When Phil Lantz left his small Wyoming town of 20,000, then wrapped up a four-year stint in the Navy, he had one overriding dream: to make it in Washington, D.C. In the 35 years since he started his own company, Systems Planning and Analysis, he’s more than succeeded. In a fierce field of competitors, SPA has grown from three to 465 employees, and proven itself to be an indispensible resource for clients such as DoD and Department of Homeland Security. So, what’s the secret to Lantz’s success? Simple, he says: Focus on solving your clients’ challenging problems, and the rest will follow.

Tell us briefly your background and what you do at Systems Planning and Analysis?

Phil Lantz: I’m the founder and president of Systems Planning and Analysis Inc. We incorporated in July of 1972, so we’re 35 ½ years old. Joe Paterno and I are the only ones I know who haven’t had a promotion in 35 years. (Joe Paterno is the coach of the Penn State football team). I’ve been working in the defense industry in the Washington area since 1965; before that I was a submarine officer in the Navy. I grew up in Wyoming. Prior to the Navy, I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder, and following the Navy, to the University of Wyoming and The Johns Hopkins University.

What does SPA do?

Phil Lantz: SPA provides top-level decision makers with timely and objective assessments that integrate the technical, operational, programmatic, policy and business aspects of national security issues. What does that mean? We try to engage really tough and important problems for the key leaders in the field of national security.
We began with mostly Navy customers, and we expanded a little bit in the Department of Defense. When the Department of Homeland Security stood up, we began working with them from day one. We measure good decisions from a big-picture, long-term perspective – what is best for our country as a whole, not just what might be good for that particular client in the short term.

We believe SPA’s core culture makes us different – our mission and objectives are enduring. The things I wrote down 30 years ago and built this company on have only changed by four words in 30 years – two have been added and two taken away. There is a real consistency in how we operate.

How big is the company now, in terms of size?

Phil Lantz: We started with three employees, and we’ve grown to 465 today. We have been growing steadily for the last dozen years. We had a little downturn right after the Cold War. We call it our “post-Cold War peace dividend.” Since that time, we’ve been on a positive growth track.

What are some of the trends you are tracking that will impact your customer base over the next 12 to 18 months?

Phil Lantz: The pressures of the Iraqi war on the defense budget are important and complex. There is a continued emphasis on the global war on terror and homeland security but there are also a lot of budget pressures. The DoD and Department of Homeland Security – our clients — are wrestling to make good decisions for our nation within the budget constraints they have, and they will have for some time. Our job is to help them make those decisions by giving them the analysis and assessments that cover a broad spectrum of issues.

What’s your biggest challenge in business today?

Phil Lantz: We are very proud of the high-quality staff we hire; they are what make SPA successful. Our biggest challenging is finding enough of them. Our employees really are our greatest asset, so it’s important that the people we hire are exceptionally talented. Our high retention rates show that once people come to work at SPA, they stay, but attracting the level of talent to do the kinds of work that we do is always challenging.

You’re in a very competitive marketplace, what would you say is your key to success over the last 3 to 5 years?

Phil Lantz: Our reputation is built on the quality of our work. Our clients are senior leaders in their fields, and over the years we have earned the position of trusted agents with them. They trust us to give us their toughest problems and they rely on our answers; they rely on our integrity. Our belief has always been that doing good work gets us more work. Each year, our work increases and growth continues.

When you’re in no man’s land you might take calls all the time to be acquired, what’s your general approach to that?

Phil Lantz: I’m pretty proud of what we do. We have some formidable competitors, and I like our culture and I like what we are doing. Yes, I’ve had a number of investment bankers call me and other large corporations, and I just say, “Why would I change when I’m having fun and doing important work?” My plan is to continue the culture of SPA, which emphasizes growth through individual initiative, and doing important work, not driven by the bottom line, but because the work is interesting and it matters for our nation. These are parts of the culture that I want to continue, and the present structure of the company is best suited for that.

What will the company look like in two years?

