Pariveda Solutions

Bruce Ballengee, CEO of Pariveda Solutions

The name “Pariveda” is Sanskrit for “reaching for complete knowledge,” and CEO Bruce Ballengee believes knowledge is found in people. Therefore it’s no surprise that the secret of his success is in cultivating the team and helping its members advance. In fact, new hires at the Dallas-based company are given a 10-level plan for climbing the company ladder on the first day of employment.

“Our mission is to acquire, develop and manage talent in IT for the benefit
of clients, it’s all about people development,” Ballengee says. “We’re trying to grow people to become executives, and various aspects of our business model are geared for that.”

New employees, who are usually in the top tiers of undergraduate or graduate levels, are given a path that spells out how to get to be an executive—there’s no mystery.

And most people can make vice president in 10 to 12 years, though the firm also hires people at the executive level. The thinking behind this strategy is that these new employees have already gone through an education system that is based on annual promotions to get to the next level, so they know how to play the game. At Pariveda, a curriculum is set up that mimics their school career in that they have an expectations framework that is clearly defined at every level of the corporate ladder, which Ballengee sees as unique to his firm.

“People want to work on interesting projects, where they are making an important contribution, are recognized for their efforts, and where they have the opportunity to advance to the best of their abilities,” Bellengee says. “Much of the turnover in our industry is on people hitting a glass ceiling, so it’s hard to know what you need to do to advance.”

Part of the employee cultivation is a lot of hands-on coaching. Staffers are given employee reviews every six months and usually are up for promotions every year to year and a half, on average. “One of our goals is to make these project reviews not a thumbs up or down thing, but on how your performance was. It’s bringing career development down as granular as possible,” Ballengee says.

All reviews are in the form of a letter that speaks to an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, and what the key things are to do or development areas. “What we are really trying to do is find strengths to leverage. People are generally going to succeed and advance on their strengths over their weaknesses, so we put a lot emphasis on that.” Major promotions are treated like a doctoral oral exam where the initiate is gilled before a review board to see if he is ready for the next step.

Ballengee sees this career cultivation as a key advantage for Pariveda, which specializes in the “business of IT”—helping clients optimize their value chain and transform their business and technical architectures to deliver value. With the right team in place, consultants apply the best value and resources to their mostly IT clients at their six locations.

The plan is working as its revenue is up 42 percent and the number of billable consultants has almost doubled in the past year to 90. Ballengee, who himself brings 25 years of experience to the table, foresees more growth in the future—a projected 85 percent increase in revenue—as Pariveda expands between one and three offices a year in new markets: On tap for 2008 is a new location in Los Angeles.

“We are a long way from becoming a dominant player in major markets, but since we are small and people are able to work  locally, we are able to attract and maintain good people [to keep our clients satisfied],” he says. “We’re already in six of the  top twenty-five  markets in the world, and we just want to continue expanding. Our team will help realize this goal.”