“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”– John Quincy Adams
Recently, we were notified for the third time that we had won the largest contract in the history of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Although this was awesome news…again, it was Invictus’ patience and perseverance in staying the course, staying positive and continuing to operate professionally and ethically through an extended protest period that spoke volumes about our company and our Spartan employees. I can tell you that we never threw darts at our competitors, we took the high road. We consistently focused on the mission at hand and trusted that the process, within which we were the highest technically rated proposal over all our competitors, would rule the day.
The fact that we took on competitors with over $40B and $120B in revenue respectively, although impressive, was a non-factor. What was considered when we undertook this mission, was that we believed that we were the right company, with the right expertise and vision, to oversee for the next 8 years a dynamic team of experts which will help the Agency modernize and maintain its infrastructure, while not only protecting information within a cyber security protected wrapper, but allowing critical data to flow exponentially faster to leaders to enable them to make the right decisions, at the right time, inside the enemy’s OODA loop. To do that, staying current and integrating impact software will be a necessity.
Our win is one for the ages and will become more legendary within the Intelligence Community as the years go by. It will also spur on others to take on these seemingly insurmountable challenges. That said, I will say that this effort didn’t start 2 ½ years ago when we were dissecting the opportunity, and we were trying to convince each other that we could do this. This started a decade ago when the core talent of Invictus believed in a vision that we could make a positive impact on the lives of others while solving some of the most critical problems this country was encountering. To achieve this effort, we were always searching to fill the gaps of our talent pool with extraordinary talent to help not only support our clients but to also galvanize our competitors to become our teammates.
It did not happen overnight! In fact, to just be in the mix of a competition like this modernization effort, it took the patience and dedication of ten years of lessons learned to establish the reputation we have today. That reputation is because of the extraordinary talent we bring to bear on every effort we undertake; from cyber tool development, to forensics, to network and systems engineering, to software development, to operational support in analytics, data science and so much more.
In retrospect, one might consider that a small business is like a child that needs a lot of nurturing, and everyone knows that it takes a village to raise a child. Likewise, it takes everyone to create the esprit de corps at Invictus and to ensure its success. Our Invictus village requires an environment where everyone’s voice is taken seriously, where multiple professionals working together can care for the company and are proud of it. Too many corporations today are fractured, and employees are isolated and are not eager to ask for help or do not want to get involved…they feel less connected. Not here, our managers and leaders have earned their roles through hard work, persistence, and patience. They are helping to pay it forward on a daily basis.
Yes, we landed Moby Dick, and he did not get away from Captain Ahab in our story. Hooray!! But more than that you all are making an impact daily by shining a professional light upon the path for others to follow. A path of unity through hard work, mutually driven to ensure we all do the right thing for each other …always. That is why we won and will continue to win the toughest of competitions.
What John Quincy Adams said is true, whether it is a personal quest or a corporate vison, when one has the patience and perseverance to see it to through to the end…magical things do happen, and difficulties and obstacles (and protests) vanish.
God Bless and Remain Unconquered,
Jim