there. You're makingsure that you're taking care of your group
and that comes down to leadership andcommunication. So that kind of handles the
challenges. Part I did want tomaybe share a great story, and I
know that with the company there mightbe some super secret stuff that you can't
(16:11):
share with us. With that said, do you have a good story about
a client that you worked with orjust an entity where you said to yourself,
you know what, today we knockedthat one out of the park.
It was a good day. Andthat's why we get up every day to
have a story to share with us. Yeah, there's some great work that
we do with all of our governmentclients, but there's one in particular at
Social Security Administration that rings a bellright off the bat. So you know,
(16:33):
previously, there's one of the effortsthat we took on was a way
to get through disability claims very veryquickly. And because you know, Sy's
been processing these claims for years,they've got a good idea to say,
hey, if these claims are filedin this manner with this data, eighty
percent of these are usually good,so we should go ahead and put them
(16:56):
in the second processing bucking get themprocessing faster. So there was one that
would you know, one project wherewe took on claims that were taking you
know, ninety days to one hundredand twenty days. We were able to
put some analytics and some things inplace where they're starting to process within minutes.
Wow, that's that's pretty extraordinary rightthere. I mean, that's amazing.
(17:17):
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah,well, yeah, the quick disability
claim process that that we worked onfor us to say was it's been awesome.
There's some work that we're doing withfraud analytics as well with major customers.
There's places within the Air Force whereautomating tons and tons of manual processes
to save hours using UiPath and othertools. But yeah, you know,
(17:41):
I was thinking about this as youwere just telling multiple things that you and
your staff do behind the scenes.It's easy as Americans to complain about a
lot of things, and listen,we've got a lot to complain about worlds
on fire right now. Da dada da da. But we really don't
know with context, behind the scenesabout what you and your team do to
make our lives a little bit easywith all the struggles that we have out
(18:02):
there. So I'm glad you sharedthat because it really is extraordinary. I
imagine when you talk with your familyand friends and some of the things that
you can share within the I thinkthey give a different perspective about things working
and how they work and behind thescenes and how things come a little bit
easier. So I'm glad you sharedall that. I did want you to
talk a little bit about philanthropic andcharity for this because I know, while
(18:22):
you're very busy with your team,I know that charity work is very important
to you and the company. Canyou share us what you're into right now?
Yeah? Absolutely, so. Youknow, one of the early philosophies
we had is at whatever community we'regoing to be in, wherever we are,
we're going to be involved in thatcommunity. Even when we were zero
to zero to ten people, wewere investing, you know, we were
(18:45):
looking at looking at pantographic events andthings like that where we can get involved,
whether it's just our time, butwhether it's time or money, we're
going to be in the communities we'rein and that's been you know, since
the heart of the company. There'sa couple of that couple of areas that
we we are very focused on.One. I'm a board member on Boulder
(19:06):
Crest UH organization, and Bouldercrest reallyfocuses on suicide prevention for veterans. Uh.
They've got they've got various different formsuh that that veterans can can get
involved in to be able to takeclasses and so on and so forth and
and really just understand and how tostruggle. Well, there's a gentleman that
(19:30):
started that named ken Falk and brilliant, brilliant man that that started that organization
here in in the Virginia side.UH. And you know, basically there's
sick there's cabins that the veterans andtheir families can can stay in while they
are there learning uh the classes themselves. So that's that's one that that we're
involved in. UH. The otherside, on the veterans side, carry
(19:53):
the Load is another that that UHan employee of ours bought us this year
we're walking around and we donate tothat. But basically you also you walk
with the team and you carry uhan American flag as well as somebody that
may have passed away or or namesof personnel that have passed away, and
and carry them throughout the United Stateswith you and and walk. You know.
(20:18):
So we did that as a asa group this this year, which
which was great. We're heavily involvedin the sixty five Rosis. Uh.
