Steven Ornsby, President and Owner of AOCE. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By T.J. Prieur
It’s all about change.
That’s the business that AOCE (Alpha Omega Change Engineering) is in. The veteran-owned small business specializes in management and professional services, engineering and technical services, training development and delivery; studies, analyses, and evaluations; and administrative support.
But shortly after the company was founded in 1997, they had to undergo their own transformation. “When we first started up we were approached by SAIC (Strategic Air Command) to help go in and look at the organization,” explains the company’s president, Steve Ormsby. “It was a big contract and we were happy to have four slots out of about 30 total who were working on the project.”
Jim E. Hartney, CEO and Owner of AOCE. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
At the time, that was the entire staff of the fledging company. Unfortunately, Steve explains, “As often happens in projects like this, we got some surprises.
The timeline was modified and the project was terminated quicker than we expected. Of course if you have everyone working full time on one project you aren’t out there marketing for the next one.”
The company downsized and had begun to recover when the Florida “hanging chad” incident took place after the 200 presidential election. “The hanging chad incident put a stop to all government contracts for awhile and that almost killed us,” Steve relates. “That was the point where we decided we had to evolve.”
Richard M. Sayers, COO of AOCE. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
Up to that time the company had focused strictly on organizational development, but they learned that moving into staff support, the day to day management and integration of tasks, gave them a broader marketing appeal and the flexibility they needed to “become sustainable,” Steve says.
The big lesson he learned from his early experiences? “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” he says.
AOCE is headquartered in Hampton, near Langley Air Force Base and USAF Air Combat Command, and other major military facilities that are the core of their customer base.
The company has grown over the years, also. They now have 99 employees located in 15 states and overseas and about 35 sub-contract employees, also.
Ken E. Terry, Secretary/Treasurer and Owner of AOCE. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
Most of the workforce is older, and with skills from a military background so managing employees in many locations is not a big issue, Steve says.
Staff support is now the company’s broadest business category.
The AOCE staff provides its customers with expertise in project development, acquisition and program planning, aviation and aircrew issues, logistics and civil engineering support, military and domestic intelligence applications, satellite and computer systems and a myriad of other areas.
In training courses and courseware development, they also develop and provide computer-based, web-based, and traditional instructional materials.
Their training course support aids include high resolution graphics and interactive animations which can be used in instructor-led or in virtual classrooms. Courses range from introductory to highly complex topics across both the academic and technical training spectrums.
Within the consulting area, they provide assistance and training in a wide range of topics.
One of the things Steve enjoys most about the broad focus at AOCE is the challenge of doing something different which each new contract.
“I like going into new environments. I’m a troubleshooter,” he says. “I started in aircraft maintenance with the Air Force and kept moving into new areas. I enjoy going into new areas and looking at the processes; what works and what doesn’t.”
