Since John Guillaume became CEO and president of Greensboro, North Carolina-based Dynamic Quest, in November 2023, he has advocated for candor, client empathy, and a relentless focus on clarity of purpose. Founded in 2000, the size of the company has increased by about 4x in the last six to seven years. More recently, it has experienced double-digit growth in recurring revenue. In this Q&A, Guillaume shares the key questions MSPs should be asking to deliver service excellence, why financial metrics alone don’t tell the whole story, and how clarity, orchestration, and hard work—not hacks—can help MSPs grow stronger, more resilient businesses.
MSP Success: What are the top three growth indicators you use to measure your company
and why?
John Guillaume: Things like revenue growth, EBITDA, and gross margin. Those are the commonly used financial metrics. But financial metrics are a funny thing. They are the outcomes of the work you put in. We also measure several metrics to determine how we’re doing, where we’re heading, and are we going in right direction.
Operationally, are we servicing our clients effectively? Are we delivering services they’re happy to use? To understand that we measure at a more granular level; things like first contact resolution and overall problem resolution rates, outstanding tickets as a percentage of overall tickets, and mean time to repair.
We can have a preconceived notion of what we think we are delivering but that may not be the case. Developing empathy with our clients is one of the most empowering things I can do as CEO because it gives me context and perspective on what we’re really doing.
I always encourage candor. If they’re not happy with something, I want to know. You probably want to take [that feedback] to your team and ask, ‘What’s the root cause of this?’ We’re not in the business of playing Whack-a-Mole. That’s a terrible strategy. It lacks operational maturity and we don’t solve the problem–we just make it go away for a week. Now, you can solve it for other customers. That’s the beauty of listening one on one.
MSP Success: You became CEO and president in 2023. What is one key secret to your success over the past year or so?
Guillaume: There are no hacks. It’s hard work with clarity and purpose. I joke with my team that work is a four-letter word—sometimes it’s rewarding, sometimes you hate it. But work with clarity and purpose. When you have that right combination you can define a path forward so you’re not spending cycles on something that ultimately doesn’t matter. Have a clear understanding of your vision, who you want to be as a company. It is important we all embrace it because it does act as a North Star when you make decisions.
MSP Success: What were your biggest challenges this past year related to growth?
Guillaume: In the services business—whether it’s your sales team, account management team, service desk, security operations team—it’s easy to be insular. Any one group being awesome doesn’t mean the total experience will be awesome. So it’s important that those items are orchestrated in a way to be able to deliver a holistic experience the customer will feel more broadly. That orchestration is always the hardest part. Everything is connected in the services business; it’s not just the core experience you provide. That is always one of the hardest things to do at a very high level. That’s what we aspire to do. It’s continuous improvement, orchestration, and delivery of an experience to a customer. Siloed teams is a non-starter. We have to work together.
MSP Success: What is the top lesson you’ve learned that has been instrumental to your company’s growth?
Guillaume: Understanding the organization’s ability to embrace and deliver change. As CEOs we often have something in our head but it’s not necessarily tangible or palpable for the rest of the team. It’s important the employees of Dynamic Quest understand what’s in my head and where we want to go and how to articulate that. Change can only happen if you understand what you aspire to be and achieving clarity on that is really important.
Everybody in the company should understand how they’re contributing to the overall success of the business. We try to do that with what we call Management by Objective. All our MBOs are measurable so we can connect a person’s success and improvement to the company’s overall success instead of them feeling like just a cog in the wheel. As leaders, you have to help guide them and reassure them that these are targets that contribute meaningfully. If they’re hitting them, great. If they’re not, coach them and try to set them up for success.
If you’re looking for growth and high performance, I always ask the question, “Does this process even need to exist?” Let’s not try to optimize something that shouldn’t exist. That is a waste of time. What can we be doing to deliver on that client promise and our vision and long-term goals?
MSP Success: What advice would you give to other MSPs looking to grow their businesses?
Guillaume: Have clarity on what you want to become, then map out midterm goals and break those down to near-term goals and take baby steps every month, quarter, and measure everything. How do you know if you’re making progress every month?
I’ll talk to an employee a few times a month. That candor I hear helps me understand if I’m doing a good job as CEO. It gives you opportunities to get a pulse on the organization. This is a team sport business. That couldn’t be more true in the IT services space, so embrace the team.
