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Referred to as a “Rock Star,” by his peers, a “Thought Leader” by many publications, “Robin hood” by Industry Leaders, and “A Pattern Recognition Specialist” by GQ Magazine, Kevin Burton is a guy worth figuring out. We caught up with him and had a little talk and we’re surprised to find out- he’s humble.
You have a lot of buzz around yourself and BAM right now, what are all these descriptions of you about?
“I think people want to talk about anything new or positive in the Industry. There hasn’t been a lot of change in Emergency Management, Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery for over a decade, unless, of course we’re talking hardware.
But Robin hood, a Rock Star?
Oh, that. (chuckles) I guess folks see our thinking as ‘stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.’ The rich are the big consultancies that dominate, and the poor are the people in the trenches just trying to get the job done. As far as a rock star goes, I’ll lump that in with ‘thought leader.” I’ll take a pass. I’m not that interested in all that hype. I’m really interested in getting out the message that consulting in Emergency Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is important. A social and ethical imperative.
I feel strongly it has to be right and it has to be priced at a fair rate. “Thought Leader” might get you into a conference or whatever, but that’s not really my life’s goal. I’m after bigger things... personal things. In the end, I don’t want those kinds of kudos- I’m looking to a higher authority on my work and what I’ve done in life.
Do you take your work personally?
Absolutely. I guarantee BAM’s work. I have a deep commitment to getting it done well and only working with customers on their terms. This commitment is reflected in our mission statement of “Leadership through thinking.” The customer is the leader there- we’re growing that customer by helping them think about risk in a new way. If we get it wrong we eat the cost.
Many of us want to know how you sleep at night.
Real Emergency Management and Business Recovery is a messy, dirty job. I’ve been there, you know, the day after the data center burned down or whatever. So I get that.
Knowing that these things can and will happen is what drives those emerging risk presentations you see us doing for free. Knowing that those things can and will happen to my hometown, or perhaps my family? That’s what drives me personally.
Your business model is different from most. Can you talk about that?
Sure. We offer consultant services and advisory services to small and large companies. We don’t sell software. We don’t sell hardware. We can help you specify and negotiate all of that, but we just don’t do it. We’re focused on delivering the plans, policies and paperwork companies and other public groups need to be ready for anything.
Why not sell hardware or hosting?
That’s really just putting the fox in the hen house, isn't it? We want to focus on a strong work approach, solid listening, best-in-breed planning. That’s it. Most of our customers know what hardware they want, just not how to document or cost-justify it.
You’ve had some big clients.
Yeah. And some small ones, too. I’m proud of all of those jobs. We had a large financial clearing house call us back for training this year. It happens all the time. Return clients and satisfied clients are what has built our company.
What’s BAM’s reputation like?
Depends on who you ask, I guess. We disrupt a lot of big money firms out there because we don’t do the consult and sell shuffle. I like to hear what our customers have to say. They love us. I like to know, at the end of the day, that we’ve left our customers in a safer, less risky place and that there’s a legacy of success there.
We’ve been around for five years versus twenty, so people are learning about us and like what they hear. We have solid, reference clients in all the verticals.