Phil Lantz: Usually that kind of a question is answered in quantitative terms, and I’ve never thought of SPA in quantitative terms. The important thing to me has always been the qualities of the company — the kinds of work we do, working on challenging, important questions, the levels of key decision makers, maintaining absolute, utmost marketplace integrity and working with people who are talented and nice to be around. We have six corporate objectives, the last of which is to “remain profitable” as opposed to maximize profits. If we meet all of our other objectives, then remaining profitable is just a fallout. I don‘t worry about that too much. I view what we‘re going to look like next year, two years from now, or five years from now qualitatively, and it will be very similar to what we are and have been. If you look out for the quality, the quantity part seems to take care of itself.

What’s your approach to working with small businesses?

Phil Lantz: We were one. I started with three people, and we have never acquired anyone. This has all been organic growth, and good work getting more work. We look for opportunities to work with small businesses. Recently, I met for two hours with one of the small businesses we work with for a mentoring session. That approach helps them be successful, and helps us be a successful team.

How has your Navy background helped you at SPA?

Phil Lantz: I was only in the Navy for a little over four years, but during that time I had a lot of leadership opportunities for a junior officer. Since that time I’ve had a natural inclination for leadership. Over the years I have tried to emulate things I thought were good and effective, and traits that I admired. I’ve tried to avoid things I didn’t admire. Have I been perfect on either account? Certainly not. But that’s the light I’m navigating by, and having been around this business for as long as I have, and building the company from three to 465 people, it seems to be working.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Phil Lantz: I recognize that SPA is a people company. We’re not selling a gadget. We don’t have a patent. We just provide good, thoughtful service to our clients. So I respect those people. I view good leadership as leading by a good example, trying to be fair to people, providing them a professional environment so they can excel at working on hard problems. That is the philosophical tone for the company, and we try to attract people that subscribe to that. Our employees respond to that and stay with us. We have nine employees who have been here more than 25 years. The ninth one just got his 25-year pin recently. I ask him how many people were in the company when he joined; he thought about 16. Keeping nine out of 16 for 25 years is a pretty good batting average.

What is something people are surprised to hear about the company as they get to know what the company offers?

Phil Lantz: I think we have quite a different business model than so many companies, who are focused on the bottom line. Publicly traded companies have to worry about the stock price. We align ourselves with government decision makers. We get a number of requests to work with private industry and occasionally we do that, but with great care. It goes back to that objective. We’re not here to maximize profits, we’re here to work on challenging problems. And we make a decent living along the way, don’t get me wrong. But is it just to maximize profits and see how our stock price goes up and how big we can grow year over year over year? No, it’s the quality of things, the whole environment that makes it work.

What’s the biggest set back in business over 35 years and what did you learn from it?

Phil Lantz: Well, it was the one I described as the “post-Cold War peace dividend.” From day one of SPA, we have been involved in the Navy Strategic Nuclear Weapons program, and things related to that. At the end of the Cold War, there were a lot of things we as a nation just didn’t need anymore. So we were involved in a couple of programs that were deemed to just end. That resulted in a 25 percent contraction over a two-year period because that work didn’t exist anymore. I learned a couple of things from that. If you hire the right kind of people and you get to that downsizing situation, you don’t have to feel to guilty because they are so good they can just go out and get a job. You’re not putting people on the breadline. Every person that we had to let go landed on their feet, and I’m happy about that. And we’re still friends.

Number two, it’s probably healthy to trim the bushes once in a while. When it’s just “grow, grow, grow,” you just “hire, hire, hire” as much as you can. And not everyone is as good as everybody else. And when you trim the hedges you trim the people that are not quite as productive as somebody else. You come out of that kind of a situation stronger, and you reflect on yourself. We adjusted our way of doing business a little bit, and it has served us well since that time.

What is something most people don’t know about you personally?

Phil Lantz: I think it’s the point of a guy from Wyoming who grew up in a town of less than 20,000 people and somehow got into the Navy as a submarine officer. I’m a pretty big guy, so a lot people wonder how in the world I fit into a submarine. When I decided not to make the Navy a career, I ended up in Washington, D.C. Quite frankly, for a while I wasn’t very stimulated by the work I was doing; but then I had an amazing opportunity to work on a challenging, important decision for this nation, and I think I had a positive impact on that. It changed my professional life, it changed my personal life. It was the basis for my founding this company and the culture that we go by today.

