ASD Celebrates 40th Anniversary

2. Interviewer: Can you give me a quick elevator speech for ASD? Or said differently, why should I be interested in contracting with ASD for IT services?

President John DuBard: ASD is a leading IT solutions provider to Government because we recruit and retain a superior workforce. Our staff members are highly experienced, technically competent, and professional—and leverage our company’s ISO 9001:2015, CMMI-SVC Level 3, and other best-practice quality approaches as appropriate in each client engagement.

3. Interviewer: What are some challenges and opportunities the company is facing this year in 2019?

President John DuBard: Our challenge is we continue to transition from our 8(a) program participation the previous 10 years, though we are still entitled to 8(a) status on our CIO-SP3 contract. We continue to make progress in the marketplace by competing on the quality and value of services performed. We are looking to a number of opportunities going forward in 2019, including extending our services in key new areas of high demand and forging new strategic relations with large service delivery company partners and leading technology companies.

4. Interviewer: 40 years ago when you started the company, what did you think the challenges and opportunities would be in the first year after you formed the new company?

President John DuBard: Well, to be honest, in the early days back in 1979, I was just mainly interested (Laugh) in paying the utility bills and meeting my mortgage payments. That was the big challenge facing me every month the first year of the start up. But I was right to form the company… there was then and is today a market for an IT company delivering services with quality and good customer service. Once we got going that first year, I have not looked back many times. Navigating the challenges and opportunities coming at us has kept me too busy to look back.

5. Interviewer: As you sit here at your work desk in the ASD Work Headquarters, what are you most proud of in regard to ASD’s honors/recognitions and work performance the last 40 years?

President John DuBard: Of course, I’m proud of the many honors and recognitions our company has been bestowed, such as our nine Inc. 500/5000 awards… for fastest growing revenues by a private company… and the Jim Moran Entrepreneur of Excellence award. But I am most proud of our company’s continued success in service delivery and our customer service record. I thank our employees for their expertise and commitment, and am very proud we have supported so well our customers over the years.

6. Interviewer: Skipping well beyond 2019, what challenges and opportunities do you foresee ASD facing some 25 years into the future?

President John DuBard: 25 years is quite a leap forward in time. Maybe we’ll face challenges (Laugh) like in Star Trek with beaming our employees onsite to their work locations or issues with employees returning on time from other solar systems to work. As far as opportunities, I’m hoping (Laugh) we discover a new civilization here on Earth living in a parallel universe situation, and they like our company’s IT services (Laugh). To be serious, we do regular strategic planning, but we only look a few years out, as the IT industry is so dynamic and unpredictable with innovation adoption that it’s hard to look much many years out.

7. Interviewer: ASD has had remarkable success over the last 40 years, which is evident in the fact that ASD was named to the INC 500/5000 List nine times between 1998 and 2017, as among the fastest revenue-growing privately held companies. What do you think were the most important 3-5 lessons you learned and operationalized that help explain ASD’s remarkable success.

President John DuBard: After incorporating the company in 1979 and leading the company for the last 40 years, I’ve learned many lessons, and, frankly, if I had not, our company would not have realized good success, but, rather, would have gone out of business. My most important lessons learned have been to provide the services as agreed on with quality, to always go the extra length to provide good customer service, to recruit highly qualified employees and try my best to retain them, and to always monitor proactively the company’s situation and react as needed to keep things going well.

8. Interviewer: You’ve had a good run the last 40 years. What are your goals for the next 40 years? (Laugh)

President John DuBard: (Laugh). Next 40 years? Perhaps my first goal is to still be leading this company in 2059 (Laugh). No seriously, if I have a goal for such a long time ahead, it’s just to keep our company continually improving the next 40 years as we have accomplished the last 40 years. I’m very honored our customers have placed their trust in our business and we, in turn, have done our best possible job to be worthy of their trust, and we have tried to add value where we could, and continue to improve things for our customers and employees—and to keep our business viable as time passes.

About ASD
ASD is a leading-edge provider of technical and management services to government. ASD delivers expert solutions to local, state, and federal government agencies. In 40+ years of providing solutions, ASD has successfully completed over 600 projects for 100+ satisfied clients. For these solutions, ASD has received over 20 awards for technical expertise, commitment to client satisfaction, and market success. Our service delivery approaches have been appraised as CMMI-SVC Level 3 and certified as ISO 9001:2015. We are a customer-focused Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) committed to excellent service delivery for government.