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ExecutiveBiz: Tell us briefly your background and how you got to where you are today.
Jim Sheaffer:
My experience is grounded more in business than technology, starting with an economics degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. I then spent five years in the Navy as a supply corps officer, with nearly two years of that time on a destroyer.
When I completed my service in the Navy, I went on to graduate school, earning an MBA from the University of Chicago. From there, I joined American Management Systems (AMS), which was a small 100 person consulting firm at that time. For the next 27 years at AMS, I spent time in both the government and commercial practices. During the first half of my AMS career, I worked in the government sector with several U.S. government agencies and departments, including the Departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Accounting Office. The latter half of my time at AMS was largely focused on international commercial business, including nine years as European general manager living in Germany.
Five years ago, I joined CSC as vice president and general manager for the company’s business area that serves the U.S. Department of Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its Business Systems Modernization Program.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your current role and responsibility at CSC?
Jim Sheaffer:
As president of CSC’s North American Public Sector, I am responsible operationally for all of the business we do with government clients in North America, and that includes United States federal and state governments, as well as Canada.
ExecutiveBiz: Recently the company decided to move its headquarters to Falls Church. What does that mean for you, in the Federal business?
Jim Sheaffer:
For several years, Falls Church has been effectively CSC’s global operational headquarters, with our North American Public Sector business unit – CSC’s largest with approximately 36% of the company’s total annual revenue – our commercial outsourcing business and several global delivery organizations based here. We also have approximately 11,000 employees in the area, which is the company’s largest single concentration of workers.
Our board of directors decided to relocate CSC’s corporate headquarters from our long-standing El Segundo, California, location to Falls Church for several reasons. We are bringing together the leadership of our corporate staff with our global operational headquarters in one location, which will help enhance productivity by reducing travel now required between the two locations and expediting decision-making. And the consolidation will save on the expenses of maintaining both corporate and operational headquarters on opposite sides of country.
This move also sends a very clear signal to our customer base that we recognize that the U.S. government is the largest single client we have. CSC is about 65% commercial and 35% government. This move will put our corporate office closer to the issues that affect our business, as well as allow us an opportunity to be more involved in those issues and help ensure that our point of view is in the public eye, as well as heard by our Congressional leaders.
ExecutiveBiz: Are there any other moves that are part of your over all strategy?
Jim Sheaffer:
A year ago, we embarked on a new corporate-wide strategy, Project Accelerate, that’s aimed at accelerating the growth of both the commercial and government business over the next five years. For our North American Public Sector, we need to deliver double-digit growth, and to achieve that, we’ve laid out a three-prong strategy. First, sustain and grow the unit's core business, which will be done by continuing to deliver superior performance on existing contracts and leveraging CSC's full global capabilities to meet the dynamic and changing needs of our clients' missions. This will be enabled by CSC’s robust portfolio of indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts that allow CSC to pursue opportunities across the full spectrum of federal agencies.
Second, focus investment on segments of the government market that can generate superior growth. Project Accelerate targets six specific market segments for growth: health services, logistics, training and simulation, identity management, command and control, and infrastructure services. These segments represent about 30% of CSC’s North American Public Sector business today, and we believe are capable of sustaining a double digit growth over the next three to five years.
Finally, expand into adjacent markets in which CSC traditionally has not been a major player, most notably U.S. state and local governments, where the emphasis will be on federally funded or mandated programs.
ExecutiveBiz: So, right now what’s your biggest challenge in implementing that strategy?
Jim Sheaffer:
As we come to the end of our first year under Project Accelerate, we’re comfortable that we’re seeing the kinds of success that we wanted to see early on. The biggest challenge in leading a business unit of 27,000 is communicating the strategy to everyone when thousands are spread all over the country. My challenge is to make sure everyone understands the strategy, moves in the same direction, operates proactively and knows that what they do every day contributes to the success of that strategy.
ExecutiveBiz: Last year your company acquired Datatrac. How is the acquisition going, and what are your plans for future acquisitions?
Jim Sheaffer:
CSC’s acquisition of Datatrac was 100% consistent with the second part of our strategy, which was to look at high growth areas and to ensure that we had the capability that we needed in those areas. Datatrac had specific capabilities in data management that we felt would enhance our solutions offerings. That transaction is fully integrated in the business today, and is an integral part of our components business as well as a force in our security and intelligence organization.