On Wednesday, I pulled the tech equivalent of a double header – attending ExecutiveBiz’s “the New New Internet” panel Q&A in the morning and the 2008 Southeast Venture Conference later in the day.

While no one seems to be able to agree on precisely what Web 2.0 means, the three panelists for the ExecutiveBiz morning event – Google’s Mike Bradshaw, Reed Overfelt from Mural Ventures and John Crupi of JackBe – were probably as well positioned as anyone in the Greater Washington area to give it a shot.

Overfelt set the pace of the discussion, postulating to those in the room that the traditional sales & marketing model is all but buried. Today, he added, organizations must respect and understand the wisdom of crowds, and how to integrate this dynamically social feedback into the sales & marketing process.

Bradshaw addressed that while the consumerization of the New New Internet may be underway, it is just beginning to penetrate the enterprise. Part of the challenge for Web 2.0 proponents, Crupi echoed, is to demonstrate its business value to the C-Suite.

But where the conversation steered, in large part aided by questions from the packed room, demonstrated that an element of Web 2.0 had permeated the enterprise. It was a theme that would follow me throughout the day as I shifted to the Southeast Venture Conference later that day: Software as a Service (SaaS).

Overfelt could not restrain his enthusiasm for how web-based services – driven by the needs of end users rather than IT mandates – were positively touching most aspects of the enterprise, from human resources to sales force automation and professional services. And while Federal agencies may not be diving head first into SaaS, Bradshaw indicated that some internal Agency champions were starting to emerge.

The discussion and Q&A lasted an hour, but you got the sense it could have lasted six. The questions and statements peppered panelists from around the room, with many speaking of the promise and challenges associated with SaaS and other aspects of the New New Internet.

While dozens of presenting companies at the Southeast Venture Conference offered their predictions – and pitches – in the hours following the morning event, the day started much as it began. Wednesday’s closing keynote was delivered by Jim Steele, president of Salesforce.com. While the ExecutiveBiz morning event captured the promise building around SaaS, Steele delivered the goods.

His company is considered one of, if not the most successful SaaS stories around. The on-demand CRM software company now has 41,000 customers – ranging in size from multinational enterprises to small businesses – and offers concrete proof of SaaS’ viability in the enterprise. The timing of Steele’s keynote was fortuitous, as his company announced blockbuster earnings minutes before he took the stage.

At the conclusion of his keynote – understandably giddy about the firm’s 4Q results – Steele said he’d be heading over to the bar for a celebratory drink and offered anyone in the audience to join him.

Soon perhaps, Steele will be just one of many raising a glass to toast SaaS – and the New New Internet.

Brian Lustig is co-founder of Lustig Communications, a Rockville, MD-based communications firm that works with growing technology and government IT firms. Lustig is also a contributor to local business and industry publications.

Dennis Stolkey has always been a climber. In fact, long before he ever signed up with EDS, he started his career as one of those guys who climb telephone polls. He sure has come a long way. Over the past 22 years, Stolkey has made an impressive ascent through EDS’s ranks, and now manages its U.S. government sector — a practice worth $3 billion, no less. So, what accounts for his staying power? In the following Q&A, Stolkey shares a few tricks of the trade, discusses the future of EDS in the midst of the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, and dishes on whether Washington, D.C. can ever really beat his home state of Texas for a weekend of fun and relaxation.

Briefly tell us about your background.

Dennis Stolkey: I’ve been with EDS 22 years and have served in a wide range of leadership roles. I ran EDS accounts like Continental Airlines, General Motors – North America, Bank of America, and Bell South. I’ve also run large divisions of the company, what we call strategic business units, in various sectors such as travel and transportation, the Southeast Region, infrastructure, communication and now government. Today I manage EDS’ U.S. government sector which includes all our federal and non-healthcare state and local government accounts. Before coming to EDS, I spent 20 years with AT&T and Michigan Bell.

What size is your practice?

Dennis Stolkey: Our U.S. government and public sector business is worth over $3 billion.

What are your top priorities for 2008?

