John Hart, chief growth officer for Valiant Integrated Services, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding the challenges and strategic goals that you’re pursuing in 2022 and beyond.
In addition, Hart also discussed how recent partnerships have driven expansion and innovation for the company as well as giving back to the community, addressing the challenges of federal recruitment, and more during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.
“Valiant has an incredible team of true professionals at each level of the company, and they’re hungry to continue growing the company, which was critical to me. The leadership team is also completely committed to our customers’ missions.”
You can read the full Executive Spotlight interview with John Hart below:
ExecutiveBiz: What are your strategic goals for the coming year? What do you hope to accomplish and any new markets that you’re keeping an eye on in the federal sector?
“Valiant has grown quickly over its first five years (founded in 2017), and the leadership team met recently to begin refreshing our strategy for the next five years and beyond.
Our focus will be on our two core verticals, Training & Readiness and Mission Support. Our primary goal for this year is to continue growing the company by delivering the innovative, cost-effective solutions we’ve become known for in our sector and community.
We also want to focus on building on our recent success. Over the past year, we were awarded XCTC and MCTSP, two critical National Guard training contracts. The National Guard has been a critical resource for the USG over the past year, so we see a number of opportunities to grow our work in this field.
We were awarded DLITE EUCOM, which has become a critical focus area for the U.S. and its allies due to the situation in Ukraine, which we’re proud to be supporting with linguists, translators, and other resources. We continue to see growth in this market, and we hope to build on this success with additional linguistics-related work in other COCOMS.
We’ve also been awarded multiple contracts over the past year under OMEE, a DoD medical facility support contract vehicle. There are a number of other opportunities in this area that we plan to pursue.
We’re also looking at other adjacent markets that might make sense for us. While our focus is on organic growth, we’re actively considering acquisitions that would complement our current capabilities and offerings.”
ExecutiveBiz: Congrats on recently joining the company back in Oct. 2021! Why did you want to join Valiant Integrated Services, and what were the attributes of its mission that attracted you to the role? What do you hope to accomplish with the company?
“First and foremost, Valiant’s purpose – to empower the world’s most critical missions – is taken seriously by the entire team. We have a large number of veterans, over 25 percent of our 5,000 employees, who understand what that means, and have unmatched experience in the areas in which we do business.
Valiant has an incredible team of true professionals at each level of the company, and they’re hungry to continue growing the company, which was critical to me.
The leadership team is also wholly committed to our customers’ missions. Like any company, we want to grow, and we want to make money, but I can confidently say the mission comes first, which is also very important to me.”
ExecutiveBiz: How have recent partnerships been able to assist your company expand its position in the federal marketplace, drive innovation and new capabilities and ultimately help complete your company’s mission?
“We’ve been doing a lot of work in this area recently, including a few partnerships that we plan to announce very soon. The defense segment is so vast that it’s impossible to have experience and capabilities in every area, and partnerships are one of the best ways to grow.
We’re now working on several agreements with companies with complementary capabilities; we can learn from them, and hopefully, they can learn a thing or two for us.
This helps us provide the best possible solutions for our customers and make sure we’re delivering results and, as you said, driving the innovation that’s so desperately needed in this market.”
ExecutiveBiz: How does your company ensure long term success for your workforce to drive value for your employees as you continue to face the uphill challenge to recruit and retain the best talent in the federal marketplace?
“One of the key benefits of the work that we do is that it tends to attract people who are passionate about the mission, which is a must when you’re providing some of the absolutely essential solutions that we provide.
That being said, it can still be exceptionally challenging to find people with very specific skill sets (e.g., TS/SCI cleared Ukrainian or Russian linguists). We have had to get creative by taking actions such as enhancing our benefits program to ensure we’re ahead of the pack, increasing our outreach to specific target groups via social media, and continuing flexible work arrangements where possible. We’ve also worked hard to create multiple leadership development programs for employees at every level, ensuring our people are empowered to continue growing toward the next stages in their careers.
ExecutiveBiz: An important part of a company having strong business ethics in the federal sector is about helping and giving back to the greater community. Can you speak to the various charities and work with other organizations that your company does to make a difference and how people can get involved?
“Valiant has been incredible at giving back, including supporting hurricane relief efforts in Louisiana; supporting scholarship programs; providing donations to various veterans-related charities; supporting tornado relief efforts in Kentucky and Tennessee; and, most recently, donating to support humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.
Later this year, we plan to launch the Valiant Foundation, a private foundation focused on supporting veterans and their families, as well as humanitarian and disaster relief efforts.
We plan to support organizations that provide veterans and their families with educational resources, post-service workforce training, scholarships, and other support services for those wounded or killed in action.
We will also support organizations providing disaster and humanitarian relief to those impacted by natural disasters or terrorist or military actions.
Finally, we plan to host a golf tournament in northern VA later in the fall to kick off the foundation launch and begin raising money for these deserving causes.”