In church on Sunday, the pastor stated that Christianity was based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The text of the lesson was from Matthew 16:13-20. In these verses, Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” then later He asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter responds to the later question with “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” This was and remains to be a profound proclamation, but this blog isn’t to discuss who Jesus is as there are many scholars who have done this over the years. However, it did get me to thinking about Armedia. Is Armedia based on a single person or the works of a single person? Are we doing a good job with succession planning? Is information shared across the business such that we could fill the void of a leader being removed unexpectedly?
In the book Built to Last by Jim Collins which was a must read from my days at Sapient, Jim and his co-author Jerry Porras highlighted characteristics of companies that were built to last. One of those characteristics was the ability to survive the transition from the founder or a charismatic CEO to a successor. As I thought about Armedia after 10 years of being in business and still having the three co-founders actively engaged with running the business, I think we have grown out of the business being dependent on any one of us. Fortunately over the past few years, we have hired competent leaders to augment and supplement our many deficiencies. It’s taken some time and continues to be a work in progress, but we are also relinquishing control to focus on our strengths. In short, Armedia is not solely based on a founder or a charismatic leader, and we are intentionally developing leaders to manage and operate the business in our absence.
Now, is Armedia based on the work of the founders? Unlike Christianity which is based on Jesus’ death and resurrection as the perfect Lamb of God, Armedia is based on the works (i.e., past performance) of our consultants. Since 2002, Armedia has partnered with various government and commercial clients and successfully delivered solutions to include business intelligence, case management, custom development, document management, imaging, web content management, workflow, etc. Armedia brings CMMI Level 3 appraised processes and templates to client engagements to increase the probability of success for the work we perform. In short, Armedia is based on the work of its consultants using repeatable processes.
Armedia is not based on a single person or the works of a single person, but the concept of delivering world class technology solutions and creating an environment the employees can be proud of. This concept is independent of any of the founders or leaders and will propel us to be a company that is “Built to Last.”
Who love to know if your perception of Armedia is any different than stated in the blog?
Christianity is Jesus Christ; leading a Christian life typically involves formation in the faith of Christ (learning from others), and then passing on the faith (teaching others), normally in the context of the domestic church (learn from your parents and teach your children). Obviously there are many paths to the faith but this process of learning from those who came before and teaching those who follow is core to the transmission of the faith.
The “Armedia way” also has to be fostered, learned, and transmitted; when new Armedians arrive, they learn the culture from their fellow employees; and when more new Armedians arrive, the people who were new before but are now fully formed Armedians transmit the Armedia culture to them. As with Christianity, care has to be taken that the culture thus transmitted continues to conform to the vision of the original founders… Otherwise in 15 years Armedia will be just another Beltway bandit.
The gist of my argument is Armedia should depend on the vision and the corporate culture established by the cofounders, rather than on their continued physical presence.