Mike Nigro and PPC join the big leagues

March 18, 2008 by Lisa Singh

A year and a half ago, Project Performance Corporation left behind the comfortable confines of the small business world. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, PPC is growing faster than ever. A big part of that success comes down to Mike Nigro, and a leadership style that is all about creating and nurturing PPC’s culture and vision. In the following Q&A, Nigro talks about his leadership style, and what’s next for PPC since joining the big leagues.

What do you think the biggest potential revenue is for PPC in ‘08?

Mike Nigro: Overall, we are projecting that we’ll continue the trend we’ve experienced over the last few years and enjoy another 15-20 percent growth figure in ‘08. All of our divisions and practices are projecting this kind of growth success. The specific services that we offer which seem to be growing the fastest and are projecting the biggest potential growth in 2008 are business technology services like data warehousing, business intelligence, business process management, enterprise information management, and IT optimization. Additionally, another area that will grow significantly for us in 2008 is our security and privacy division. There’s a tremendous amount of work to be done in this area: helping government comply with information and systems security rules; doing the engineering to ensure safety of systems, information, and people; building secure networks; protecting personally identifiable. But again, all of our solution areas — from IT investment management to energy and the environment — are expected to make it another good year for PPC from a growth perspective.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Mike Nigro: My leadership style is all about creating and nurturing the culture and vision I have for PPC. We’re driven by a set of ideologies that have to do with delivering quality to our customers and serving them in a collaborative environment, empowering everyone who works here, staying out in front of technology developments, having fun, and last — but certainly not least — giving back to our community and the world beyond. I’m pretty hands-off in my management style. We have great people at every level, and I know they’ll do what needs to be done. But trust me, I’m very hands-on when we’re celebrating a big contract win in the company game room, or when my ping-pong supremacy is in question, or when we’re visiting our adopted community down in Mississippi to offer what help we can in rebuilding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

There has been a recent rule change from SBA involving small business. What is the impact on PPC?

Mike Nigro: We left the comfortable confines of the small business world about a year and a half ago. Our “graduation” has worked just fine and I’m very happy to say that we’re growing even faster since we started competing in the world of the giants. We continue to go full throttle after full-and-open competition opportunities. I guess the difference is that we’re now in a situation where we team up with companies that are exactly where we were a couple of years ago. We have a lot at stake in building strong relationships with these companies, not only from the perspective of the skills and people they can offer us, but also from the vantage point of being able to help them grow. We know what it means to be a small business, and we fully appreciate the work the smaller companies do — not to mention the challenges they face in this tremendously competitive industry.

What’s your approach on working with small businesses?

Mike Nigro: As I mentioned, we’re serious about building strong relationships with smaller companies where there’s mutual benefit in working together. We work hard at building small business teams — for one thing, now that we’re a large business, we have to justify the partnering choices we make to the government. So we don’t pick our small businesses partners at random or casually. We have to be sure that not only will they complement our own expertise in various market spaces and technology skills, and fill whatever gaps might exist in our qualifications to provide services, but also that they make sense on the bottom line — meaning that they serve their own growth objectives, complement ours, and, ultimately, provide the best value for the taxpayer dollar.

What is your view on the M&A activity going into the government contracting? Do you think it will continue into ’08?

Mike Nigro: I think the M&A market will continue to be strong. No question about it. There is a lot of business capital out there that investment banks are putting into the industry. From a PPC perspective, we look at M&A activity through the lens of our basic strategic objective, which is that we are going to be among the top 75 management consulting firms in the world. That’s our vision, and we’ll continue to move toward fulfilling it. To this point, our growth momentum has been organic — all PPC, all the time. But that’s not to say we won’t look at acquisition as part of our strategy in the future. We’ll do what it takes to hit that global leadership mark, as long as we stay true to our core ideologies while we’re doing it.

When looking back at your career, what was your biggest setback and what did you learn from it?

Mike Nigro: That one is going to take some thought. In 1984, early in my career, I was with a large consulting company and had won my first big contract — I was the Washington area program manager. At the time, I managed my team to do a good job — quality work — and to keep our customers happy. That’s what I thought it took to continue to keep the work and grow the business. As it turns out, that wasn’t enough — we lost the work upon the recomplete of the contract. I learned that while doing good work in this business is critically important – you have to pay attention to all those other things like your competitors, the landscape around contracting, networking, and everything else that goes into the business. This was a setback that happened very early on and I learned a lot from it. That lesson made me a better consultant and taught me a lot of what I now do in running the business.

What will the company look like in 5 years?

Mike Nigro: We will be a management consulting firm in the truest sense of the word. And to me, the “true sense” of management consulting means staying at the high end of solving problems by managing and applying technology, intelligently, to help organizations function better. We are going to be international; we are going to be supporting the government and the commercial sectors. We are going to be solving problems that are focused on areas that are already critical issues around the globe — environment, energy, healthcare, finance, insurance, and transportation. We want to make a difference in the way people and organizations do business.

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

Mike Nigro: I think what most people don’t know about me personally is that satisfaction, to me, is less about what I get than about what effect my actions have on the lives of everybody around me. I don’t know, maybe some of the people I work with every day understand that about me. I hope so. I hope they get the message that at the end of the day, I am here to support them and through my support the rewards will come.

What is your favorite restaurant?

Mike Nigro: “DeCristos” in Slinger, Wisoncsin. Famous for Friday night fish fries. Living in Milwaukee for the first 23 years of my life, I guess I have this great place to thank for my cholesterol levels.

What is the last book you read?

Mike Nigro: “You Can Call Me Al: The Colorful Journey of College Basketball’s Original Flower Child,” by Al McGuire. It’s not only the last book I read, it’s my favorite book. I’ve read it a number of times. Coach McGuire shares some of the qualities I try to cultivate in myself: persistence, hard work for the team, a “different drummer” mentality and, of course, a love of sports.

What is your favorite football team?

Mike Nigro: No-brainer. The magnificent team of Bart, Brett, and Lombardi – the Green Bay Packers.

What is the best part of your job?

Mike Nigro: Another easy one. By a mile, the best part of my job is being with the people of PPC — employees and their families. Working with them, socializing with them, celebrating professional successes and life events, sharing the huge gratification of our community service projects, watching them grow on the job and in life — nothing tops that.

Posted in PPC, Mike Nigro