Not many Type-A personalities in the consulting industry would pass up the chance to write history. Far fewer would be successful at such a daunting task.
Greg Baroni has accomplished both. Just after Sept. 11, 2001, he seized the opportunity to shape the federal government's largest newly created agency since World War II, and in the process transformed an integrator once left for dead into a growing IT powerhouse.
In the wake of terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, Baroni left then–KPMG Consulting to join Unisys Corp. as president of its global public sector. "I wasn't looking to leave," Baroni recalls. But the vision created by Unisys chairman Larry Weinbach and president/CEO Joe McGrath in giving Baroni a blank canvas on which to create a public sector business "was something I could really wrap my arms around."
Once on board, Baroni's first step was to regain the confidence of a group that had been told it was going to be sold. He chose to capitalize on the staff's patriotism and told them that he was betting the ranch on government solutions that would ensure the nation's security. From there, he started building services and solutions around security issues "and networking like crazy so that when the opportunities presented themselves, we could poise ourselves to win."
A short time later, the Bush Administration created the Transportation Security Administration, and Baroni's plan began to fall into place. The relationship with TSA would hinge on Unisys's relationship with Patrick Schambach, then CIO at TSA, who had done work with the integrator while at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. "My first order of business was to get to know that CIO — what his vision and strategy were and how we could enable the execution of it," recalls Baroni. As it turned out, Schambach would have to rely heavily on the private sector to enable his vision, and Unisys fit the bill.
In August 2002, TSA chose Unisys as the prime contractor for its $1 billion program to provide the information technology infrastructure for the nation's 445 commercial airports. The partnership is the largest example of business transformation outsourcing in government today.
"From there I never let go," Baroni says. Today, Unisys is working with the Department of Homeland Security on assimilating the 22 combined agencies' myriad e-mail systems, and remains TSA's primary partner for IT-related services.
Baroni's successes helped breathe new life into once-struggling Unisys. The firm has doubled in size in less than three years, with more than 2,200 new hires — most plucked from competitors, which, Baroni says, earned him the nickname of "The Raider." But those key hires, he insists, were the key to the TSA win.
"You can never forget the power of people and how they fuel the realization of vision," Baroni says. "It sounds generic, but its relevance to the pubic sector is important. You can have great plans, but it takes people to execute them. They're the yin and yang of successful enterprises." — Stacy Collett
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