Each member of the PVM team comes to work (either remotely or to the beautiful San Diego office) with an essential role and high expectations of their counterparts. Leadership and accountability are key when it comes to successfully running a small business with big partners and even bigger goals.
At PVM we have an ongoing Star Wars theme of jokes and references (not nerdy at all, I know). There are many aspects of the Saga that apply to PVM’s mission statement and overall company culture. For example, remember when Anakin was engulfed by the darkness to become the iconic and evil Darth Vader? Great leaders are responsible for the cultivation of the future generations of an establishment. Now, Obi-Wan Kanobi, Anakin’s Jedi mentor/trainer, is not to blame for Anakin’s turn to the dark side, but having a strong sense of trust in those closest makes for a brighter outcome. A leader is someone that can be trusted with vulnerabilities, criticisms and someone that inspires individuals to reach new levels of greatness.
PVM recently unveiled a new leadership initiative called PVM 2.0 that appointed project leaders for each department of the company. Having distinct leadership areas allows for more accountability and meaningful interpersonal relationships to form. Our growth so far has been organic in nature; we have, for the most part, been able to adapt to growing pains along the way. Looking forward, PVM aims to position itself in a more scalable stance; meaning we would like to posture ourselves for growth and be able to quickly respond accordingly. Hence, the birth of PVM 2.0. PVM leadership has also taken a strategic look at our processes, programs, and personnel. We now have three distinct leadership areas, each having personnel that hold key business functional roles. (c+p/rephrase) This leader appointed system creates a very laid back and down to earth workplace, which some may argue leads to leniency in productivity, but we will talk more later about ways tackle work pressures with flair when your bosses and coworkers happen to be really cool.
PVM is founded on three fundamental principles: Diversity, Information Technology and Innovation. These three core principles that are reiterated throughout our website and reflected in our work, fuel the culture of PVM.
Diversity – This one is huge at PVM. In order to reach larger groups of people in ways that will resonate genuinely, diversity is key. The PVM team is made up of computer scientists, military veterans engineers, stay at home mothers, fathers, developers, photographers- you name it, etc,etc. The beauty of partnering with government, military, law enforcement and civilian clients is the amount of perspectives that we are able to tap into to accomplish our goals. The faces of the corporate and tech worlds are changing to keep up with the reality that we are not a uniform society and culture is not one size fits all.
“Our view of diversity extends beyond racial, and gender labels. We desire to create an environment of rich diverse ideas, solutions, approaches, beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, etc. We desire a Hogwarts of sorts: all Four houses represented and valued.” -CEO Pat Mack
Information Technology – IT, or information technology is a broad term that encompasses all technology that involves electronic data. PVM excels in everything IT. Ranging from business process management, project management, to engineering architecture, design, development, integration and support of mission essential products. The IT industry is growing rapidly and garnering much more attention, responsibility and respect as we move deeper into the “digital age.” How we go about utilizing this responsibility as tech nerds is crucial. Each of us at PVM are IT professionals equally driven by the question: how do we help leaders leverage all of their available information/data to make the best decision at the right time? We have established ourselves as frontrunners in two specific areas: Command and Control and Big Data integration. We want to develop and support IT solutions that assist in making the right decisions and to develop and foster innovative solutions for our customers. Taking risks, using our diverse perspectives and working on making solutions to problems more meaningful drives PVM to be great.
Innovation – As you can see, these three principles are synergic, symbiotic, whatever you want to call it. For us, one is not independent of the other- they flow cohesively through every step of the problem solving process. Since innovation is such a key driving force for all of our work, we sat down with CEO to hear straight from the source. “In our business, change is the only constant: cliche but true. Given the complexity of our customer’s problems and the ever growing amount of available information we actively pursue better ways to serve our clients. As a company, our key enabler of innovation is diversity. The best ideas often spring from looking at the challenge from new or crazy perspectives: from simply thinking about the problem differently. We constantly look for new ways to do things, and beginning this year will start working on big data problems in the financial services/lending sector. This is a new domain for us and presents an opportunity for us to study a new set of challenges.”
As much complex work that the brainiacs at PVM do, these three principles simplify what really goes on daily BTS. We take big hairy problems, run them through our sieve of diversified perspectives and valiantly pursue new frontiers. These are the things we are passionate about. We hope that you see us and that this resonates relatively with your own lives in some way.
(and maybe now it isn’t so hard to see why we identify so deeply with intergalactic Jedi heroes;)