Dennis Stolkey: We’ve found that our government clients are extremely satisfied with EDS as a provider of IT services, but more and more they want our help in areas such as professional services and consulting. So I will be applying more focus in those areas. I also see opportunities to best serve our clients and grow our business by partnering more strategically. I think some people around the beltway think we’re hard to partner with. But we’re really not. My style is pretty straightforward, very honest. I like to put the cards on the table with potential partners, so we can work through any issues and decide whether or not to do business together. I think that when you do business with other companies you have to delineate clearly what each partner is responsible for. And I don’t think that is always done well in the government sector. If you don’t have things clear up front, it usually results in challenges downstream.

What advice would you give the CEO of a small company that would like to partner with EDS?

Dennis Stolkey: I’d say we very much want to work with you. You are important to us, and we have a long and successful track record of working with small businesses to help our clients meet their objectives. EDS received some prestigious awards in 2007 from the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs for our support of small business, so we’re very open to those types of relationships. I’m looking for companies that have good financials, a lot of integrity in the marketplace, and have demonstrated that they can deliver successfully.

What is your biggest challenge this year?

Dennis Stolkey: As you know, government agencies are being asked to do more with less funding, and we have to find new ways to help them leverage IT to help them become more efficient, effective and to save money, whether through applications modernization, service-oriented architectures or other solutions. Also, we are going to have a change in the White House coming up in 2009. That change is going to be a Republican or a Democrat, but no matter which party wins it is going to be a major change. Consequently, a lot of the customers we support are going to change, and so will government spending trends. We are preparing for the change by developing a strategy for a Democratic Administration and another strategy for a Republicans Administration. Depending on which party is elected, we would expect to see different government priorities and spending trends.

What is your view of the M&A in the government contracting space?

Dennis Stolkey: Well, you know we just recently acquired Saber Corp., which will help EDS increase its footprint in some areas of state and local government we really haven’t been in before. That’s a really positive thing for us. We view acquisitions as a means of executing our strategy, so future acquisitions would focus more in areas that will close gaps in our strategy or accelerate growth with our existing capabilities and clients.

What are some of the hot trends that you tracking in the government space that will impact your business unit?

Dennis Stolkey: Obviously it’s very important to our clients to protect their systems and networks and to ensure the integrity of their data. We are helping them address those challenges in projects such as NMCI, and we see the demand for those solutions and services growing. Also, the move towards shared services is continuing. For example, we hold the contract with GSA for HSPD-12 identity management shared managed services, and we see an increasing need for that because it is a state and local issue as well as a federal issue.

We also see a continued need in government for applications modernization. EDS does extensive applications modernization for federal agencies such as the VA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And we just won a contract to modernize systems at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. We see a growing requirement for those types of activities.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Dennis Stolkey: Frank and open. I communicate very well and run an inclusive rather than an exclusive shop. And I am driving to deliver outstanding service to our clients and achieve our commitments to the corporation.

Has anything surprised you in the last couple of months since you’ve been here?

Dennis Stolkey: How many acronyms there are. This is my first time in government, and there is a different language here. Also, government contracting is a lot different than commercial contracting, with very different rules.

What do you want your legacy to be in 20 years?

Dennis Stolkey: That I made a difference for the shareholders and the employees of EDS during my 20 some years.

How do you like living in DC, do you like the area, what do you think so far?

Dennis Stolkey: In Texas where I came from, we have trees that are 30 to 40 feet tall. And here in DC, you have trees that are 80 to100 feet tall. It makes the Texas trees look like just mere bushes. I had an office on the 4^th floor of the EDS headquarters building in Plano, Texas, and I could see out 25 miles. And from my office in Herndon, I’m looking at trees, and I’m on the 6^th floor. I look forward to being here and so does my wife, because on weekends we like to go out and just do things. Go here, go there, go shop, go to a small town, go to the Smithsonian. I think I could have 300 weekends here without being bored. It is a great place to live, but could be a bit warmer.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

Dennis Stolkey: There are two things. One is that I started my work experience as a guy that climbed telephone poles. And the second thing is that I’m dyslexic.

Can you elaborate on how you overcame your dyslexia?

