By his own count, Jack Murphy's company has reinvented itself four or five times over its lifetime, and as it celebrates its 25th year in business Myra Systems is on the cusp of doing it again.
And Murphy wouldn't have it any other way.
"I believe high-tech companies like us have a propensity to need to reinvent themselves probably every four or five years," said Murphy, the CEO of the mid-sized information technology firm. "Inside the 25 years we probably have four or five iterations of the company and we're actually working on a sixth."
Companies like Myra will tell you their size is the competitive advantage they have in the marketplace as it affords them the luxury of being nimble and flexible enough to adapt and evolve as the marketplace around them swirls with change.
That is the nature of the beast, according to Jack's wife, Barb Murphy, Myra's CFO. "The IT marketplace does that, it forces you to evolve, it dictates where the company goes -- the marketplace changes and as you see the change coming you think 'this is not going to work, so what now,' " she said, noting there is no time to sit idle in the business. "It evolves constantly so we have to continually change with it."
Myra has done just that.
Since Murphy formed the firm in 1985, he's seen it evolve from a government-focused support team for the Wang environment -- eventually taking on each evolution of operating system, database and network system the marketplace had to throw at it -- and into a company that develops, designs and operates the computer infrastructures that make up the backbone of governments and organizations.
Along the way the company even dabbled in developing its own applications, which saw it providing services to organizations like the CIA and the U.S. Army and a short-lived stint with other organizations within the intelligence community.
And through it all Murphy has tried to stick to his founding and guiding principle of improving the service delivery to customers, something he felt was lacking when he worked for B.C. Systems Corporation.
"I wanted to have more influence in terms of what I could deliver to my customer," he said.
But even for Myra, that has proved a challenge in recent years.
When the provincial government moved to a centralized buying procedure instead of individual agencies and ministries doing their own outsourcing, many smaller companies could no longer compete.
The jobs were bigger and that ruled out a number of small and medium-sized firms -- big companies got bigger to handle them while others downsized and looked to the private sector and smaller jobs or died altogether.
As a medium-sized firm Myra adapted. Again.
"We had to find new work by attaching ourselves to larger companies," said Murphy, noting they now partner with some of the largest IT firms to take on segments of the Crown contracts.
And the company diversified its exposure by attaching itself to a number of those large companies in a variety of areas.
Murphy also credits the company's staff -- which fluctuates between 50-60 people in Victoria and Vancouver offices with another 14 subcontractors -- with keeping business knocking on the door.
"That talent base we have has allowed us to more than survive," he said, noting other firms have recognized the quality under the Myra brand.
But surviving and feeding the bottom line does not appear to be Murphy's lone goal.
Cue the next evolution of the company, which ironically turns back time.
Murphy said the new government IT environment has effectively taken away customer interaction, which he believes sets his company apart.
"Our vision is to get back to what we had before. We want to get back to customer service which was lost with the methodology of the Crown, it's time to step back from that and move to a higher level of influence," he said.
To that end, the company has developed a business- consulting division, now a year and half old, that will work with organizations to develop their strategic plans.
Murphy believes Myra's expertise in IT will be a strong selling point to companies that require the design and implementation of a custom-built IT infrastructure.
And he's hoping that continued growth will allow he and Barb the space to take some more time away from the company to travel.
But there's a strong sense Myra is a tough place to leave for the couple, made even tougher given it's a family operation -- Jack's sister Pat Gibb and youngest son Crispin work there.
Their other son, Trevor, who had run Myra for a period when Jack was ill, has moved on to work for Hewlett-Packard.
"Whenever you lose someone as strong as Trevor it's a huge loss, I think HP got a great deal in him," said Murphy.
The Murphys admit a family business poses unique challenges, and balancing the question of family versus work is never easy. "We've certainly had our challenges," he said, though he was quick to point out they were always able to adapt and get past them.
That would surprise no one.
