The Business of Defense
Brute force? It’s not sustainable as a business model
When launching a federal contracting business, brute force and staying power count for a lot. But to sustain that business, takes an additional set of skills.
If your natural tendency is to be hard charging, you can get things done. Reza Mahbod has seen that play out in his personal and professional life.
But along the way to growing a successful financial consultancy serving federal customers, the founder and president of RMA Associates learned that its takes more than grit and determination to sustain a business for the long haul.
During a discussion for the Society of Defense Financial Management’s The Business of Defense podcast on Federal News Network, Mahbod shared the backstory of his own entrepreneurial evolution.
Interestingly, there are a lot of congruencies with the Marine Corps recently becoming the first Defense Department organization to achieve a clean audit.
“You can get there with, I would say, brute force just by getting comfortable with the numbers, doing a lot of substantive testing, providing the information to get to the beginning balances,” Mahbod said. “But to sustain that and maintain it year over year, the processes need to be in place and the controls need to be in place. That is a much harder thing to accomplish. It just it takes time. Internal controls have to be designed and implemented, then they have to be tested.”
He then added, “Once you get some momentum going — you keep those controls in place, you implement those controls — it can be done.”
His own recounting of his journey to success with RMA Associates , which has supported financial and audit needs for 65 agency customers since opening in 2013, sounded quite similar to his assessment of the Marine Corps audit. It also offers insights for other young would-be business owners.
Want to succeed in federal contracting? Don’t give up
After spending his formative years working in accounting and contracting in government, followed by a stint at KPMG in its early years and some other ventures, Mahbod found himself with the opportunity to strike out on his own with two government subcontracts and a business partner.
He leapt at it, but then those contracts went away. What followed were a few very tough years.
“There was so much failure those first four or five years. There was constant failure,” Mahbod recalled, “We did so many proposals, and we kept losing.”
His wife and mom even questioned how he could keep going.
“Even when I get knocked down, or we get knocked down as the organization, or something bad happens, I still show up the next day,” he said. “That is what’s required if you want to start a company: You just have to be able to just keep going, going, going, going. And even if it’s a bad day or something really bad happens, you just show up the next day and keep moving forward.”
Brute force? Not sustainable as a business model
Mahbod doesn’t attribute the firm’s survival just to knuckling down. In fact, quite the opposite.
For one, he readily acknowledges that more than a few times over his career, he was absolutely in the right place at the right time. Mabhod cited the years in government and also at KPMG as providing him lessons and knowledge that helped when be ready when opportunities came his way.
He also believes he learned how to be a better manager along the way, knowledge and skills that — when paired with a determination and a very consistent approach to work — kept the business moving forward.
“There are four things you have to do to be successful. One is show up. So I did that. I always did that. Two is try your hardest. I certainly did that. Three is learn from your mistakes. I didn’t always do that. And four is get along with people. I didn’t always do that,” he said. “Learning from your mistakes and getting along with people has come more so in the last 15 years, like 10 times more, than the first 15 years of my career. And being in this position, you have to learn from your mistakes, and you definitely have to get along with people.”
There are definitely overtones of brute force in his work approach, particularly during his time at KPMG. “If you wanted something done, I would get it done, but sometimes I would leave a wake as I was getting stuff done.” Mahbod recalled with a chuckle.
But from a business perspective and sustaining his business, that approach was a nonstarter. “You also have to make sure that your team is with you, and your team wants to be with you,” he said. “You can’t do it by yourself. I can’t do it by myself. So I need to make sure that I’m getting along with people. If I make a mistake, I acknowledge it, I address it, I take corrective action, and then the team will, ideally, run through a brick wall for the leader if the leader is good.”
To listen to the full discussion between Reza Mahbod, president and CEO of RMA Associates, and Rich Brady, CEO of SDFM, click the podcast play button below:
Discover more stories about how to thrive as a federal contractor. Find all episodes of The Business of Defense podcast.
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Vanessa Roberts
Vanessa Roberts crafts content for custom programs at Federal News Network and WTOP. She’s been finding and telling B2B, government and technology stories in the nation’s capital since the era of the “sneakernet.” Vanessa has a master’s from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
