HARRIS
Risk and Reward

Harris Corp., in concert with the military, was able to produce its military radios faster and cheaper using a private-sector business model. [Photo: Harris Corp.]

Companies big and small have benefited from increased defense spending. Melbourne-based communications company Harris, No. 15 on the Florida Trend Top 150 Public Companies list and the largest Florida-based government contractor, has had one stock split and increased its dividend 10-fold, to 25 cents a share, since 2001.

Unlike some suppliers, Harris applauded when the military announced reforms in buying goods and services to get more bang for the military buck. The company advocates the "commercial business model" under which it developed the Falcon radio, a device allowing soldiers to exchange voice, data and video with each other, aircraft and rear echelon commanders.

Typically, a contractor develops and comes out with a finished product for the military only after it wins a bid. Instead, Harris developed the radios, though in consultation with the military on its needs, with no guarantee of a sale.

Wes Covell, Harris vice president of strategy and chief growth officer, says the company delivered the product faster because, by using its own dime, it didn't have to go through as many bureaucratic hoops. Competitors taking the traditional procurement route have yet to produce a finished good. Harris, meanwhile, has sold more than 125,000 radios to the military. In return for its risk-taking, Harris gets higher margins. Particularly in areas such as IT and communications, the approach "is something the government should take more advantage of in their quest to become more efficient," says Covell.

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CALHOUN INTERNATIONAL
Due Diligence

"We've been profitable from the get-go." — Roger Swinford [Photo: Mark Wemple]

Calhoun International, a military contractor with 2009 revenue of $2.5 million, started in the spare bedroom of founder Roger Swinford's Tampa home. Swinford retired from his job as an "all-source" intelligence technician at Central Command in Tampa with the rank of chief warrant officer 4 one week before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In 2005, he founded his information technology and consulting company, Calhoun International, naming it after the county from which the sixth-generation Floridian's family comes. The firm specializes in intelligence and does the military equivalent of due diligence research, intelligence analysis and cyberspace analytical support for decision makers.

As a contractor, Swinford, 50, has been to Iraq four times and Afghanistan once. He co-owns the company with his wife, Amy, 39, who retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Special Operations Command in Tampa. As with Celestan's company, nearly all employees are former military. "We've been profitable from the get-go," Swinford says.

LUKE & ASSOCIATES
Healing Hands

Jim Barfield’s Luke & Associates supplies the military with medical and dental specialists at least six times faster than the military can on its own. [Photo: Gregg Matthews]

When the Bush administration adjusted procurement rules to make it easier for small contractors to win bids for work, Jim Barfield and his partners jumped. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would take off like it has," he says. Their Luke & Associates has grown to 1,300 employees in just five years and is projected to have $100 million in revenue this year. It supplies military bases with medical and dental specialists ranging from neurosurgeons to medical technicians. They treat troops and their families for ailments ranging from children's ear infections to combat veterans' post-traumatic stress disorder.

Barfield, 56, says a base in need of a pharmacy tech can spend six months to a year trying to get one through an individual request for proposals. Luke can deliver a tech in less than 30 days. He says the company's advantage is automating, especially the cumbersome credentialing required for medical specialists. "It's worse than going for a security clearance," Barfield says.

So far, he has seen only minimal cutbacks from the military but expects further cuts as the wars end, which is fine with Barfield. "Believe me. I have a son in the military, and I will be very happy to see him home."

Security Clearance Required

Help Wanted: Counterintelligence analyst, Afghanistan. Top-secret security clearance required. Minimum of four years of analytical experience with the Department of Defense required. Need strong research and writing skills. “Come on board with a company that values its employees!” Very competitive salaries and benefits, 401(k).

That’s a summary of a want ad Tampa-based Celestar has on ClearanceJobs.com, the online classifieds for work requiring top-secret security clearances. The site had 209 jobs in Florida posted in October. Job openings included technical writers, programmers and network administrators:

» One company would train a high school grad to be a biometric fingerprint tech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa making $12.94 per hour.

» Northrop Grumman wanted a targets and operations planner for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, which runs the Afghan and Iraq wars, to evaluate military and intelligence operations.

» Contractor S4 needed someone fluent in Urdu or Pashtu to track regional blogs, update a client website and track the viral effectiveness of themes and messages.

Because active security clearances are needed for many of the jobs, former military are usually the candidates. It takes a long time to get clearance for non-veterans — too long for the job applicants to wait, says Eric Garnier of contractor Cambridge International Systems. “It’s not that difficult to find qualified professionals,” says Roger Swinford, head of intelligence contractor Calhoun International in Tampa. “We’re going on 10 years in the war on terror so you have recent and relevant experience.”