There was an employee of ours whohad a son and that had CF and
and then you know, since sincehe was born, we we've been involved
in in that CF. Even thoughthat employee is no longer an employee of
(20:40):
ours, UH believe the cause istoo great for us not to to stay
involved in. So we're involved insix or five roses as well. Uh
Uh. This last year we've gota little bit involved in No Kids Get
Hungry. So those are some ofthe bigger charities that that were involved in
from a corporate perspective. But eachyear we also so ask for employees to
(21:00):
see where they might want to donateor worth charities that they are involved in,
and then we pick about ten totwelve of those, let's nice to
give a little bit to those aswell. That's wonderful, And I think
once again, you're engaging with youremployees with communication access to you to let
them be their ideas and their charitiesand what they're into. And I think
once again that's a part of acknowledgingemployees and saying, hey, listen,
(21:22):
you are a part of this team. We'd like to hear what you think.
And that's a common theme that weget from a lot of our leaders
and also CEOs. I did wantto wrap up with maybe some final thoughts
up knocking from you and just maybea takeaway or two. And once again,
if any of our listeners are introducedto IT concerts for the first time,
what kind of takeaway what you wantthem to have for your company.
(21:44):
I think what I want folks toremember is that we're a human is human
company. You know, we've builtour expert keys, starting first with design
thinking and then delivering solutions that matterand that align to that customer space listening
as the keys are. I likethat. That's well said, and I
got to tell you it. Youknow, listen, we just met today,
(22:06):
but after reading your story, gettingon the website, getting to know
you in the green room and listenfrom another country, and making this extraordinary
life for yourself and your employees andyour family in the twelve short years that
you put this company together, wherethere were zero employees when you joined,
now to almost foreigner people and servicingso many different agencies out there. It
(22:26):
really is an incredible success story.And I know you're not done. I
know, I bet you're just gettingstarted, in which I'm very excited for
you and your team about listen Pocada. Is really a pleasure to talk to
you. I know how busy youare. We really appreciate your time and
thank you so much for joining uson CEOs you should Know and continued success.
Thank you again that for having me. Our community partner, M and
(22:47):
T Bank supports CEOs you should Knowis part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts bybacking the businesses within them. As a
Bank for Communities, M and Tbelieves in dedicating time, talent, and
resources to help local businesses thrive becausewhen businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know powered by iHeart Media. Let's
meet Panaka Patel. He is aCEO for IT Concepts based in Northern Virginia.
They have a wide range of andinformation technology services, data service and
management consulting services. Before we talkmore about Panocket's company, I first asked
him to talk a little bit abouthimself, where he's from and his origin
(00:24):
story. I went to school inRutgers, but originally I'm from India,
and you know, my father andmom came from a little village we had.
We had a farm in India rightoutside of a pretty decent sized city
called Bardorda where actually we have somestaff there working now, which is to
bring a full circle. But yeah, we grew up in a little farm
(00:46):
and I came to the US whenI was about eight years old and we
landed in New Jersey. I stillremember coming off of the plane as it
was in November Tiphram and there wassnow coming down, and then all the
hecticness in JFK where we had landed, you know, Panakanaut. When I
do this series, one of thefortuitious things for me as an interviewers,
(01:07):
I get to meet so many diversepeople, and I think you'll be happy
to hear this that a lot ofthe CEOs that I talked to are immigrants
and not originally from this country andhave made such wonderful strides of running their
own companies. And you're just inanother in the long list. So I'm
really proud to talk to you.I know you've served and I want to
talk about in just a second,and we are here to talk about your
company, it concepts. I knowyou're going on twelve plus years running this
(01:30):
company. You've got a really coolbackground though, as far as your resume
and also serving, and I'd liketo kind of get some context before we
start talking about your company, aboutwhat you did before you started the company,
So can you share that with us? Yes, sir, absolutely,
So. You know, grew upin the Jersey area. We come from
very humble beginnings. As I mentioned, my dad was a farmer, so
(01:52):
really I think maybe ninth eighth gradeof education and that's Indian education. That
didn't speak any English when he camehere, so did a lot of labor
jobs. And I think one ofthe benefits of Jersey was there was a
small community there already so he hadhe had a lot of help, or
we had a lot of help aswe were trying to navigate the space in
(02:14):
the new country. And you know, my dad did labor jobs. We
lived in a one bedroom apartment,and he saved his money throughout the eighties
to buy a little, small conveniencestore. So I saw that entrepreneurship bug
sort of hit me early. AndI worked that store, you know,
all through high school and a littlebit in college, but mostly through high
school. And you know, watchinghim work twelve fourteen hour day, seven
(02:37):
days a week, and just justthe hustle that he put in without being
able to speak the language properly.Right, So as a as a you
know, eighth grader, I'm runninginventory in the store, I'm running payroll,
I'm running so on and so forth, right at various operations. So
I got to see the system sideof things as well, a little bit
knowing that my dad, you know, may not have all the money in
(03:00):
the world to pay for school.And I was the youngest of four,
so I had a brother and twoolder sisters. I had always been very
interested in in the patriots side ofthings, and I joined at the RTC
program in high school where where Iexcelled and I became one of the core
(03:21):
commanders actually my senior year of theprogram. So just just found a place
where I learned a lot learned andfound uh the leadership frates very early on
that that I could own and develop. But yeah, I parlayed that into
my education in college. And Idid RTC and in college as well at
(03:42):
Rutgers and and and JET which wasa joint program. And again rights as
a college kid waking up at sixin the morning to work out, Uh,
it gives you a different perspective ofgoing out sometimes in the evenings and
make me sure you make the workoutsand so on and so forth. Being
on college and on campus walking aroundin uniform right where some of your friends
(04:06):
are like, what are you doing? Why are you walking down? You
just that standing out. But Ican't shy away from it. I always
say I needed a military more thanthe military needed me. Well, you
know what, there's also a commonthread that I want to talk about.
