Our Culture

The Rite Culture

Rite-Solutions was established as an employee-centric business to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to share in our collective success. The strength of our culture is evident in how we live and breathe as a company and how we engage with our employees and our customers day to day. Through our own award-winning innovations, like Mutual Fun® and our practice of mutual respect, collaboration, trust, integrity, creative thinking and outcome-focused behaviors, we deliver impressive results and exceptional value to those we are privileged to serve. This unique, award-winning culture enables us to leverage the “collective genius” of our team of engineers, technologists, scientists, and instructional designers to solve an enormous spectrum of technical and organizational challenges for our customers!

Creating an Innovative Climate Blog Series

In his blog series, beginning with the post Simple Steps to Creating an Innovative Climate in Your Organization, Rite-Solutions co-founder Jim Lavoie highlights the importance of company culture.

Based on the belief that developing meaningful relationships with employees allows a company to tap into the collective genius of the entire organization, Jim outlines eight steps used to develop an award-winning innovative culture at Rite-Solutions.

Rite-Solutions Employees are “One of F.E.W.”

Rite-Solutions was founded by friends who enjoyed working hard together. Though the company is bigger today, everyone on the Rite-Solutions team is still considered One of F.E.W. (Friends Enjoying Work). This is an integral component of our award-winning culture and how we achieve creative, innovative solutions for our customers.

Friends

We will remain loyal friends, working hard together toward a culture of community based on trust, mutual respect, and personal accountability.

Enjoying

We will continually grow and align our creative genius toward innovation in all our solutions, from management to delivered products and services.

Work

We will pursue exciting and meaningful solutions that create value for our customers and professional growth for our citizens.

Rite-Solutions Culture and Benefits Program

Learn about the unique Rite-Solutions culture and the best-of-breed benefits program offered by the company.

Our Culture is the Foundation of Our Award-Winning Company!

Rite-Solutions was founded on employee-centric principles that foster collaboration and innovation. Our unique culture has created an award-winning company based on mutual respect, caring, listening, trust, and integrity.

Our Founders

Twenty years ago, Jim Lavoie, Linda Lavoie, and Joe Marino set out to create a different kind of company. The three founders believed that cultivating meaningful relationships with employees would lead to better business performance compared to a command-and-control culture. Today, Rite-Solutions is a vibrant, creative, innovative organization with an enviable company culture.

Jim Lavoie

Jim is a CEO, leader, speaker, author, innovator, motivator, singer, and the creative genius behind Rite-Solutions. Jim helped Rite-Solutions become more than a fine technical operation. He also created a culture of fun, excitement, and “innovation every day” that is leading the industry in identifying thought-provoking concepts to inspire and challenge today’s “knowledge force.”

Jim served in the US Navy Submarine Force, worked at Electric Boat as an instructor, and joined A&T as a project manager. Jim’s unique leadership style helped him earn a promotion to Executive Vice President at A&T and President of a wholly-owned subsidiary called Integrated Performance Decisions (IPD).

Given Jim’s personal drive and vision of a “better way” for caring, nurturing, and leading people, it was inevitable that he would one day run his own company. So, in 2000, Jim founded Rite-Solutions. True to Jim’s dream, the company defies many tenants of the “norm” and seeks new and innovative ways to create relevance for its employees and customers.

Linda Lavoie

Linda Lavoie

Linda’s introduction to the Government Contracting world came in 1983 when she was fortunate to work for Analysis & Technology, Inc. She started in the Corporate office, where she learned from the best for four years. Linda then transferred to A&T’s DC office, where she spent seven more years on the government side.

On two occasions, A&T subsidiaries chose Linda to be the Chief Financial Officer. She continued to work for one of the subsidiaries, Integrated Performance Decisions, for another six years. When Anteon Corporation acquired A&T, the company promoted Linda to Vice President. But, watching a shifting culture was difficult. So, Linda decided to join Jim and Joe to help them realize their vision for Rite-Solutions.

