Since its founding in the early 1970s, ORINCON International has been a leader in the defense and intelligence sectors. In the late 1990s, ORINCON’s board of directors decided to position the company for a liquidity event—either going public or being acqu
by Site Staff
December 28, 2005
Since its founding in the early 1970s, ORINCON International has been a leader in the defense and intelligence sectors. In the late 1990s, ORINCON’s board of directors decided to position the company for a liquidity event—either going public or being acquired by another company in five to seven years. To implement this plan, the board put a new senior management team in place.
“We were a new, hand-picked leadership team installed in a company that had done things a certain way for 25 years, and done them with great success,” explained Art Garner, who took over as president and chief operating officer at ORINCON in 1998. “Yet the board had charged us with taking the business down a certain path, and that was a powerful catalyst for action.”
Leading the company down that path would mean dealing with conflicting leadership approaches. “Here I was with a team of all-stars, every single one of us with credentials to prove that we knew what we were doing,” Garner said. “Our respective instincts were, to some degree, to just get started and make things happen. But this was a defining point in time for the company, and we had to figure out a way to do this as a team.”
The leadership team committed to the aspiration, but could not reach consensus about approach. Embracing this setback, Garner—with support and, in some cases, urging from board members—convinced ORINCON’s senior team to participate in an executive development program offered by JMW Consultants. The primary objective of this focused development effort would be to help the team take a cohesive and results-driven approach to the challenge—and turn this group of all-stars into a high-performance team.
“Before any of us walked through the door at ORINCON, we all knew how to take charge on our own terms,” Garner explained. “Now we needed a collective vision.”
Over the course of the program, Garner and his peers developed a new perspective on the changes they were implementing at ORINCON—specifically, what those changes would mean for employees, as well as key leaders. They also developed a new sense of what was possible for their company.
The senior executives first had to commit to several future-focused principles. Rather than focusing on obstacles, the team had to shift its perspective and commit to “possible” results. Each individual team member needed to articulate what he or she stood for, as well as what the organization stood for, leaving no doubt about expectations. Finally, it was important for team members to operate beyond boundaries, setting ambitious goals and then meeting them. “This was a company built on innovation and expertise,” Garner said. “We leveraged that strength in the milestones we set along the way.”
He added, “There were challenges here and there, and not everyone stayed on board,” However, for the most part, the senior team made consistent and fast-moving progress. Garner credits these results to the executives approaching their work with a collective bias for action, rather than from a reaction to peripheral issues. They also found a critical balance between communicating thoughtfully and being able to deliver tough messages. What’s more, Garner and his team carefully managed how they listened, especially as they worked through the tough spots. “If I hadn’t listened carefully to the people on my team,” Garner said, “I couldn’t have made some vital informed decisions.”
Galvanized by their development work, the team delivered on the board’s challenge ahead of schedule. “Our commitment was clear, which helped guide us through the tough calls and yield the right results,” Garner said. The team didn’t work to identify problems. “This was a big one,” he added. “If you’re troubleshooting, you’re looking for a problem. Operating from a mindset that something’s just missing—that’s an entirely more productive perspective.” Finally, each member of the team held himself/herself accountable, standing up for what worked and acknowledging what didn’t—and fixed it.
Between 1998 and 2003, ORINCON’s workforce nearly doubled and annual sales surged from $17 million to $60 million. In 2002, four large-logo suitors began what escalated into a bidding war to acquire the company. In January 2003, Garner announced the achievement of ORINCON’s top objective: a buy-out deal with defense industry powerhouse Lockheed Martin.
Maurice Cohen is president of JMW Consultants Inc. He can be reached at mcohen@clomedia.com.