And by the way, thank youfor your service. Anybody that serves on
our program. We're always just youknow, it's very excited to me because
(04:28):
there's any correlation and I'll just tellyou quickly. I come from a sports
background, and as you know,in sports, there's also some structure and
they can apply in business, andwe always talk about those kind of things.
But the military service and then runninga company, there are a lot
of similarities to the structure of itand leadership abilities and all those things.
So I'd like you to share withour audience about your service as it applies
(04:50):
to running a company, because Ithink there's a lot of similarities there that
you can use. No, No, you're absolutely right, right. I
think, like I mentioned, Iodd the entrepreneur bug hit me very early
on, but that that structure andthat discipline more importantly to processes and the
reason for some of these things andreason for the structure and the discipline I
(05:14):
really gained within the military absolutely earlyon. My first assignment was in Tampa,
Florida, and I get down thereand you know, I'm one of
two or three lieutenants in the teamof thirty forty airmen and then another team
of fifty sixty airmen then one ofthe youngest, right, so to be
able to be able to understand,hey, you know what, here's the
(05:36):
structure that's in place. Even thoughyou may be the lieutenant or the captain
or so on and so forth,the officer that's in charge, there's already
a structure that the military has thatfor you to be able to succeed and
jump on. You know, Iwasn't there reinventing the wheel. I jumped
on with my senior and listed advisorsand n CEOs and learned from them more
than more than anywhere else, andthey took me under their wing. And
(05:59):
you know, I still remember earlyon, I was like, you know,
senior, message start just starts here. You obviously know everything that's happening.
I'll just do this, this andthis. And he's like, no,
Lt, You're still in charge,you know, just because I know
what's happening, or I've been herefour or five years and I understand this,
You're still making the decisions. AndI think that that helped me tremendously
right to know that not to pushoff responsibilities that are yours, and that
(06:25):
it's okay to use some help tomake sure you get things done appropriately.
And I've relied on some of thoselessons all the way through now well even
with my team. Now, yeah, well that's good. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. Okay, in just a moment, we're going
to ask you about the mission statementof the company and then also your capabilities
and programs and get into the weedsa little bit. But can you also
tell me the origin story about comingup with IT Concepts because I'm fascinated by
(06:49):
entrepreneurs like you. You know,you've got a great idea, but it
takes a lot of guts. Ittakes a lot of fortitude, tenacity,
also a little bit of luck intotiming and a lot of other things to
start your own company. You obviouslysaw a hole in the industry, You're
obviously good at something, but youjoined the company zero employees. Tell us
(07:11):
about the whole thing about joining itand starting basically with nothing and then growing
it into where you over have threehundred and eighty five employees. Now it's
an amazing story. Yeah. Intwenty eleven, I decided to start IT
Concepts with two of my colleagues thatI had been working with previously, Amy
Johnson and John Trolenger. And youknow when I went to Amy and we
(07:31):
started talking about the business itself,well, she mentioned that she already had
a company. You know that itdidn't have personnel or any of those things,
but the company itself in the structurewas in place, and that it
just made sense for me to jumpon with her and John because there was
already some past performance that was builtand we started from zero, like I
had mentioned, you know, andthe niche that we really saw was that
(07:56):
there wasn't really a place for smallsystem integrators. In essence, most of
the smalls we're very very focused whetheron a technology space, our customer.
