Looking at the portfolio of recent wins for this SDVOSB, which cut across DHS, DOE NNSA, the FBI, and includes a significant footprint at the US Coast Guard; a stated culture that includes exceptional performance, diversity, community involvement and social responsibility; and the appointment of a new President and COO to lead its growth strategy, there are many indicators that Harkcon is positioned and focused for its next stages. OS AI sat down with President Keith Curran and Carli Evantanto, Director of Business Development to learn more.
Founded in Duty, Honor and Respect
Founded by a group coming out of US Coast Guard and Military service, Keith among them, Harkcon was founded on those characteristics of service, of acting honorably, that would define who the company wanted to be, how it wanted to serve. “We also wanted to be working on projects that would make a difference, not things that would be put on a shelf and be forgotten about but on things that were operational, functional and usable.”
Beyond that there was the focus on integrity, on respect for each other, for partners and clients. “We wanted to ensure that we were experts in what we did and that we applied that expertise to products that would then be used by our client.”
As many of those founders retired, their legacy remained interwoven into everything Harkcon does and is. “Our values are still rooted in what we learned in the Coast Guard; honor, respect and devotion to duty, but we flushed them out and made them our own to better reflect our evolution as a company. Our current core values: Mastery, Integrity, Innovation and People Centric are a direct reflection of our people, and those we want to attract in the future.”
Strategic Growth
Confident in its role as a service provider and government partner, Harkcon is committed to growth, but steadily and responsibly and with a focus on continuing to improve organizational workforces from the structure of the work they do down through people and processes. “At our heart we are a human performance technology company focused on making the workforce better so the workforce can make the business better.”
Understanding the skills, the background required along the workflow process ensures agencies have the right number of people with the right competencies, in the right positions.
Navigating the nuances between military, homeland security, and more regulatory bodies, Harkcon must ensure it has that diverse knowledge and skillsets itself to be able to properly address its varied client needs. “One of our advantages is that we have had to learn to walk the line, balance multiple sides and understand how to differentiate our approach and everything that we do.”
Growth Beyond the Service
As it has grown, talent has come from many places and while those without a service background may not instinctively be nuanced in the notion of service, the ideals of hard work, dedication and always giving your best are simple concepts to understand. “How you do anything is how you do everything. When the answer to this is focused on excellence, that fits into the Harkcon culture and philosophy.”
“Whatever you do as an individual contributor is part of a bigger picture, a bigger mission. That means mastery of whatever you do is critical. The other important aspect of that is innovation, making sure you are always looking to improve how you do something. Then there is integrity, showing up to be your best self.”
Elegance in Simplicity
That simplicity in mission – master what you do, innovate when you can, and bring integrity to the job – is why many people come, and stay. “When you strip away the bells and whistles of some of the bigger companies, at the end you may be left wondering why. We believe we can be great and really serve people and don’t need a lot of flash to do it.”
Saying that the individual comes first, that family comes first, and that work is simply a part of the overall picture, Harkcon employees are encouraged to show up as who they are. “For our part then we want to know their story and how we can best serve and support them where they are.”
Engagement and Giving Back
Another element employees value is a transparent commitment to giving back. The list of organizations this company has provided financial support to is long. The list of organizations Harkcon has served through its teams’ community involvement is even longer.
Bringing the team together for activities, blood drives, lunch and learns, the team understands they are part of something bigger, sees tangible evidence that the company is committed to their professional growth and development.
A Value-Add Company
While the assumption is sometimes that Harkcon is a company focused on USCG, its footprint within other agencies is evidence that is not the case. What is Harkcon then? Quite simply, a value-add company leveraging subject matter experts, armed with a commitment to doing the right kinds of work and supporting clients who want to make their business better.
“We believe we are and want to be the kind of company other small businesses aspire to be a company that does work that matters, focused on making government better and that does it the right way.”
Next Generation Growth
As Keith looks to the future and his own eventual retirement, there is an excitement driven not only by the great young talent they have on board now, but by the external talent they know they have not yet met. “The next generation of leaders, those here now and those who will come, will bring new ideas and new energy that will elevate Harkcon to the next level. There will be a lot of growth, a lot of learning and pushing ourselves and our business past boundaries that we never knew we could even exceed as an organization but that will all be supported by the foundation Harkcon was built upon, the identity we will remain committed to.”
“It can be challenging to bring together different generations because they will rarely agree but there is also so much potential. We can solve awesome problems together and take some of those boomer mindsets and fuse it with the millennial mindsets and create what is the new today.”
Partner Lens
Harkcon seeks some of the same energy, the same values in the partners it looks to engage with. “Our partners in the industry are just as important as the customer of the federal government.”
Evaluating business goals, respect and commitment, Harkcon is always looking for new partners focused on doing good work. They also continue to seek out other side aside businesses, looking to lift up the economically disadvantaged organizations. “But we also want to work with people who are bigger than us, who have become successful and outside that small, that standard set aside so that they can teach us, guide us and mentor us along the way.”
Calling itself a well-oiled machine, a mature small business, Harkcon brings to the table the past performance, a sophisticated business development team, and a back office able to support capture and operations. “We are a great small business partner because we can take care of ourselves. Our value add is that we’re that small business that has the big business, mid tier business, internal capabilities to be to run the business. We are that unique SDVOSB that other midfield businesses want to work with.”
“We have a lot of room for growth and we want to do that with the other people in this industry who have innovative idea that we may not be thinking about and we are extremely open minded while maintaining a high level of confidence in our own abilities and making businesses better. We are always looking to have conversations and to serve to serve. Whoever reads this, we just want them to call us and talk to us and hear it for themselves and figure out ways that we can collaborate together.”
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