Continuing to dive into this team’s winning ways, OS AI spoke with George Kantsios, Vice President and General Manager Intelligence and Defense with Zolon Tech to learn more about his unit’s lemons to lemonade story, how a culture of letting go empowers leaders, and why you must avoid distraction and focus on intimacy.
Lemons to Lemonade
Leading a unit that is currently operating with over $40M in annual revenue that is focused on systems engineering, development, and information technology, Zolon’s Intelligence and Defense footprint actually began on the commercial side and leveraged a growing team with exceptional intimacy in the space. Building past performance as a sub, applying strategic attention to potential prime opportunities, and then seizing the opportunity to open a door via an 8(a) opportunity, Zolon began its foray into federal competition.
“By then we were operating one prime contract and had submitted multiple prime task order bids within the IC and were competing for agency-specific prime vehicles. We went from physical inspections to transport scope to systems engineering to development and IT and our growth has been consistent since then.”
Intimacy and Expectations
While customer intimacy may have led to initial success for Zolon – that knowledge of the agency’s business, relationships with people working with or inside the agency, and a discriminator offering – staying and growing in the space has also required determination and a corporate commitment to keep bidding.
“We either win or we learn, taking knowledge from losses leads to wins. Staying and growing in the space also takes simultaneously providing exceptional services and exceeding expectations while continuing to do the things that were required to get in. Exceptional services enable you to keep the business ground you have earned to build upon it.”
Avoiding the mistake many make, that of allowing their focus to be diluted by a target-rich environment, Zolon remains committed to its areas of intimacy, expanding as and when makes sense. “Competitive insight, never underestimating the influence of an incumbent to avoid wasting resources, and a real focus on getting the price right all factor into continuing to bid and win.”
A Culture of Leadership
Zolon, as a whole, is built upon guiding a healthy culture across the organization. As individual business units, that culture is cemented by those guiding each unit. “The book Good to Great, by Jim Collins, identifies characteristics of great companies (companies with 10 years of growth at 10% or higher). If you desire to have a great company, business unit, or program, a couple of significant points that drive culture are that leadership must focus on humility and selflessness, being driven by the desire to make the company great, not by a desire for personal fame or glory, and they must get the right people on the bus, and then figure out what to do with them.”
While potentially common sense, neither is easy as the first requires leadership to have a growing or mature level of self-awareness, and the second requires knowledge of prospective employees that is deeper than what you can normally get in an interview. “Starting down this path requires the personal commitment of the leader and an honest assessment of where you currently are.”
Kantsios says smart leaders will look for staff to offset their personal weaknesses. “Hiring people similar to you who are stuck in the ‘yes setting’ are not the right hires. On issues that are important for the business unit, anyone on my staff should challenge my position and express opposing viewpoints to make things better.”
With the right people in the right places, and the knowledge that everyone is there to make things better, there must be a letting go, a decision not to micromanage. Starting with a stage of “trust but verify” this team’s rising leaders are given full access, an open channel of communication to confirm thinking, equip them with the knowledge they need, and then are moved to a stage of direct action once both sides are comfortable.
Advice to Industry
Winning a contract is not the end of the process of due diligence and research. Often the scope of an award is much broader than it may initially appear and can allow additional work be added to that contract over time. “A customer may have a future capability that matches the scope of a current contract. If you can help that customer avoid going through the acquisition process, not only do you save them time and effort, but you open a door for an expanded relationship and have demonstrated that you know where they are headed and what they need.”
Noting that the intent of sources sought notices is often asking industry to identify such overlaps, paying attention and responding to these is a win-win for both sides.
Partner Lens
As a company that has grown from sub to Prime, and then embedded itself within select agencies, the opportunity for partners to leverage intel, to grow alongside Zolon, is appealing. What does it take to be a potential partner? Character of course. “Small businesses with customer intimacy and favorable firsthand experience are fantastic partners. We are always looking to identify and build long-term relationships with companies that can bring both to the table.”
With its relatively flat structure, Zolon is an organization uniquely leveraging personal relationships and individual approaches. “If a company offers what I consider to be an insight or understanding that exceeds what you could typically get through government documents, I’m empowered to make decisions, to evaluate their value as a partner and act accordingly. We don’t have prescribed rules we have to follow so we can really establish relationships that are beneficial to both sides.”
As an emerging large business Zolon’s approach is to address its agencies’ small business goals, while seeking to identify discriminating capability if. “The more we get to know the business, the more we like to reuse the experience of that particular business because the relationship has been established.”
As Zolon looks to grow and expand its footprint, it will look to grow toward core business areas of its agencies of focus, and to upscale in areas where it is currently working, and it will be seeking partners with agency intimacy to help it achieve those goals.
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