Linda’s role at Rite-Solutions was to be a reminder that there are only two assets in a company: your employees and your customers. That principle always guided Linda’s decisions as CFO at Rite-Solutions.

Linda took great pride in providing transparency to the employees and customers regarding the operations at Rite-Solutions.  While Linda has transitioned away from the role of CFO, her decisions as a Board Member will always be driven by what is in the best interest of Rite-Solutions’ employees and customers.

Joe Marino

Joe Marino

Joe graduated from the University of Rhode Island (URI) with a BSEE and earned his MBA from the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Joe also was selected to attend the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development Program. In 2008, he was inducted into the URI Business Leadership Hall of Fame.

During that time, Joe served in the US Navy as a Communications Technician but earned most of his sea time with Electric Boat as an electrical engineer. In 1980, Joe began a long and successful career with Analysis & Technology, where he supported the Naval Undersea System Command (NUWC) in Middletown, RI. Under Joe’s watch, this operation grew to more than 350 people.

With his close friend and fellow A&T alum, Jim Lavoie, Joe formed Rite-Solutions, Inc. in 2000. Since then, Joe has served as President, CEO and is currently the Chairman of the Board, where he continues to be engaged in the company’s strategy and culture. His legacy is building a solid foundation for its continued success, based on meaningful relationships with employees and clients, into the future.

Q & A

For starters, the “rite” culture makes work fun! We spend much of our waking time with co-workers. We should enjoy that time together. (See the One of the F.E.W. section above about Friends Enjoying Work). The “rite” culture can also produce a number of benefits for the organization, such as improved recruiting, retention, employee engagement, collaboration, productivity and innovation. It’s a proverbial win-win for everyone!

We truly believe in the value of cultivating meaningful relationships with employees as a way to tap into the collective genius of the organization. People at Rite-Solutions don’t just punch the clock—what we call a transactional relationship. Employees genuinely feel that they are an important and valued part of our organization where they can thrive. Culture is one part of the company that is driven top-down. It’s the reason the founders started the company. Culture is not an “add on.” It is part of the fabric of the company.

Yes! Not only is it how things are at Rite-Solutions it is who we are. We have gone to great lengths to find others that share our vision—this goes to the highest levels of the company. This is not merely about “buy-in.” It’s about advocacy. Rite employees know that culture is the top priority of our founders and are comfortable about raising issues, if needed.

Once a culture of caring is established, bright, motivated people will naturally look for ways to make things better. When people feel trusted, valued and they are encouraged to engage, wonderful things happen. Innovation is not something reserved for the boardroom. Creative ideas come from all corners of the organization! The “rite” culture will foster what we call an innovative climate.

The puzzle presentation is something we share with new employees. It makes the distinction between a transactional relationship and the meaningful relationships that we want to have with all employees. The puzzle presentation maps what the organization is committed to doing for employees (trust, listen, reward…) and what the expectations are of employees (care and contribute to our future…). Each of these steps is mapped in a blog post series authored by Jim Lavoie.

We have several teams that ensure our company culture remains relevant to future generations such as the Culture Team and Voice of the People Team. In addition, Senior Management is evaluated each year on their role in keeping our culture alive and active, which includes an anonymous survey that employees participate in.

The three founders, with extensive experience in typical top-down organizations, wanted to start their own company based on three fundamental precepts that are, two decades later, still core components of our culture:

  • Work should be more fun (basis of our F.E.W. principle)
  • The company should be more like a community than a corporation (more in line with our experience in every other facet of life)
  • Good ideas can come from anywhere (no one is smarter than everyone), hence an organizational design that is not based on a strict chain-of-command mentality

The “Friends” part of F.E.W. means that each of us is responsible for the well-being of our co-workers. If we see someone struggling, we have a duty to reach out and help in some way. It is our version of “See something; Say something.” While we strive to make the work environment as enjoyable as possible, we do not lose sight of the fact that it is work and we owe our clients our full attention to their needs.

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