Dennis Stolkey: One never really overcomes it, but you do compensate for it by doing things differently. Verbal communication is an effective way for me to learn and remember. I appreciate short and concise emails. I always prefer to discuss issues/solutions person to person so I can verbally question and understand. Office art needs to be simple and non-complex; busy art is difficult for most dyslexics to view. When going to the movies, I close eyes every 5 minutes and take aspirins before going to avoid headaches from fast screen movement.

Tell us some thing EDS does to be involved in the community.

Dennis Stolkey: We are one of the founding sponsors of Hoop Dreams, an organization that has sent over 800 students to college over the past 12 years. When first arriving in Virginia, I had lunch with Susie Kay, the founder of Hoop Dreams. I was very impressed with Susie and pledged to continue the support that many of my predecessors in this job provided. Marilyn Crouther, my CFO, spoke to mentors and mentees of Hoop Dreams recently. She did an outstanding job discussing her business success to help inspire the students. I look forward to a deeper relationship as I go forward this year.

We’re also becoming involved with the Wounded Warrior Project, which is a wonderful group that provides assistance to severely injured service men and women. They provide assistance to injured veterans from the moment they enter into long term hospitalization on through their transition back into civilian life and then for the rest of their lives. It’s gratifying to be associated with an organization like that.

EDS is also very involved with the Wolf Trap Foundation, and I was pleased to be elected to their board in February. We recognize and support the role Wolf Trap plays in promoting culture and the arts in the community.

Earlier this month, Dan Johnson was elevated to President of General Dynamics Information Technology shortly after being named to the ExecutiveBiz Top Ten “Beltway Game Changers” list.

And now, after a storied career spanning nearly 30 years as a leading technology executive, Northrop Grumman Information Technology sector corporate vice president and president – and fellow Beltway Game Changer James O’Neill – is stepping aside. Effective May 1st – exactly four years to the day after he assumed the role – O’Neill will retire, with Linda Mills, who served as the sector’s vice president for operations and processes, succeeding him in that position.

As was the case with Johnson, I can logically deduce that the ExecutiveBiz distinction played a role in his decision. For all the accomplishments O’Neill can point to throughout his career, he held off retiring until receiving that one final, elusive accolade from ExecutiveBiz.

Ok, reality check time. It is more likely O’Neill felt the timing was right because his efforts the past several years had successfully put Northrop’s IT sector in a strong position for continued growth, and felt comfortable handing over the reigns of the $4 billion, 18,500 employee IT sector to an executive of Mills’ caliber.

Mills came to Northrop Grumman after the TRW acquisition in 2002 and will lead a premier provider of advanced information technology, engineering, and business solutions for domestic and international government clients. O’Neill will serve as a strategic adviser to Mills – who will report to Ronald Sugar, chairman and chief executive officer at Northrop Grumman – until his May 1 retirement date.

Brian Lustig is co-founder of Lustig Communications, a Rockville, MD-based communications firm that works with growing technology and government IT firms. Lustig is also a contributor to local business and industry publications.

Some people – like me – open their front door, look across the street and see an elderly Asian couple who doesn’t speak a lick of English and believes my five year-old son to be the devil reincarnate. Others – like VisualCV Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Clint Heiden – open their front door to the genesis of a new business venture.

And so it was that Heiden, a well-known recruiting and technology industry veteran who founded The Heiden Group in 2004, was bouncing around a new approach to how job seekers and employers connect when he spotted neighbor – and former webMethods CEO and Co-Founder Phillip Merrick.

The two men met for coffee, where Heiden shared his concept for launching a company that would reinvent the resume using technologies that transform how resume data is presented, accessed and shared. Merrick, who presided over what at the time was the most successful software IPO in history when webMethods went public in February of 2000, knew a winner when he heard one, and the two men embarked on a path that led to last night’s official launch event for VisualCV, Inc.

The open house launch event – hosted at the Tyson’s Corner offices of Morrison & Foerster – was an opportunity for the company to showcase its revolutionary approach to the resume as we know it, as well as to recognize and thank investors such as Heidrick & Struggles and Valhalla Partners; partners including DowJones VentureSource, The Princeton Review and Capital IQ; and of course the forward-thinking clients like VeriSign who have already begun adopting VisualCV.

