Reinventing Geospatial®, Inc. (RGi) |
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June 19, 2017 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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Geospatial Thought Leadership and Engineering for Intelligence, Defense and Federal Clients |
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Steve Gillotte President &Chief Executive Officer
Reinventing Geospatial®, Inc. (RGi)
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published - June 19, 2017
CEOCFO: Mr. Gillotte, would you tell us how you are “Connecting People, Places, Things and Technology” at RGi? Mr. Gillotte: We are a technology-driven business that supports our intelligence and defense clients. Our focus is to help our clients optimize the investments that they have made and need to make to improve the capabilities for our soldiers, focusing primarily on the geospatial and enterprise technologies. How we differentiate ourselves is more about our culture, how we pull all the pieces together, and how we actually provide our customers with the high-potential and high-end tech engineers that they have come to expect from us.
CEOCFO: What is different when someone is working with RGi? Mr. Gillotte: I focus heavily on our culture. I wanted a culture where everyone loves to come to work as well as have balance in their life. There is more to life than just the daily grind. We made a priority of encouraging our engineers to deliver high quality solutions to our customers, but also to go and visit new places and experience new things so we can tie those together. Because the more cultured we are and the more we understand about the world, the better the solutions are that we provide, and the greater the impact that we have.
CEOCFO: Would you walk us through a typical engagement? Mr. Gillotte: We are typically called when things are not going well. We are called when a customer really needs their non-functioning capability to work. We listen to what the problem is and we love to watch the user work in their environment. We put on old jeans and work boots and we head out into the field in dusty environments to see how the capability is actually set up, and then we watch them work. We see where the system is not performing, and provide insight into how geospatial technology is supposed to work, and how it can work when it is properly aligned with the enterprise to improve the workloads and the capabilities that they have.
CEOCFO: What might you pick up at a location that you can then translate and make a difference? Mr. Gillotte: It is really about the visual and watching the troubles that people have. We will oftentimes see the inefficiency between two systems, whereby the soldier would have to do a ten-stop process, but if the capabilities were better aligned and had the open standards that have already been defined, it could be a single mouse click. The soldiers don’t always know how much easier and more effective the solutions could be, so we really need to see how it is being used.
CEOCFO: Why are things so difficult in the field and why do people need RGi to advance? Mr. Gillotte: Today’s generation does not know life before the internet or life before email. They are so used to just grabbing a cell phone and routing themselves to a location; it’s always been at their fingertips. When we talk about the Army and when we are deployed to a region, we do not have the infrastructure there that allows us to have all those capabilities that we have here in the US, as well as the majority of the world, in a non-conflict environment. So, it is hard to put yourself in that mindset of the austere environment that our soldiers actually operate in. Then the question becomes how do we make these technologies work across networks that we had in the 1990’s when we were still dialing up. It is hard to understand what the technological environment is that our soldiers exist in to then design capabilities that have been built for the world in luxury environments. It’s a true challenge to successfully integrate those two worlds.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the different product offerings? Mr. Gillotte: We are a service company where we provide high-end engineering services. We provide thought leadership and understanding of the Army’s network and the geospatial technologies. We help customers architect their solutions to work across the enterprise down to the tactical edge. We do a lot of research and development and constant prototyping, showing customers what is possible given the constraints that they live in. We do full, large-scale software development systems integration where we go from the requirement all the way to the capability deployed into the field.
CEOCFO: How do you choose what projects to bid on? Mr. Gillotte: We are very lucky because our mindset is more about creating an ideal place for us all to work, and so we can be selective in the work that we go after. What we want to focus on is work that matters, work that makes a difference, work that is going to improve the end-state of the capabilities provided to the Army. We want those impactful projects that are really going to matter.
CEOCFO: How do you know when someone is right for RGi? Mr. Gillotte: They are really well-rounded and well-balanced. They have a spark for life, and have a variety of interests inside and outside of work. We do a lot to blend our home life with our work life, so it’s about working together. We also like to find people that complement our weaknesses. If we just hire people exactly like ourselves, then we are just going to have a bunch of group-think. It is about getting an outside perspective of how we can do better. We are still relatively small, so how people will enhance our culture and drive us forward is important.
CEOCFO: Do you know when you talk to someone if they are right? Mr. Gillotte: You just know. You know when the person is the right balance of engineering and person.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about RGi and Food for Others? Mr. Gillotte: Hunger issues are important to us; it is the need to make the world a better place. We have aligned ourselves with Food for Others and the Power Pack Program (P3), whereby every six weeks, RGi purchases 500 lbs. of food, and our volunteers sort and bag it up for the local kids that do not have enough food over the weekend. What the kids go home with on a Friday is a pack of food that has meals and snacks for Saturday and Sunday, which fills the gap before they get back to school and their meals pick back up. When you have the energy to learn, it will position you for a better, brighter future.
CEOCFO: What do you bring from past experiences - what to do and what not to do? Mr. Gillotte: I firmly believe that RGi is not just me, the company is all of us working together. It is my job to lead us into the future and to provide everyone with the nurturing to help them realize the maximum potential that they can have from a societal impact, from a personal and professional impact, as well as in their interaction with their family. That is what gets me up every day. It is about how we get to the future, and how do I encourage everyone around me to be the best they can be.
CEOCFO: Why is it important for you to nurture/mentor your staff? Mr. Gillotte: I am an engineer and am trained in computer sciences, but it was through conversations I had with my previous managers who drilled it into me that it is our job to help others hit their potential. Just like they helped me, they taught me everything that they knew so that I would be in the position to run a company at some point in my life. In return, it is my job to continue to do the same for others and to help them meet their potential.
CEOCFO: What is next for RGi? Mr. Gillotte: RGi is on a rapid growth plan. From here, we have lots of interest both within the government and outside the government in completely different spaces. For me personally, it is not about making money, it is about having fun, cracking problems, and food and wine and travel, and how all these relate with technology in the future.
CEOCFO: Why choose RGi? Mr. Gillotte: From the client perspective, we provide the high-potential, high-impact engineers that are trained to help solve their problems. What is important from a prospective employee perspective is that we are a great company to work with. I do not say ‘work for’ on purpose. RGi is a great company to work with. We are looking for new hires that want to shape our company in the future and help contribute and give to both themselves and their families, and to create a bright future. We want to hire the best and the brightest people who will complement our existing capabilities so that others push us to hit our potential as well.
CEOCFO: Is there anything people looking at RGi might overlook that needs to be recognized? Mr. Gillotte: We try to do a good job of promoting all of the social activities that we do together, from game nights to happy hours to the extensive corporate trips I take everyone on for our holiday party. It is a unique place to work, a unique environment. You actually have to be there to understand it, and you know it when you see it. |
“It is hard to understand what the technological environment is that our soldiers exist in to then design capabilities that have been built for the world in luxury environments. It’s a true challenge to successfully integrate those two worlds.”- Steve Gillotte
Reinventing Geospatial®, Inc. (RGi)
Contact: Stephen Gillotte 703.272.3204 ext. 2046
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