8 questions with Greg Fritz

Greg Fritz, a cloud evangelist and acquisition manager in the Business Mission Area, supports the execution of the Army Chief Information Officer’s Cloud Computing Strategy.

Fritz supported two PEO EIS proofs of concept for migrating enterprise business systems to the cloud. “Thanks to visionary leadership in the Business Mission Area, several PEO EIS business systems are now hosted in the commercial cloud,” Fritz said. “The cloud is far more flexible and optimizable than maintaining systems in rigid legacy data centers. Cloud-native services truly are better, faster and cheaper in many cases, and Financial Operations provides tremendous opportunities for cost avoidance and savings through right-sizing, utilization management and Cost Savings Plans.”

Fritz embraces the Army’s People First priority. “It has always amazed me how much more productive a team can be when they share more than just tasks,” Fritz said. 

“Greg Fritz is humble, generous, sincere and wise,” said Rob Schadey, the Business Mission Area director. “Spending time with Greg makes you a better person. He sets an example for all of us to strive toward in life.”

Jeff Whetzel, a systems engineer, describes Fritz as a people person, approachable leader and problem solver. “Mr. Fritz always makes time to talk with his staff,” Whetzel said. “He helped my team overcome several challenges and is one of the most down-to-earth people I have had the pleasure to work with.”

The seventh-youngest of eight siblings, Fritz was born and raised in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, a factory town with a blue-collar work ethic. After graduating from West Point, he served in the Army for 23 years. He began his Army civilian career in 2004. A rock-solid leader and today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday, Fritz answered eight questions.

What inspired you to join the Army?
On July 4, 1975, I got to spend a day aboard the USS Nimitz, a Navy aircraft carrier, with my brother, a Marine Corps aviator.

I had just finished my sophomore year in high school. Watching fighter jets launch off the deck of an aircraft carrier knocked my socks off. It was like watching “Top Gun” live and in person 11 years before the movie was released. That was my first exposure to the military. On that day, I decided that I wanted to join the military. Finishing my final two years of high school, I studied hard to get good grades and participated in a lot of extracurricular activities to enhance my chances of admittance to a military academy.

Two years later, I was accepted at West Point, and I learned to love the vast opportunities and challenges of our nation’s largest and oldest military service, and I am grateful for the opportunities that the Army provided.

What is your top challenge at work?
There’s so much to do. A lot of it has never been done before. Our in-boxes and Teams chats are frequently overflowing with requests for guidance, support and answers about migrating and transitioning business systems to the commercial cloud. We encounter unique challenges almost daily.

What kind of behaviors do you seek from vendors?
Honesty. Be very straightforward in telling us how long it's going to take and how much it's going to cost. We'd much rather hear the cold-hard truth today than be strung along with promises that can't be met on schedule or within cost. Painting a rosy picture is gratifying in the short run, but a true partnership relies on trust built on pure, blunt honesty. 

What advice do you have for companies interested in working for PEO EIS?
Attend AFCEA Belvoir Industry Days and other monthly AFCEA Belvoir events. Follow PEO EIS on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Read the “PEO Perspective.” Explore the PEO EIS website to stay current on organizational changes and events.

Use the Request a Meeting webform on our website to meet and talk with us. It is important to explain the purpose of the meeting, so we can match the request with the right organization and people. That benefits both sides in focusing time and resources around a topic of mutual interest.

It’s too easy to slip into a we-they mentality, but it truly is all about teamwork. We all (military, government civilians and industry) must work together to deliver the best solutions to our Soldiers. That requires budgeting the time to stay connected and communicate routinely.

What does a good leader do?
A good leader communicates to the point of over-communicating and builds solid, multi-functional teams that work hard and play hard together.

A good leader is also a good manager — and understands the difference between the two. A good leader articulates a clear vision that vectors the team on their mission and objectives. A good manager devises methods to scale a ladder more efficiently, while a good leader has the vision and discipline to ensure that the team is scaling the right ladder to achieve their mission and objectives — not just any random ladder. A good leader doesn’t just blindly accept any task or that comes along without first calculating the impact on other tasks and missions. A good leader understands that resources are limited and that spreading resources too thinly only marginalizes what can be achieved on the most important tasks. It is far more important to work smarter, not harder, and a good leader prioritizes ruthlessly to stay focused on the mission and minimize distractions.

A good leader manages trade-offs wisely. Acquisition professionals often say, “Cost, schedule, performance: pick any two.” We seldom get everything we want. A good leader balances available resources against priorities and manages accordingly. In other words, a good leader has the courage and wisdom to state upfront: “We can deliver the 80% solution by this date, but if you require the 90% solution by then or the 80% solution sooner, it’s going to require these additional resources.” A good leader understands resource limitations and communicates what is realistically achievable, so the team can under-promise and over-deliver.

A good leader is serious about Army values. The Army, like any organization, is imperfect, but Army values give us an honorable standard for conduct and behavior. Working with Army professionals has been such an honor — working with people of character and conviction dedicated to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for our fellow citizens every day.

What is your proudest moment?
My greatest pride and satisfaction come from supporting the achievements of others, especially children. Doesn’t every parent burst with pride when a child learns to walk, swim, ride a bike, climb a rock wall, ice skate, ski or learn multiplication? In the workplace, my proudest moments are sharing in the accomplishments of teamwork. The Army is built on teamwork, and there is tremendous satisfaction in experiencing a successful contract award, a successful operational test and delivering new and better capability to Soldiers. Across the decades, there have been dozens of proudest moments. 

Who inspires you?
My parents are my greatest source of inspiration. They raised eight children in trying times and without all of the modern amenities that we enjoy today. They lived through challenging times, including wars and the Great Depression.

Mom was quite busy raising eight children, but loved and cared for each of us as if we were an only child. Dad frequently worked as many as three jobs. He had a daytime job in the factory. In the evenings, he sold and managed insurance policies. On Saturdays, he verified weights and measures for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He would go to a gas station and pump a gallon of gas into a measured gallon container to make sure that the gas pumps were pumping an actual gallon of gas, and customers were not getting shorted. He would go to a grocery store and put weights on their scales to make sure that when you bought a pound of meat, you actually got a pound of meat.

My parents were all about tough love. Their values and lessons live on, crystal clear, in my brothers and sisters and our children and grandchildren. They were great parents and great people. Whatever good is in me is 100% attributable to my parents. There is an old saying that bad habits are easy to learn but hard to live with, while good habits are hard to learn but easy to live with. My parents instilled good habits and a solid work ethic in me long before I joined the Army. And those habits made me the person that I am today. 

How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as someone who not only made PEO EIS a better place to work for our colleagues, but also made it more accessible for industry outreach and more effective in accomplishing our vital mission — supporting every Soldier every day around the globe.

In my 17 years at PEO EIS, I brought my best to the workplace every day, and I am grateful for the honor of serving with humble professionals of solid character for that entire time.