Meaningful feature enhancements to the traditional paper resume over the past 60 years have been, for lack of a better word, non-existent. Creative job-seekers looking to differentiate their presentation and content from the pack have been limited to swapping egg white paper for cream-colored, or opting for the slightly thicker paper that, in reality, isn’t any more difficult for the HR Director to crumple and toss in the trash. Those truly living on the edge might even replace old reliable Times New Roman font with Helvetica.

As Merrick highlighted during his ExecutiveBiz Q&A earlier this month, VisualCV allows professionals to easily build and manage an online career portfolio integrating dynamic content such as video, photos, networking functionality, references, work samples, charts and graphs highlighting achievement. For the job seeker – or any professional seeking to consolidate key text and multimedia content in one place – VisualCV also provides the necessary security and privacy capabilities. This means that VisualCV members have complete control over who views their VisualCV, as well as the privacy controls to protect sensitive personal information.

And on the employer side, VisualCV seeks to bring an end to stacks of resumes circulating around offices and inherent inefficiencies built into the existing recruitment process.

In speaking with Heiden (check out his own VisualCV here) last night, he pointed out that with the traditional paper resume, once it is out there professionals have little recourse to regain control over that information. With VisualCV, the professional can shut down their online profile at any point, meaning that if his employment status changes and he does not want organizations to access the VisualCV anymore, no problem.

In short order, VisualCV has attracted approximately 100 organizations (the current price tag of ‘free’ helps), including familiar names in the Federal IT space such as SI International and Perot Systems.

How could a government contractor, systems integrator or Federal agency benefit from VisualCV? The potential is significant given that VisualCV is as much about enabling organizations to manage their recruitment process, available talent and partner networks as it is a tool for job seekers.

For example, Heiden postulated that a government contractor preparing to submit a bid for government work could access VisualCVs of employees who might become part of the team. By seamlessly scrolling through VisualCVs the contractor could determine which employees were a good fit – and available – for the contract both internally and also among its network of subcontractors. Then, these VisualCVs could be presented dynamically to the Federal agency as part of the proposal in a way that conveys the team’s skills and capabilities beyond what any conventional paper resumes could accomplish.

The service is free now for both job seekers and organizations, though the company does plan to charge employers for enhanced capabilities sometime this Spring. In addition to the Internet-based portfolio capabilities, VisualCV can offer “white label” private service to organizations for capabilities such as talent management (as highlighted in the government contractor example).

Brian Lustig is co-founder of Lustig Communications, a Rockville, MD-based communications firm that works with growing technology and government IT firms. Lustig is also a contributor to local business and industry publications.

Serco North America has just tapped Richard “Dick” Galanis as its new CFO. Serco designs and delivers engineering, human capital management, logistics, transportation, and IT/business transformation services to the federal government, military, and state and local governments. Serco Inc., is part of Serco Group plc, a $6 billion global services company with over 50,000 employees around the world.

“Dick adds an important, strategic dimension to our company as we seek to augment our growth and capabilities through acquisition and bring a new standard of excellence to the systems that support our business activity,” says Ed Casey, Chairman and CEO of Serco. “His experience in integrating acquisitions and developing systems and processes to support higher levels of business activity will prove very valuable as we continue to shape our company for the future.”

Galanis is the latest senior executive to join Serco North America’s leadership team. He brings to the position more than 30 years of experience with large growth companies in the federal contracting sector. Most recently, Galanis was CFO of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems.

In his new role, Galanis will oversee Serco’s financial management systems and processes while supporting acquisition integration.

Northrop Grumman’s Hugh Taylor has recently been named one of 2008’s Most Important Blacks in Technology by the editors of U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

Taylor is the former Northrop Grumman Chief Information Officer overseeing more than $1 billion in IT assets, processes and personnel. Now, in his role as Interim President of the Civilian Agencies business group, Taylor provides IT services to federal agencies such as Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security.

This is not the first technology award for Taylor, who has been working at Northrop Grumman for over twenty years. At the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year conference, he received the Technical Sales and Marketing award, which acknowledges exceptional leadership in the development, marketing and sale of cutting-edge technologies.

Read the full U.S. Black Engineer and IT Magazine here.