In 2022, LMI underwent a significant organizational shift as it entered the for-profit arena after six decades as a federally funded research and development center. Now, two years later, Executive Mosaic spoke with LMI CEO Doug Wagoner to learn more about the company’s growth strategy, M&A opportunities, and core values as LMI taps into its next phase of expansion.
LMI’s work falls under three primary service lines: data analytics, logistics and management consulting. But going forward, those service lines will evolve into lines of business that are more closely aligned with LMI’s core capabilities.
“That’s how we organize our people, but it’s not necessarily how we go to market,” said Wagoner, a five-time Wash100 Award winner, in an exclusive video interview. “So instead of just talking about logistics, we talk about logistics and decision dominance. We talk about mission engineering — that’s a lot of the space work that we do. Human performance management is something that a lot of our management consultants do.”
“You’ll see us transition this year in really talking about the solutions that we bring and not necessarily how we’re organized. And I think it’s a lot clearer message to the marketplace,” Wagoner added. “And also having those lines of business well-defined makes it clear for us where our gaps are that we can fill that with M&A.”
A Glimpse Into LMI’s 2024 M&A Outlook
According to Wagoner, 2023 was an active year for LMI in the M&A arena, but the company didn’t find any assets that were a “perfect” fit. Wagoner expects this year to be different.
“This year, I think you’ll see us be more active and more successful in closing on M&A,” he told Executive Mosaic’s Summer Myatt. “And primarily, we will continue to lead with purchasing market access.”
Wagoner explained that LMI has strong capabilities that are in high demand in the current GovCon marketplace, and he believes the company can invest in itself to develop and expand those capabilities. But for the harder-to-penetrate markets, Wagoner said LMI will focus on M&A deals that will help the company gain access to those markets.
Healthcare and space are two markets LMI will continue to focus on, said Wagoner. And now, the company is looking to tap into the intelligence market too.
“A high priority for us is greater penetration into the intelligence space, where we have a presence now, but we want to expand it. We’re certainly looking for more access to the intelligence community,” he said.
LMI made its most recent acquisition last month, buying JJR Solutions to expand its technology modernization capabilities.
“JJR is that perfect storm of capabilities we want to double down on, customers that we need to penetrate greater and the geography we’ve thought about for a long time where we need a presence,” Wagoner told Executive Mosaic. “The cultural match couldn’t have been better.”
Watch Doug Wagoner’s video interview with Executive Mosaic for insights into LMI’s future, the state of the AI market, what’s next for space innovation and more.