So we were looking to kind ofstart as a small system integrator, UH
with with a unique level of attentionthat we can provide to our customers,
which we've now we call our hightouch approach, you know, And really
(08:20):
the core of our brand is thatcustomer experience and making sure that the level
of competency is always there in ourdelivery. In the essence, what we've
always tried to do is provide thattotal experience with that customer experience, right
to make sure we're teaching our employeescritical skills like design, thinking, empathetic
(08:43):
listening, being able to relate toour customers even even prior to us sort
of providing any innovations or any anyway that we deliver anytime we kick off
a project, we go through aset of things where we can get to
know our customers a lot better andunderstand the business needs and the requirements that
they have from a technical perspective,but get to understand them as a person.
(09:05):
What are the things that are drivingthem? Why is this so important
to them? You know? Wherewhere does it relate back to? From
a high touch capability perspective? Youknow, are we meeting everything that they're
asking for? And I think youknow, over time, we've we've been
able to hone that we've have overfifty some contracts over eighteen government agencies,
(09:28):
and each one of these government agencies, we've been able to develop these customer
profiles that allow us to be ableto communicate to our customers in the ways
that they want to be able toprovide the services that they'd like, be
able to chat with them and understandexactly where their needs are and where they'd
like to go. So I wouldsay the heart of our brand is really
(09:48):
that that unique level of attention,with the level of with a certain level
of competency and innovation and our delivery. Okay, it sounds like you've touched
on a little bit, But whatis your official mission statement? I would
say driven to deliver innovative solutions witha high touch experience. I like that.
It's a short and sweetened to thepoint and it makes a lot of
(10:09):
sense, especially after you gave itsome context a little bit earlier. Okay,
if somebody is being introduced to ITconcepts for the first time, panok.
And maybe you're pitching yourself to acompany whether they're small, medium,
and large, and they didn't knowwhat you were doing exactly, what exactly
do you do and how you doit? Yeah, I would say,
you know, we really have fourverticals within our business space, and then
(10:31):
along those verticals, I would saywe have three or four horizontals that we
really focus on. So we're reallyfocused in on the federal health IT space,
We're in the intel space, We'rein good and then we're in federal
civilian within those agencies, but withinthose agencies were really from an IT services
(10:54):
perspective, we do a lot ofcloud work, a lot of data migration,
data science, data analytics, managementconsulting, and even the management consulting
more platform based management consulting services rightlike COTS implementations, commercial off the shelf
systems, implementations like service now youknow, Salesforce and things like that.
(11:16):
But what I really say, whatwe you know, what the reason why
customers love working with us and knowus, as I would say, is
because we're trustworthy, We're engaged atthe executive level. We provide authentic experts.
You know, all of our wewe've got over sixty percent of our
staff that has some sort of certificationand in the area that they're expertise,
(11:37):
and you know, we we makesure we have thought leaders and technical innovators
and trusted advisors. And then secondly, we also want to make sure we're
the best place for our employees togrow. I would say those are the
things that really bring our customers backto us, because within this government space,
there's tons and tons of folks andtons and tons of companies that provide
(12:00):
data analytics and you know, andhave these expertise. But I think it's
that level of competency as well asthat experience, is what makes this unique
and a little bit different. Well, that makes a lot of sense,
and that kind of answers my nextquestion about differentiating yourself from the competition,
which is rampant out there and itsounds like between customer service, follow up
(12:22):
communication, and just that like gloveexperience, it sounds like that's something that
you really installing your employees and somethingyou're very proud of as well. Yes,
sir, absolutely, and I thinkyou know, as I was talking
to it's a two way street,right. I think that second part of
that total experience is exactly what youjust touched on, is the employee side.
