Raised with his sisters by their single mother near the shores of Long Island, Tom Daly’s narrative is emblematic of perseverance, leadership, and a drive for excellence. As the Founder and CEO of Ridgeback Business Solutions, Tom’s trajectory offers a testament to a life lived in service, a commitment to values, and a passion for crafting a legacy.
Tom’s early forays began in the high plains of West Texas. Fresh out of high school, he joined the US Air Force, channeling his skills into surveying and drafting. But the Texan winds were just the prelude as the desire for further education took over and brought Tom to the State University of New York at Cortland where he earned his degree, played football and earned a commission in the Marine Corps.
The Marine Corps called, and Tom answered. His tenure saw him delve into a myriad of roles – from an infantry officer and reconnaissance officer, to an officer recruiter in picturesque upstate New York, as well as an instructor at the prestigious Amphibious Warfare School where he taught Operational Planning. Deployments took Tom across many global terrains. From the jungles of Panama, to cold weather training with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces, along with “building character” while traversing across the mountains of Korea with the ROK Marines. Tom especially enjoyed his time deploying with the elite ranks of the US Army Rangers and Navy SEALS. Tom’s military tales are vast and varied and great to hear over coffee or a drink.
Each assignment and deployment brought with it lessons – not just of strategy and skill, but of core values. Tom’s military experiences underscored the importance of focus and instilled in him principles of integrity, trust, service, and commitment. As a leader, Tom’s ethos was simple – always be focused on the mission at hand, and success would follow.
As the millennium approached in 1999, Tom transitioned from his successful military career to “civilian life” so he could spend more time with his family as his children grew. Entrepreneurial ventures also beckoned, and Tom, with his innate acumen, took to them seamlessly. He helmed the role of President at a holding company and over the years ventured into a number of diverse businesses, two of which he continues to own today.
2016 marked the inception of Ridgeback Business Solutions. Recognizing the burgeoning demand for talent, Tom pivoted Ridgeback’s focus in 2022, rebranding the core service as Ridgeback Recruiting. This refocus underscored his belief in the significance of ‘being hungry for success.’
One anecdote that resonates with Tom’s business philosophy emanates from Eastern Kenya in 1994. On a sun-drenched day, while driving in his Humvee, Tom and his driver encountered a local villager on a remote dirt road. In the midst of their conversation, Tom voiced his concern about lions in the area with this villager being about 5 miles from his village. Tom’s query led to an illuminating reply, “There’s just one lion in the area. He’s only dangerous when hungry, and he ate last night.” This Kenyan wisdom ultimately encapsulated Tom’s ethos: to be genuinely effective, one must be perpetually hungry.
Today, Tom Daly and his wife have five children and 10 grandchildren. Tom has also built a legacy of service, of values, and of an unyielding pursuit of excellence. These traits are the true spirit and focus of Ridgeback Business Solutions.
Without integrity, there cannot be trust and building trust with our clients is our number 1 priority.
Providing superior service to our clients is paramount. The service we provide is a reflection of our company
Through determination and tenacity, we always strive to achieve superior results.
Earning our clients trust is the greatest compliment we can receive.
If we take on a client, they have earned our loyalty and we then become their biggest advocates.
Our Mission at Ridgeback Businesses Solutions is to help America’s business owners grow and prosper. We’re able to do so by focusing on three core area’s:
We help build great teams – by becoming an extension of our clients talent team, we can help identify their needs, then go out and find the best talent to meet those needs.
We help increase our clients revenue by improving their lead generation through highly focused video and social media marketing.
We help our clients improve their leadership teams by building succession pipelines and leadership development programs. These programs are highly focused on identifying great military veteran leaders who have transitioned to the corporate world and are looking for great organizations to lead others.
Value Proposition – We are firm believers in “capabilities tell but benefits sell” so its always important know the benefits that makes us different.
In this segment, Tom Daly, Founder of Ridgeback Business Solutions explains HOW Ridgeback helps its clients build great teams.
Tom how does your company work?
“Well, whether it was my days in the Marine Corps or those days as a high school cross country coach, everything we did was focused around perfecting the basics. From there, built upon that strong foundation and progressed very, very well. But what I’ve seen over the past twenty-two years since I retired Marine Corps is that most places in the corporate world don’t properly address the basics and therefore, don’t have great teams.
So, what we do at Ridgeback is totally focused around helping our clients find the great talent that will allow them to build those great teams.”
So, Tom how do you do that, how does that work?
“We are primarily focused in two areas. One is, we are very process oriented. We follow an eight-step process that allows us to take our clients input and then apply it every step of the way to make sure we’re achieving what the client is looking for.
Secondly, we leverage a very, very, strong network. We are part of a team of over a thousand network recruiters that help each other achieve success in each other’s searches. Those one thousand + recruiters have access to over five million candidates that fit every type of need company could imagine.”
Tom, what makes your company so different?
“That’s such a great question and I think the answer might surprise you. Years ago, I learned a very important lesson when I was a young recruiter. I was recruiting for the Marine Corps officer programs, and I was able to successfully recruit a Harvard Law Student. Many said he’ll never commit to go to OCS and then I finally got him to sign the papers and commit himself to the Marine Corps. He was very excited, so I asked him what caused him to consider the Marine Corps law programs instead of the other opportunities he had. He simply explained that beyond the tremendous opportunities the Marine Corps offered, I listened to him. He then commented how he told me his wife’s name (a very tricky name) and that I was the only person that remembered it and properly pronounced it.
I was really astounded by that, and my lesson was to make sure to just listen to what people say and address what’s important to them.
At Ridgeback, everything we do now just focuses on listening to our clients’ needs and make sure we fully understand and address them.
So our 8-step recruiting process ensures that every step of the way, we ask ourselves if this is what the clients are looking for. If it’s not, then we go back a step and make sure we refine our approach so that it is.”
What an amazing story, Thank you so much. Tom Daly the founder of Ridgeback Recruiting, a company devoted to recruiting the right personal to building best teams.
Incredibly grateful to Tom in sharing his story with me about his military experience, both in the Air Force and Marine Corps, and how he has developed his skills in his post-military pursuits. One of the many things we spent time discussing was the importance of earning trust and that relationships are built through relationships. Ultimately, how trust is the foundation of great relationships.
How do we leverage the tools that were engrained in us to win wars, once we lose the rank, uniform, and military prestige? After 19 years in the Marine Corps on the cusp of being promoted to Lt. Col. Tom had to make a decision, luckily he knew how to leverage the tools and resources gained while serving to create economic value in the marketplace that would come to be Ridgeback Business Solutions. Ready to see the resources and tools you didn’t even knew where right in front of you, that make the biggest difference in assessing, deciding, and acting in life after the uniform? Check this episode out!