PARAGON’S CULTURE OF DEDICATION
“I don’t just want to win…I want to win with these people.”
This sentiment rings clear throughout our conversation with Bruce Card, CEO of tech firm Paragon Technology Group. Card describes his journey to his current role as serendipitous – truly a case of him being in the right place at the right time, or at least that’s how he tells it.
Card, an Air Force veteran, spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force before exiting to become a civilian airline pilot. Six months into that career, 9/11 happened, inspiring Card to initially return to the Air Force, ending up in his current role as a defense contractor. He was hired by Paragon in 2007, five years before the company was sold by its founders to a private equity firm.
“I stayed on with the new owners and they eventually made me the CEO. In 2014, I convinced the owners that Paragon would be more successful as a Small Business and they decided to sell the company to me and my management team. So essentially, I am an Air Force veteran that was in the right place at the right time. The next thing I know, I’m in the world of being an industry CEO for a small business,” Card recalls.
Card says he had a lot to learn in how to be successful as a CEO. He realized that for the first time in his career he didn’t have a boss and his new status as a CEO was a gift to be cherished.
“So I decided my people were my bosses and taking care of them became my new number one job,” Card says. “CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, but I try to think of myself as the Chief Encouragement Officer. My approach is to serve the people who depend on me for their livelihood.”
Card believes he brings with him from his Air Force service a sense of being part of something bigger than himself, a feeling that may seem foreign to those who haven’t lived it. One disadvantage of that background, he says, is the challenge of balancing family time with the sacrifices required by the job – a factor of his life he looked to improve when he took over Paragon.
“When I became the CEO, I felt like my family had become a little bit bigger. I really look at our employees here as family members. So just like many families, it sometimes gets a little crazy,” he laughs. “But you love them anyhow, and you take care of them best you can.”
THE MISSION
The 65-employee company of IT services consulting professionals has a client list of almost entirely government agencies, including the US Transportation Command, US Air Force, Air Mobility Command, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Internal Revenue Service.
“Our key corporate competencies are Enterprise and Information Technology Services Management and Cybersecurity,” Card says. “Which essentially means helping our government customers solve IT problems, manage their IT programs, and keep them secure.”
Paragon is a certified assessor for the federal government, identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities on the government’s behalf. Without any hardware or software product to market, Paragon depends on its professional services to be successful in business. In order to stay relevant in this ever-changing technology-driven business, the company needed to understand why it exists in the first place.
“Three years ago, we made a concerted effort to understand why Paragon exists. After about a week of internal conversation, we decided that we exist for the mutual benefit of our employees and our customers,” Card says. “That sounds obvious, sure, but it’s fundamentally important to understand. We realized that for Paragon to matter to our clients and to our employees, they both needed to know that they mattered to Paragon.”
The company proceeded to rebrand, shifting away from what it was they delivered, to how and why they delivered and Paragon’s dedication to delivering it well – a subtle, but important distinction.
“What became important to Paragon was the central focus on our dedication. With Paragon’s employees, you get something different. It was something that was really hard to put down on paper, but it was a sense that we wanted people to come away with the confidence that our folks are dedicated to them. We have to treat our clients like they are family too. That’s a little complicated when you’re dealing with government contracts, but it’s very important,” he explains. “What we believe is that in business, every challenge we face in life is based on choices that have to be made. Our clients have to choose us, our employees have to choose us and we have to continue to make the right choices for our clients and our employees to succeed. We want to make sure that from the client’s perspective, our focus is on making them successful holistically.”
Card admits that “we succeed when you succeed” may sound a little corny these days but insists that the company believes treating its clients and employees well is the way to generate that reputation for dedication.
“No matter what the problem is that we’re trying to solve for our clients, it is very important that they truly believe that we have their best interests at heart, and we’re focused on them. That also means that when we do succeed, we have to celebrate our success both with our employees and our clients. So, when we give somebody accolades for superior performance, we do that in front of the customer, because we want our customers to know that we care about our people. It really is very much a servant oriented approach to execution,” Card says.
CULTURE AND RETENTION
“From my perspective, being profitable is a result of staying true to your mission,” Card tells us. “Our culture of dedication to our people is what drives our priorities for the future.”
Those top priorities are:
1) Employee retention
2) Employee recruiting
3) Positive revenue growth.
“The revenue growth is tied to our ability to recruit and retain quality employees,” Card says, quick to again express an earnest commitment to values beyond money. “We’re never satisfied with just being good enough. From my perspective, the goal for our employees is that they’re thriving just like your goal would be for your kids. You don’t want your children to be just “getting by.” You want them to be thriving. That’s how Paragon leadership feels about its employees and clients. Paragon’s culture of happy people leads to successful business.
Card wants to make sure the values it held to as a company of 65-plus don’t get lost as Paragon grows.
“In the years that I have left doing this job, I don’t want to us lose sight of that feeling of dedication. It is what keeps me excited about coming to work every day,” he says.
Competition for talent is hard with bigger companies and small businesses like Paragon sometimes courting the same people, and that’s why Paragon is so focused on retention.
“I’m amazed at the great work that people can accomplish, despite all the odds. I want Paragon to be successful not just because of them, but for them,” Card says. “It’s those little wins that you’ve got to celebrate. Waiting for just the big wins doesn’t always pay off. Throughout my career, it has been the people that mattered the most to me…and these people are the best.”
