Predator, not prey - the art of cherry-picking competitors' talent

During the technology boom and bust, a seemingly endless number of companies appeared on the radar one moment just to drop off the next.

Some vanished into failure, some into the purgatory of mediocrity. Some - the few, the lucky - were bought up by larger companies, making their founders instant millionaires, or even billionaires in some cases.

Then there were the companies that are still around today - companies that carved out their own niche and now thrive.

Wells Landers Inc., a technology consulting firm in Columbia, hopes to be such a company. Jim Hoover, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said the workers of Wells Landers are helping build a company not to sell, but to compete.

Wells Landers specializes in software engineering, systems integration and systems infrastructure support. With the critical data systems used by military and security installations, it is vital that there is a redundant system in place to step in and pick up the slack if things go wrong. If not, it could mean disaster.

We design systems to ensure that doesn't happen, he said.

Dumbest guy

While Wells Landers might sound like any other fledgling technology consulting firm - and in many ways it is - Hoover said there are aspects of the company that set it apart from the competition. Basically, they want the best of everything.

Hoover has a simple hiring strategy for Wells Landers.

I should be the dumbest guy in the company, he said. Keep in mind he's spent 18 years in the information technology industry with executive positions at Priceworks Corp., Reverseauction.com and RABA Technologies LLC.

Hoover said that by cherry-picking - hiring away the best and the brightest from other companies - Wells Landers has quickly grown from an idea into a force to be reckoned with. The key, he said, is to be the predator rather than the prey.

Hoover said Wells Landers targets the top 20 percent of the bell curve. He said besides the financial incentive of owning a stake in the company, Wells Landers also offers workers an opportunity they probably haven't had at past jobs - the chance to work with equals.

For the first time, many of these engineers are working with peers, rather than spending their days hand-holding other employees and toiling away at work that doesn't really engage them, he said. What's more, employing top workers acts as a magnet for other top workers who are looking for something more, he said.

As proof that the strategy is working, Hoover points to a recent hire - Billy J. Bingham is the company's new divisional president of its national security solutions department.

Bingham is a former brigadier general who retired as assistant deputy director for operations and deputy chief, central security service at the National Security Agency. He also worked for MTC Inc. and Science Applications International Corp., where he headed the company's U.S. Air Force Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) activities.

Now those decades of experience with the intelligence community and the U.S. Department of Defense are an asset of Wells Landers'.

He had a lot of choices, and he chose us, Hoover said.

Explosive expansion

Hoover also points to hard numbers to make his case. Wells Landers was founded in April of 2004. A little more than a year later, it already employs more than 50 workers and has revenues of around $10 million.

While these numbers are certainly impressive by any reasonable standard, Hoover said Wells Landers is fine with being a bit unreasonable in this regard. He said the company hopes to have 100 employees and be on a pace for $20 million in annual revenues by the end of the year.

The company has a long-term target of 500 to 750 workers within five years, and as far as revenue goes, the sky's the limit.

Hoover said that to become an elite company, you also need high- end clients to go with your high-end employees. He said the nature of intelligence work necessitates a certain amount of secrecy on behalf of his clients' projects, but would say Wells Landers chose its headquarters in Columbia because of its proximity to the NSA.

If we are able to talk about it, it probably won't be as exciting as you want it to be, he said with a laugh.

The Maryland-based company also does work in Virginia. Hoover said during 2004 the company worked to build up its resources and client base in Maryland, and has designated 2005 for the same task in Virginia. After that, plans for 2006 call for further expansion into Denver, Southern California and South Florida - all areas known for military and security work.

Hoover said Wells Landers might some day go public, but for the foreseeable future it will remain an employee-owned company. Also, whatever national success the company may find, Hoover said Wells Landers will remain headquartered in its home of Columbia.

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