Ernst Volgenau, Chairman, SRA International on How Values Drive Business Success

Summary

The video features an inspiring interview with Dr. Ernst Wano, who after retiring from a 20-year Air Force career, founded a company in his basement that grew into a Fortune 1000 company and was consistently ranked among the best places to work. Dr. Wano shares valuable lessons on leadership, ethics, and business success drawn from his military background and extensive entrepreneurial experience. He emphasizes the foundational role of core values—honesty, service, and ethical performance—in attracting talented employees and sustaining long-term growth. Despite experiencing challenges such as leadership transitions and market downturns, Wano stresses the importance of maintaining a strong corporate culture and learning from failures. He also highlights the significance of self-discipline, clear mission focus, and personal resilience, which include managing stress through constructive distractions and cultivating courage and grace. The conversation concludes with reflections on the role of purpose beyond individual success, asserting that contributing to society and serving a greater cause is central to genuine leadership and fulfillment.

Highlights

• Introduction to Dr. Ernst Wano, who built a Fortune 1000 company after retiring from the Air Force.
• Core company values prioritized honesty and service over making money, forming the basis of success.
• Trust-building through ethical decisions led to long-term customer relationships and growth.
• Challenges during CEO transitions threatened company culture and business performance.
• Hiring the right people is critical and difficult, especially during rapid growth.
• Managing stress by shifting focus to unrelated intellectual activities and exercise.
• The biggest failure was poor leadership transition and a bad acquisition, which slowed company growth. 

Key Insight

Military foundation as a leadership bedrock: Dr. Wano’s military service instilled discipline, ethics, and a service mindset that became integral to his business philosophy. Unlike many who retire permanently, he viewed retirement as a transition into a new purposeful chapter, leveraging his advanced education and leadership skills to build a company from the ground up. This illustrates how structured environments like the military can prepare leaders for entrepreneurial success by fostering adaptability and ethical rigor.

Ethics and mission over profit: Early on, Wano’s company defined success not by immediate profits but by ethical behavior, honest service to customers, and care for employees. This core mission attracted high-caliber talent who sought meaningful work, enabling the company to grow sustainably. This counters the common misconception that ethics and profitability are mutually exclusive, showing instead that values-driven companies often outperform by cultivating loyalty and trust internally and externally.

Sharp focus aligned with values leads to sustainable success: Wano clarifies that success depends on having a clear, focused mission aligned with personal and market values. While the exact focus may vary, the consistency and integrity of that focus create brand identity and operational coherence. This alignment ensures that growth is not just financial but also cultural and reputational, enabling resilience through market changes.

Integrity builds lasting customer relationships: A key anecdote involved advising a client against a costly but unwise project, which initially cost the company short-term revenue but earned deep trust and future business. This example highlights how prioritizing client interests and ethical judgment fosters long-term partnerships and reputation, a lesson rarely taught in standard business curricula but essential in service industries.

Leadership transitions challenge company culture: The company’s growth was disrupted by difficult CEO transitions, illustrating how fragile culture and performance can be when leadership changes. Wano’s experience underscores the need for deliberate succession planning and cultural preservation efforts to ensure continuity, especially as companies scale and move from private to public ownership or private equity.

Hiring the right people is a complex but critical task: Wano emphasizes that attracting and retaining capable employees is fundamental to growth, but hiring mistakes are common, often due to rushed decisions or poor reference checks. The concept of “one feather Braves”—competent contributors who may not be leaders but add value—is a nuanced approach to talent management, highlighting the importance of diverse talent profiles and rigorous hiring standards.

Effective stress management through intellectual and physical outlets: Dr. Wano’s personal strategy for handling stress—studying complex but unrelated topics like advanced mathematics and maintaining regular exercise—demonstrates the value of mental diversion and physical health for leadership stamina. Combined with strong family support, these methods enable sustained performance under pressure. This insight reveals that self-care and self-management are as critical as strategic skills in leadership roles.

Learning from failures without stigma: The company experienced setbacks, particularly during leadership changes and a poor acquisition. Wano stresses viewing failures as opportunities for learning rather than sources of blame, fostering a culture where honest discussion and continuous improvement prevail. This approach mitigates the risks of complacency and overconfidence that often follow periods of success.

Courage and grace as essential leadership qualities: Beyond business skills, Wano highlights personal virtues such as courage—facing challenges head-on without cowardice—and grace, especially in later life stages. These qualities reflect a broader understanding of leadership as a moral and existential endeavor, not just a transactional or strategic role. It aligns with the idea that true leadership requires character and resilience in the face of life’s uncertainties.

Purpose beyond self drives fulfillment and success: The interview closes with the powerful notion that defining a cause larger than oneself—whether family, country, or society—is key to authentic leadership and lasting impact. This perspective reframes success as service and contribution, reinforcing that personal achievement is most meaningful when connected to a higher purpose, a lesson echoed by many great leaders across history.

Conclusion

This comprehensive insight into Dr. Wano’s journey offers a masterclass in ethical leadership, strategic focus, talent management, resilience, and personal growth, making it highly relevant for entrepreneurs, executives, and anyone interested in the interplay between values and business success.