And I think that's been one ofthe most important things while we've grown
(12:45):
from zero to where we are isto maintain that culture and maintain that growth
mindset for our employees. And youknow, to me, what that really
means is being able to adopt tochange, being able to explore outside of
stacies you're comfortable, and being ableto listen to your employees, being able
to add to your skills and continuinglyto grow your skill set as well as
(13:07):
your person And we've really been ableto do that really really well with our
employees over the last six seven years. I would say, I want you
to share with our future CEOs andthe current CEOs that are listening about your
growth. Now you've done over adecade and then a couple of years there
to grow this company to over threehundred and eighty five employees that work for
you that are spread out around theUnited States. And I know you also
(13:30):
do some international work as well,but domestically is where you work. But
that's an extraordinary leap to that manyemployees. So, without getting too much
into the weeds and talking a littleabout your leadership, sustainability, and growth,
how did you start from zero twelveyears ago to almost four hundred employees?
How did it happen? We jumpedin places where we were providing some
(13:52):
services already, so our government customersthat we're working with us, you know,
when we started the firm, basicallywe're like, oh wow, you
John and Amy are starting your owncompany. I'd love to work with you
guys again. And we leveraged alot of the small business programs that were
out there right so the A DayProgram as well as the joint ventures that
(14:16):
are out there that's available to theA Day program. So we leveraged some
of those things to be able towin the work initially and build our experience
and capabilities within agencies we already knew, and we already knew the mission of
those agencies and how to deliver itwithin those customer spaces. Uh, And
that's really how we got started,and then just added on to that,
(14:39):
uh, from from the beginning ofit. And then I think, you
know, I would say the toughestpart has been to the employee side and
making sure that we've got things wherethey're feeling like they're providing the customer same
level of experience they're expecting. Soin order to do that, we have
to make sure our employees deal likethey're getting that that service as well from
(15:00):
our company. So you know,we've put in structures in place where it
hopefully it makes things easier for ourprogram managers or employees with templates and so
on and so forth that they canleverage. We've got a mobile app for
our employees as well where they cango on and you know, look at
all of the things that are happeningwithin the company, being able to get
to resources that they may be ableto serve their customers and so on and
(15:24):
so forth. So I think beingable to keep that customer and employee centric
mindset as we've grown has really allowedus to expand and then secondly investing right
back within the company itself, youknow, as the company's grown, We've
invested right back within it and tomake sure that we've got a learning management
system. We've got some additional capabilitiesthat provide our employees with the resources that
(15:48):
they need to get the job donewell. It sounds like between the work
life balance that you are for theemployees, probably competitive prices because everybody's looking
for that out there. You're makingsure that you're taking care of your group
and that comes down to leadership andcommunication. So that kind of handles the
challenges. Part I did want tomaybe share a great story, and I
know that with the company there mightbe some super secret stuff that you can't
(16:11):
share with us. With that said, do you have a good story about
a client that you worked with orjust an entity where you said to yourself,
you know what, today we knockedthat one out of the park.
It was a good day. Andthat's why we get up every day to
have a story to share with us. Yeah, there's some great work that
we do with all of our governmentclients, but there's one in particular at
Social Security Administration that rings a bellright off the bat. So you know,
(16:33):
previously, there's one of the effortsthat we took on was a way
to get through disability claims very veryquickly. And because you know, Sy's
been processing these claims for years,they've got a good idea to say,
hey, if these claims are filedin this manner with this data, eighty
percent of these are usually good,so we should go ahead and put them
(16:56):
in the second processing bucking get themprocessing faster. So there was one that
would you know, one project wherewe took on claims that were taking you
know, ninety days to one hundredand twenty days. We were able to
put some analytics and some things inplace where they're starting to process within minutes.
Wow, that's that's pretty extraordinary rightthere. I mean, that's amazing.
(17:17):
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah,well, yeah, the quick disability
claim process that that we worked onfor us to say was it's been awesome.
There's some work that we're doing withfraud analytics as well with major customers.
There's places within the Air Force whereautomating tons and tons of manual processes
to save hours using UiPath and othertools. But yeah, you know,
(17:41):
I was thinking about this as youwere just telling multiple things that you and
your staff do behind the scenes.It's easy as Americans to complain about a
lot of things, and listen,we've got a lot to complain about worlds
on fire right now. Da dada da da. But we really don't
know with context, behind the scenesabout what you and your team do to
make our lives a little bit easywith all the struggles that we have out
(18:02):
there. So I'm glad you sharedthat because it really is extraordinary. I
imagine when you talk with your familyand friends and some of the things that
you can share within the I thinkthey give a different perspective about things working
and how they work and behind thescenes and how things come a little bit
easier. So I'm glad you sharedall that. I did want you to
talk a little bit about philanthropic andcharity for this because I know, while
(18:22):
you're very busy with your team,I know that charity work is very important
to you and the company. Canyou share us what you're into right now?
