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ExecutiveBiz: What is your current title and responsibilities?
Marshall Banker:
I am currently the president of the BAE Systems Customer Solutions operating group, which is part of BAE Systems, Inc. In that regard, I am effectively the chief executive for the operating group, which is roughly a 2.4 billion dollar group that focuses on providing solutions and services, primarily to the U.S. government. Overall, I have strategic and operational responsibilities for the group.
ExecutiveBiz: Who is your biggest customer?
Marshall Banker:
Our largest single customer is the U.S. Navy. However, taken together, our largest customer is the intelligence community. I really can't break it down past that. We also provide solutions and services to the Air Force, the Army, several of the civilian agencies, including particularly DHS.
ExecutiveBiz: How does BAE Systems differentiate itself in the market?
Marshall Banker:
First of all, we have a long heritage of not only satisfying, but delighting, our customers by providing an extremely high quality of service to them. What we try to do is to gain a clear understanding of the customers' visions, what their real needs are, work with them on those needs, and then be able to provide a very efficient solution that would jointly work for those customers. In that way, we can then provide a very high quality of service, hopefully exceeding their expectations.
ExecutiveBiz: What are some of the hot trends you are tracking?
Marshall Banker:
We've seen the government first of all, bundling contracts…..fundamentally producing larger packages. Very often we find ourselves as incumbents on a piece of a new larger consolidated contract. There are upside opportunities and downside risks to this trend. In addition, there is a movement toward GWAC's and IDIQ's, particularly in this market space. I think both of those are really reflections of the fact that the government has had somewhat of a drain on its resources. It needs to be able to contract for more services and capabilities as well as focus on larger integration projects than it did a few years ago. I guess one other trend that I would comment on is OCI, organizational conflict of interest, which as the industry is consolidating, you find many companies that are operating on both sides of the fence, if you will, as an advisor to the government and also as a provider of the solutions to the government. That is a trend that we watch very carefully and have taken great pains to try to mitigate or avoid.
ExecutiveBiz: Do you face any unique challenges as a British owned company?
Marshall Banker:
We really don't. We've been successful in establishing BAE Systems, Inc. as very much an American company run by Americans, owned of course as a subsidiary of BAE Systems p.l.c, that is based in London. We are very dedicated to supporting the government, the U.S. war fighter, and in fact, we're one of the largest contributors to the USO. So, we really don't run into very much difficulty that might have occurred six or seven years ago.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your view on working with small business?
Marshall Banker:
I think it's a competitive advantage if you can do it well. We have five values, one of them is partnering, which we believe in very strongly. We want to bring the best solutions to the customer. So, we're anxious to find small business partners that can bring differentiating capabilities and solutions to our customers. We recently have established a small business office at the director level. That person works with small businesses, but also looks at how we can evolve a small business strategy to be a differentiating strategy for us. So, it's something that we encourage.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your view of acquisitions and growing organically?
Marshall Banker:
Part of the strategy of BAE Systems p.l.c. from the inception of the company has been to grow in the U.S. We've done that successfully, both organically and through acquisition. So, we have actually over the last six or seven years, double digit organic growth rate, but we've augmented that by a substantial set of acquisitions. So, back in the year 2000, we were roughly 2 billion dollars and this year we will be at about 11 billion dollars. So, acquisition has been an important part of our growth. The key thing for us is to make sure that the acquisitions that we make will have a high probability of success, which is not the norm. We also want to ensure that acquisitions bring shareholder value. We will not overpay. With some of the prices that have been prevalent in our market space, it has been a bit of a damper in closing the deals.
ExecutiveBiz: How important is the corporate culture?
Marshall Banker:
First of all, one of the most important characteristics of a potential acquisition is a compatible culture. It doesn't have to be an identical culture, but it has to be one in which people are going to get along and work together because we place a very strong emphasis on that. The next thing we look for really are the key people, particularly in the services business, it's really all about the people. We look for the key people and the quality of the people in the organization. In the services market space, that's what we're buying. And then, thirdly, we look for places in the market, in a strategic sense, where we wish to be, either to gain access to customers or to improve our capabilities in a portion of the market where we see opportunities for additional growth.
ExecutiveBiz: What is something most people don't know about you?
Marshall Banker:
I really like to wear business casual clothes to the office when I can. I moved to San Diego in 1999 when I joined BAE Systems and became very accustomed to the more casual work atmosphere of Southern California. Now that I'm back in Washington, I can't always wear casual clothes, particularly if I am meeting with customers, but it is something I enjoy doing when it is appropriate.
For more information about
BAE Systems Customer Solutions, visit
www.baesystems.com.
Interview with Marshall Banker conducted by JD Kathuria.
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