Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about disruption, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Asa Marine Corps veteran and an engineering graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I have always been interested in technology that has the purpose and capability to locate and identify threats, promote better awareness, and reduce risk for those on the ground. When I saw the benefit that AgEagle’s solutions were already providing to the agriculture and mapping industries, and heard of the shift the company was trying to make to the public safety and defense industries, I knew that I could help advance the situational awareness aspect of the business.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
AgEagle was initially started by a farmer and drone hobbyist in 2009. The founder began to apply his hand-crafted drone for use in agriculture analysis and turned it into a private enterprise in 2010. It quickly became clear that there were many other industries that could benefit from similar solutions, like defense, public safety, public utilities, and environmental conservation, among others. Our fixed-wing solutions matched with our high precision sensors and smart, easy-to-use ground control software allows for solutions delivering valuable and accurate information to those on the ground. We believe our solutions provide critical situational awareness while being precision-designed, user-friendly, portable, and adaptable.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Persistence — I think the biggest thing people underestimate in business is just how many times you’re going to fail before you get it right. There are many starts and stops when running a business, and you need to have persistence to overcome challenges.
- Flexibility — This goes hand-in-hand with persistence. In order to be successful, you need to be able to pivot strategies and adapt to situations along the way, especially in a very dynamic market.
- A sense of purpose — Understanding why you are doing something, and having a larger purpose either for the customer or the world, is a key to fueling success. It’s important to have the ability to remind yourself why you’re doing this work. For me, that is to help in the defense of our country, support our allied nations, and aid people to avoid dangerous situations and empower them with knowledge of their circumstances by giving them the proper situational awareness of what’s going on around them. AgEagle’s solutions are key to helping our customers do just that.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.
When I joined the AgEagle leadership team, the company was mainly focused on the use of our aerial solutions in areas like agriculture, which was a key part of the company’s humble beginnings. However, as we’ve showcased in recent months with significant sales to large government contractors in Brazil, France, the UAE, and right here in the U.S., our solutions have capabilities applicable to a wide variety of industries. That strategic shift to defense and public safety was a substantial decision we made that had some risk involved, but we’re beginning to see that risk pay off with our recent contract wins.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. In the context of a business, what exactly is “Disruption”?
Disruption in business means offering something different or better than what is currently dominating in the market. I think too many people understand disruption as something new, such as a new technology that will cause some sort of upheaval, but it can be as simple as a process optimization or entering a new industry to provide competition. If a new restaurant opens up across the street from one that’s been there for 50 years, making the same type of food but making that food at better quality and lower prices, that’s going to disrupt that market. What AgEagle has done is take a key solution that was developed for agriculture and show how it can be a better solution for so many other industries like defense, public safety, environmental monitoring, and so much more. Any industry that wants better awareness of their situation, using an aerial product, should be interested in our solutions.
How do you perceive the role of ‘disruption’ within your industry, and how have you personally embraced it? Is it a necessity, a strategy, or something else entirely in your view?
If you’re not staying on top of disruption in this industry, you are at risk of falling behind. Technology in general over the past 50 years has just been a bullet train of new products, initiatives, applications, and more. As a leader in business, you have to read the news every morning, pay attention to what’s new on the market, and stay on top of the latest and greatest. AgEagle continues to work internally and with partners to improve and innovate our solutions, as well as test and improve on solutions that we believe will be the next frontier in drone technology. Our recent strategic shift into the defense and public safety space has given us a unique look into the needs and wants of that particular customer community and we’re eager to continue to optimize our solutions to meet their needs, as well as innovate to make them even more attractive.
What lessons have you learned from challenging conventional wisdom, and how have those lessons shaped your leadership style?
Conventional wisdom tells you not the rock the boat. That’s great when you’re on the water, but in business, the best ideas come when somebody is not simply comfortable with the way things are and drives hard to make them better. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve made the shift to focus more on defense and public safety this year and that’s led to a lot of internal discussions about direction and messaging. In those discussions, we had an open conversation about the use of our products currently and where we can expand, questioning the ‘status quo’ and looking to go further. It has benefited us tremendously.
Disruptive ideas often meet resistance. Could you describe a time when you faced significant pushback for a disruptive idea? How did you navigate the opposition, and what advice would you give to others in a similar situation?
Disruptive ideas have a tendency to disrupt the status quo and when you do that, you’re likely going to face opposition. Pitching disruptive ideas may result in unease from people because you’re disrupting their safe seat. That is why it is so important to focus on things like optimization and a sense of purpose. It’s going to take a great pitch to navigate that kind of opposition from seats of power, but if you believe in your ideas and why you have them, it’s worth the fight.
What are your “Five Innovative Approaches We Are Using To Disrupt Our Industry”?
- Adapt to your clientele — If you’re not listening to your customers, you’re going to lose them. We’ve been working directly with clients in the defense and public safety industries to understand what aspects of aerial solutions they need the most and have shifted our capabilities and offerings accordingly.
- Think outside the box — When you’re stuck in the confines of one box, one solution, one industry, you can only grow so much. Disruption will not be linear, check outside the box and then come back to your operation with fresh ideas for expansion.
- Don’t be afraid to course correct — It wouldn’t be a business operation if there weren’t a few obstacles along the way. If something is not working, then take a moment, redefine the problem and your course of action, and start again. Persistence, but more accurately persistence with a purpose, is key.
- Find optimization — Sometimes disruption doesn’t have to be a new idea. Optimization can also disrupt old ways of thinking and lead to great results for your company and its customers.
- Listen to your gut — Oftentimes, if something doesn’t feel right, it isn’t. Listening to your gut has been a key aspect of my business life the past 25 years. This applies to disruption. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s time to disrupt the process, start something new, or make a change.
Looking back at your career, in what ways has being disruptive defined or redefined your path? What surprises have you encountered along the way?
Being disruptive is how you make a name for yourself in this industry. At AgEagle, we could have stayed the course as an agricultural-focused drone company but our team recognized our solutions are worth so much more to so many clients. Our path down this road is just beginning but we expect to disrupt many more industries before we’re done with our complete and mobile solutions.
Beyond professional accomplishments, how has embracing disruption affected you on a personal level?
Embracing disruption is how I got to where I am today — and it’s fun. As a leader at numerous companies before coming to AgEagle, I’ve had the opportunity to disrupt and create positive change in a variety of ways. From Northrop Grumman to Martin UAV’s VBAT, I have been able to change important processes and protocols to optimize efficiencies.
In your role as a C-suite leader, driving innovation and embracing disruption, what thoughts or concerns keep you awake at night? How do these reflections guide your decisions and leadership?
Geopolitical decisions and the state of affairs between countries in conflict keep me awake at night. From a market’s standpoint, conflict always has the opportunity to throw businesses into array, but my biggest concern is always people that get caught in conflicts and have the potential to get hurt. With our shift to defense and public safety in recent months, we hope that our solutions can help reduce civilian causalities, safeguard our customers, and also allow them to reach their end goal more quickly and efficiently.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
That’s a great question, and I think my movement would be to launch subscription services for unmanned systems and robotics, where we could service a particular need on an on-call basis. Then, I’d allocate a portion of the profits to needy families and causes.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow along on our website and on our LinkedIn, X, and Facebook pages.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!