Yeah? Absolutely, so. Youknow, one of the early philosophies
we had is at whatever community we'regoing to be in, wherever we are,
we're going to be involved in thatcommunity. Even when we were zero
to zero to ten people, wewere investing, you know, we were
(18:45):
looking at looking at pantographic events andthings like that where we can get involved,
whether it's just our time, butwhether it's time or money, we're
going to be in the communities we'rein and that's been you know, since
the heart of the company. There'sa couple of that couple of areas that
we we are very focused on.One. I'm a board member on Boulder
(19:06):
Crest UH organization, and Bouldercrest reallyfocuses on suicide prevention for veterans. Uh.
They've got they've got various different formsuh that that veterans can can get
involved in to be able to takeclasses and so on and so forth and
and really just understand and how tostruggle. Well, there's a gentleman that
(19:30):
started that named ken Falk and brilliant, brilliant man that that started that organization
here in in the Virginia side.UH. And you know, basically there's
sick there's cabins that the veterans andtheir families can can stay in while they
are there learning uh the classes themselves. So that's that's one that that we're
involved in. UH. The otherside, on the veterans side, carry
(19:53):
the Load is another that that UHan employee of ours bought us this year
we're walking around and we donate tothat. But basically you also you walk
with the team and you carry uhan American flag as well as somebody that
may have passed away or or namesof personnel that have passed away, and
and carry them throughout the United Stateswith you and and walk. You know.
(20:18):
So we did that as a asa group this this year, which
which was great. We're heavily involvedin the sixty five Rosis. Uh.
There was an employee of ours whohad a son and that had CF and
and then you know, since sincehe was born, we we've been involved
in in that CF. Even thoughthat employee is no longer an employee of
(20:40):
ours, UH believe the cause istoo great for us not to to stay
involved in. So we're involved insix or five roses as well. Uh
Uh. This last year we've gota little bit involved in No Kids Get
Hungry. So those are some ofthe bigger charities that that were involved in
from a corporate perspective. But eachyear we also so ask for employees to
(21:00):
see where they might want to donateor worth charities that they are involved in,
and then we pick about ten totwelve of those, let's nice to
give a little bit to those aswell. That's wonderful, And I think
once again, you're engaging with youremployees with communication access to you to let
them be their ideas and their charitiesand what they're into. And I think
once again that's a part of acknowledgingemployees and saying, hey, listen,
(21:22):
you are a part of this team. We'd like to hear what you think.
And that's a common theme that weget from a lot of our leaders
and also CEOs. I did wantto wrap up with maybe some final thoughts
up knocking from you and just maybea takeaway or two. And once again,
if any of our listeners are introducedto IT concerts for the first time,
what kind of takeaway what you wantthem to have for your company.
(21:44):
I think what I want folks toremember is that we're a human is human
company. You know, we've builtour expert keys, starting first with design
thinking and then delivering solutions that matterand that align to that customer space listening
as the keys are. I likethat. That's well said, and I
got to tell you it. Youknow, listen, we just met today,
(22:06):
but after reading your story, gettingon the website, getting to know
you in the green room and listenfrom another country, and making this extraordinary
life for yourself and your employees andyour family in the twelve short years that
you put this company together, wherethere were zero employees when you joined,
now to almost foreigner people and servicingso many different agencies out there. It
(22:26):
really is an incredible success story.And I know you're not done. I
know, I bet you're just gettingstarted, in which I'm very excited for
you and your team about listen Pocada. Is really a pleasure to talk to
you. I know how busy youare. We really appreciate your time and
thank you so much for joining uson CEOs you should Know and continued success.
Thank you again that for having me. Our community partner, M and
(22:47):
T Bank supports CEOs you should Knowis part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts bybacking the businesses within them. As a
Bank for Communities, M and Tbelieves in dedicating time, talent, and
resources to help local businesses thrive becausewhen businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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