An exclusive second interview with Rene LaVigne, President and CEO, Iron Bow Technologies

There are certainly easier, less stressful jobs than serving as the top executive at a fast growth technology solutions provider. There are existing contract obligations to be met, new programs to be pursued, employees to be inspired and investors to be appeased. And that's during a time of relative harmony.

So, what happens when the market shifts and timely (or in some instances untimely) developments ratchet up the intensity?

That's the question I asked when I dialed up Rene LaVigne last week to see if he had time to chat for a few minutes. His company – Iron Bow Technologies – has been making headlines during the past few weeks and I was interested to see if he'd provide some perspective to the GovWin community.

Marc Hausman: The theme of our interview in April was transformation. It was quite applicable as in the preceding 24 months you spun out the company from its parent organization, rebranded it Iron Bow Technologies and put in place an aggressive growth strategy. How did you top that in 2011?

Rene LaVigne: Well, I should start with the management buyout of the company from our private equity partner, New Mountain Capital (NMC). We announced the transaction in September and I have received an incredibly positive response from our customers, partners and employees.

Iron Bow's executive team was in a unique position to provide excellent value for the business and worked collaboratively with NMC to make it happen.

Since we built the business we understood the potential future value. It was truly a win-win scenario for all involved including the private equity firm, other shareholders, stakeholders, as well as the executive team.

Plus, we didn't miss a beat with our customers and partners when it came to delivery of service on Iron Bow's contracts. Our employees remained laser focused throughout the process.

Has the strategy at Iron Bow changed now that management owns the company?

It has been mostly business as usual given the transaction was closed during the busiest time of year for us. Additionally, much had been accomplished in the last two years with the spin out of the business from the parent organization in January 2010, the rebranding effort, and development of the corporate infrastructure.

Our assessment of Iron Bow and its approach is that we are strategically aligned with the growth areas in the market and the technology vision adopted by our customers and partners. All of these factors have set the business on a course for tremendous growth yielding year over year growth results of 33 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2011.

Our core practice disciplines – collaboration, networking, data center, information security and client computing – are right in line with the major initiatives that both the government and commercial markets are undertaking. From virtualization to cybersecurity and cloud, we are seeing a high level of interest from our customers.

OK, I have to ask, the Air Force recently suspended Iron Bow because of a contract performance issue. Has that situation been remedied?

Yes, thankfully.

What a nightmare, particularly for an organization such as ours. Iron Bow has a customer first culture so it was a shock to learn of the suspension without any notification or opportunity to remedy any customer concerns.

We were a second tier subcontractor in this effort, selected for our competency and prowess in implementing a specific networking and communications technology. Our performance was flawless, but the end user customer was dissatisfied with the result of the contract as a whole, and threw a broad net around those viewed as the key players on the contract.

We are pleased that the Air Force was able to work through all of the issues and determine that Iron Bow should be removed from the Excluded Parties Listing System (EPLS.)

Are there any key takeaways you learned from this experience that you can share with GovWin's members?

Absolutely... three come to mind right away.

First and foremost, as a subcontractor, know your customer well and its performance capabilities. Having been a small and large player in the market, we are sensitive to the role of small businesses, particularly as a prime, and will not interfere with the control necessary for a small business to own its contract.

Nevertheless, we learned that the government can reach through the prime to a subcontractor, or in our case a second tier subcontractor if desired, and we never envisioned that as a possibility.

Second, while Iron Bow was contracted to perform a design build effort and it was broadly known by all parties, it is best to get the intentions documented by the government. We did not see the need for it, but it is something that systems integrators do on a regular basis.

And finally, be aware that a single individual can initiate a suspension and listing on the EPLS without prior warning or the benefit of a discussion. That does not feel like effective due process or fairness, however, the government has that right.

Let's get back to the topic of growth. Iron Bow just launched two new blogs to promote the company's expertise to government and commercial customers. What can you tell us about these efforts?

Social media is an exciting and still relatively new channel to reach and connect with customers and partners. Last year we began to pick up on a shift in influence from traditional sources of information and credibility such as trade publications and events, to the conversations and dialogue that define social networks like GovWin and GovLoop.

Our corporate marketing team went through a rather diligent process during the past two quarters to evaluate how Iron Bow, as an organization, should best engage in social media. For us, it's more than just awareness and visibility. The resources Iron Bow spends on marketing must support revenue growth.

TechSource is Iron Bow's thought leadership blog written for decision-makers and influencers in the government market. The company's top subject matter experts share insight about trends and technologies related to information security, cloud adoption, network infrastructure and other relevant topics.

For the company's commercial customers, Iron Bow has launched High Tech Highway as a place on the Web where they can learn about emerging technologies and its impact on their business in a positive way.

Much of the content we're publishing is from our technology team and pool of partners. Yet, we're always looking for contributions from other industry participants.

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Marc Hausman is the president and CEO of Strategic Communications Group, a social media marketing consultancy based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read more at his blog: http://www.thestrategicguy.com/.

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