Inspiring the Business | Robert E. Joyce

Creating a “true north” that attracts followers is a virtuous cycle that, to be sustainable, must result from collaboration with the team. “The trick is to create the “true north” vision in such a way that it can be easily understood and emotionally appealing to both existing and potential followers.  As those followers grow, it further validates the power of the one “true north.” And the cycle continues to reinforce itself.” Armed with this vision, Robert has been taking the company to new heights.

Aperture’s vision tells their story: “we use science to shine the light on truth, improving the world one person at a time.” They are first and foremost scientists, and it is their role in society to apply that science in an unbiased fashion. They let the facts speak for themselves through their disciplined application of science, unconstrained by legal theories. “It is this rigorous and holistic adherence to science that enables us to support either a plaintiff or a defendant in a formal dispute resolution process. At times this may create a conflict with the legal theory our client seeks to pursue. And in those situations, we may have to step away as their expert,” explains Robert. “What separates us from the competition is this sacrosanct and un-bending approach to using science to shine the light on truth, not personal biases or legal theories.”

According to Robert, “we know that our clients have a choice amongst several service providers for forensic engineers. Accordingly, our goal must be the creation of the preeminent forensic engineering service delivery team in our industry, capable of providing an unvarnished, science-based expert opinion at the right time, and at the right value, to our clients.”

To that end, Aperture has adopted a three-pronged approach to the market:

1. Be the Employer of Choice.

  2. Be the Partner of Choice.

3. Unlocking economies of scale/ scope for their Partners that they could not unlock on their own.

Becoming the Employer of Choice means providing above-average remuneration opportunities for or teammates.  But more importantly, it means providing the requisite intellectual stimulation on a sustainable basis to create clearly understood career paths for everyone on the team. “We believe that our talent is the basis of our preeminent forensic engineering service and, accordingly, we have geared our business to this competitive advantage.”

Complimenting this approach is their Partner of Choice orientation. While they are developing their internal talent to meet the ever-increasing requirements of the clients, they are always looking to expand and augment their offer through the addition of world-class forensic engineering practitioners.  “Our Partnering approach in this regard differs significantly from some of our competitors. We are actively seeking

out partners who are 1) respected experts in their own right; 2) have built or managed a business over the long-term; 3) who care deeply about the ongoing success of their teams; and 4) who have a desire to continue to work with others to change the industry.” While competitors will seek to acquire standalone companies in the market to fill a block in their service line/zip code matrix, Aperture is actively seeking out like-minded partners who believe in something bigger than themselves. “We are not seeking out acquisition candidates, we are seeking out Partners in the truest sense of the word. We believe the intelligence and experience that our Partners share creates a much larger opportunity for exploring the “art of the possible” within our industry,” says Robert. 

Finally, collecting this expertise and experience allows Aperture to unlock the economies of scope and scale that would otherwise be unavailable to the Partners. Beyond the obvious purchasing benefits that can be achieved by aggregating demand for such items as software or health insurance, they also focus on economies of scale in their forensic engineering expertise. “By having more practitioners, we can create internal forums of sharing best practices across our teams. We can create common training programs to increase the value we collectively bring to our clients,” adds Robert. “And finally, we can aggregate the individual research initiatives within our Partners to create industry leading research across all our Partners.”

For the days to come, Robert and his team want to enable a client portal on their website to share information 24/7 seamlessly. “Our clients have told us that having this capability would greatly reduce their case administration workload. It is within mind that we have created an approach to “make our value visible” to the clients beyond the technical expertise we provide,” he explains. “While our ultimate work product for a client is our expert opinion should a dispute go to trial, we also understand that our clients have a tremendous amount of administration support required to progress a case to that point. Which is why we are working to extend the value of our service offer beyond the expert opinion by itself and seeking out additional ways to help our clients.”