Steven Glaser guides ICC through transformation to stretch beyond the state of Ohio

Transforming business operations
When developing a new strategy that is both long term and short term, all pieces must come together.
“You can’t just say, ‘Well, five years from now, we’re going to be this,’ because there are tollgates in the growth, and you have to consider that,” Glaser says. “You have to look at your strategic plan every three months, and you have to tweak and make sure that it’s moving in the direction that you do.”
In the early stages of its transformation, ICC was making smaller adjustments, but Glaser says that wasn’t enough. The company ultimately saw it needed a larger-scale plan.
In addition, there had to be total buy-in from all of the employees.
You have to create a workplace where they can function efficiently and be excited about coming to work every day, especially in a consulting business where some people are located in the office and some are at client sites, he says.
This interested culture comes from providing employees opportunities to interface with decision-makers from company surveys to social activities to being available for questions.
Finally, with a transformation plan, always look at client and market needs.
ICC determined it needed to become more of a consulting partner to its clients than a technical service company — and that’s where it has spent its energy over the past two years.
“We changed the conversations that we were having with our clients. Instead of having just pure IT conversations, we were having business conversations,” he says.
This idea went far beyond a sales pitch.
“In order for us to grow and transform in that way, everyone from accounting to HR to anyone who touches a client in any way needs to act in a different way,” he says.
ICC had to invest time and effort training its people and bringing in different systems.
The company also came up with differentiated product offerings through verticality in the banking and insurance industries. It hired experts in those fields to become a strong player, and ultimately acquired clients outside of its normal footprint.
Two or three years ago around 96 percent of ICC’s revenue was Columbus-based. Today, that number has gone down to the high 70s, and many of the same consulting approaches first used to grow new business are benefitting Columbus clients as well.
Training for the future
Even as ICC has built up its consulting, technical services are still part of its overall ability to service clients. Fortunately, one of the paths the company has followed helps with that.
With so many offshore technical vendors in the market, ICC created its own development center for college graduates. By hiring and training young people from 16 different colleges in the Great Lakes region, the company is able to compete with offshore models.
In the eight-week training program, the young hires can work in the development center on a variety of projects and then move on to assisting with project teams on a non-billable basis for another two months to learn their trade.
“They’ve experienced four to six months of really being in the trenches and working, and they are a valuable member of the team,” Glaser says. “We train about 50 of these young people a year, and they’ve become a vital part of our workforce.
“When it’s all said and done it’s probably been the most gratifying thing that I do — see young people walk in here and then a year later see them managing things, and then two years later seeing them in positions that are incredible.”
An employee can walk in as a programmer and two years later be running $500,000 projects in association with a senior leader, Glaser says.