Octo's new president talks about his new role

Octo Consulting Group last week tapped Bob McCord to be the company’s new president and chief operating officer.

For McCord, Octo Consulting was a good fit for a couple of reasons.

For one, McCord can bring his health care experience from working at companies like IBM, SAIC Health Solutions and Acentia and apply it to Octo’s footprint in health care area, namely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Octo will be looking to grow its health care business going forward, McCord said.

“But the latter part of my career has had a much broader focus than just health,” he added, noting that Acentia had a number of federal civilian customers.

To start off, McCord is taking some time to get situated and learn the ropes at the new company. He will focus on getting to know the company and its people, which is important at a company like Octo Consulting that has a strong focus on culture.

“I’m a very customer-focused person, so I want to understand the customer environment and the market dynamics,” he said.

For Octo Consulting, the role of president and chief operating officer is a new one, said Mehul Sanghani, Octo CEO. That’s partly because business has been booming thanks to the acquisition of a number of new customers, but also so that the company is adequately structured to service and support these new customers.

Octo also needed someone that had a unique blend of experience—both working at larger firms but knew how to “right size” the approach for a firm of Octo’s size, Sanghani said.

Having this new role also helps Octo preserve one of the elements it values the most—its company culture. “I think if anything, Bob shares me view on the importance of that, but he also affords me the bandwidth and time being front and center with those employees,” Sanghani said.

Finally, McCord also has experience in evolving a small business into an established middle-market firm—one of Octo’s main goals in the future.

“If you look at the last few months, there’s been an exodus of a number of different, more established market players,” Sanghani said, who noted the recent merger of CRGT and Salient as well as the acquisitions of Agilex and CompuTech.

That leaves a void, he said. “Government buyers are still looking at firms who have the capabilities and the depth and breadth of the larger firms, but also have the agility and nimbleness and the ability to bring leading edge technology solutions as some of the smaller firms,” he added.

Sanghani said the hiring of McCord as well as all decisions the company is making right now play into Octo’s effort to move up to being an established mid-market player.

Right now, the company has 250 employees. Moving forward, though, the company is less focused on pure growth figures. Instead, Sanghani said, Octo Consulting is focused on leading with its capabilities while allowing the company, no matter the size, to maintain its culture and success.