To further strengthen our capabilities in our six high growth market areas, CSC is looking at other acquisition opportunities. It is part of a corporate wide growth strategy that includes acquisitions of Covansys Corp., a company that has enhanced our India direct capabilities doubling the size of our India based staff, and First Consulting Group, a health services company, which was about 95% focused on our commercial market. So CSC has made some acquisitions, and we continue to look for attractive targets in the public sector.
ExecutiveBiz: What are some other trends you are tracking that will impact your business over the next 12 months?
Jim Sheaffer:
The clear trends, which many are familiar with, include the graying government workforce, the consolidation and modernization within operations, and the anticipation of a reduction in hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. First, the number of government workers nearing retirement age is larger than ever before. People are retiring from the federal government every day, at an increasing rate. The government is losing critical experience and technical skills that have been practiced over a lifetime, which will make it more difficult for the government to execute some of its programmatic responsibilities. The second trend is around consolidation and modernization within operations. Budget and economic forces will continue to drive the government to modernize, consolidate and find better ways to do more, with fewer resources. The third trend is the wind down from the war. There will be a movement of resources from fighting the war to replenishing material and assets to help ensure that we are prepared to defend ourselves against future conflict. We and others in our business must be in a position to respond and deliver the kind of services the Department of Defense will demand.
ExecutiveBiz: What advice would you give a small business wanting to partner with CSC?
Jim Sheaffer:
At CSC, we look at small businesses that may be able to provide additional capabilities to us. We’re looking for people who are focused and dedicated at being the best at what they do, in whatever field they select. So my advice would be – stay focused. As a small business grows, it should continue to strengthen its core capability. When new business executives from small businesses interact with CSC, they need to help us understand what differentiates their company’s capabilities from others that offer similar capabilities in whatever segment of the market they work in.
ExecutiveBiz: How has your Navy career helped you be a business leader?
Jim Sheaffer:
In general, every branch of the military provides critical leadership skills training in an environment where it can be tested – an environment that allows people to gain confidence in their ability to make decisions under certain situations and under stress. I found the Navy to be very good at teaching the importance of being able to align what you do every day with a specific mission. At all times, you need to stay focused on the overall objective and how to help achieve it, regardless of what your own specific responsibilities might be. Unless everybody is aligned you can’t be successful on a Navy ship. It is key that everyone works together as a team to execute the mission. That kind of solidarity at the very core of the mission is something that all branches of the services teach in one way or another. But I think the Navy is particularly effective in providing that insight about focus and confidence and teamwork.
Once you enter the business world and learn economics, finance and other business skills, those leadership and teamwork skills become a key factor in achieving business success. At CSC, we try to ensure that everyone in the North American Public Sector business unit has a very clear understanding of how their specific day-to-day activities relate to the end result that their customer is trying to achieve.
ExecutiveBiz: How would you describe your leadership style now?
Jim Sheaffer:
Our success and my leadership are based on three things – the ability to focus, leverage and collaborate. To help people stay focused, they need to understand that we have a clear strategy that we must stick to and that we can’t respond to all of the miscellaneous things that pop up from time to time that might divert our attention. If the strategy needs to change as we move forward, that’s fine, we need to adapt to the environment, but meanwhile stay focused on the plan – just do it. The second thing is to ensure people leverage their activity. In an organization as large as CSC, we all must learn to take advantage of what others have done well. Everyday, we must think of how we can leverage some other part of the organization to bring increased value to our customers. Everyday, we need to bring the value of a $16 billion company to benefit our customers. The third thing is the collaboration. We’re not a holding company with 150 different businesses. We’re one business, and if we are to effectively operate as one business, teamwork and collaboration are absolute necessities.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your favorite restaurant?
Jim Sheaffer:
Old Angler’s Inn
ExecutiveBiz: What is the last book you read?
Jim Sheaffer:
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.
ExecutiveBiz: Whom do you admire in business?
Jim Sheaffer:
My grandfather. Everyday he worked in a steel mill and in his spare time ran a small radio repair business. He was focused, had clear objectives, was dedicated to high standards, and took care of the guys he supervised. The keys to success in managing a large operation are no different.
For more information about
CSC - North American Public Sector, visit
www.csc.com.
Interview with Jim Sheaffer conducted by JD Kathuria.
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