Charles Diggs is the Chief Executive Officer of Dynasafe. Passionate about making the world a safer, cleaner place, he initially joined Dynasafe in 2014 as Managing Director for the Americas, after destroying chemical weapons for the US Army as a contractor for over 11 years. Charles has also served as a contractor for destroying weapons for the US Army and as a Nuclear-Trained Mechanical Technician in the US Navy Submarine Service. In addition, he possesses an Associate of Science (Engineering) Degree and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Jacksonville State University.
Company: Dynasafe
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Charles Diggs: I am Charlie Diggs, the CEO of Dynasafe. I started destroying weapons shortly after leaving the US Navy and have been in the demilitarization business my entire career. I joined Dynasafe 11 years ago as the US Managing Director, then became the CEO of the company five years later. I then decided to invest in my passion and became the owner of Dynasafe in 2023.
Dynasafe is an international company with its main offices in Sweden, Germany, and the USA. We specialize in protecting the world from explosive hazards, which we do through three business units: Protection Systems, Demilitarization Systems, and After Sales.
Protection Systems contain explosive threats using containment vessels, also known as “Bomb Chambers.” If a suspicious package or identified explosive threat is found, it can be placed in the containment vessel and transported to a safe place to be dealt with.
Demilitarization Systems—We design the destruction equipment to destroy the munitions and energetics. We deliver a complete system, including the Off-Gas Treatment Systems. We deliver a turnkey plant and are responsible for everything from the input conveyor to the exhaust coming out of the stack.
After Sales provides wear and spare parts, maintenance, retrofits, and engineering support for our current plants that are in operation.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Charles Diggs: Dynasafe is the global leader in helping mitigate explosive threats posed to mankind through explosives containment and demilitarization. We also specialize in the steady destruction of obsolete explosives worldwide, which we achieve by engineering and delivering containment chambers, “bomb chambers,” and entire demilitarization facilities complete with off-gas treatment systems. Dynasafe’s team of world expert engineers have a curated interest in, and passion for making the world a safer and cleaner place, with each of them helping to save the earth from the after-effects of the catastrophic events of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Charles Diggs: I think that we are in a unique position. We are one of the few defense contractors that destroy munitions but do not make or manufacture weapons. This allows us to attract a particular type of team that believes in the mission of making the world a safer and cleaner place. In the Dynasafe Team, we all work together to focus on the client’s mission and take accountability for the sustainable success of our customers and our employees. Our employees are the most valued resource of the company and each one is considered integral to every success story. We rarely struggle with “quiet quitting” or other of these problems. Since our employees believe in the mission and embrace the core values of Dynasafe, the team themselves normally weed out these new hires quickly that do not meet the standard.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Charles Diggs: Our business is still mostly between people. We are looking at making our after-sales, particularly our wear and spare parts, an online shopping experience. We would like customers to be able to access their products online and select the parts needed. This will help our customers’ engineering team ensure they are getting the correct part. This is challenging with an entire plant, but it is a goal of ours.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Charles Diggs: Right now the challenge is the balance of hiring the right people but being able to scale when needed. Since we are mostly a project-based company, we are always concerned about scaling in both directions. With a specialized industry like ours, there aren’t engineers coming out of the university ready to build Protection and Demilitarization Products. We have to train them for several years. We are using two methods to combat this challenge. One is to standardize the equipment to the most extent possible. Every plant will have customization to the client but we maximize the standard model as much as possible. The second is to increase the predictable sustainable income, such as after sales. This provides us the cushion that we need for lower order time to retain the team that we will need for the new orders that will come.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Charles Diggs: I think that most people think that running a company is fancy dinners, networking, board rooms, and meeting with bankers, accountants, and lawyers. Although those are things that we do to run the company, it is mostly like any other position. You have your daily tasks and then you just solve problems. The difference is that the problems are usually tough. If you think about it, we recruit really smart team members, then put in the best management team possible, and then develop the best senior management team. If they cannot figure out the problem and it is on your desk, it is going to be a hard one.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Charles Diggs: I would like the ability to understand what everyone wants. That is the real superpower. What does the customer want and can we deliver that need or want? What do your partners want? What do your team members want? We spend most of our time developing all these relationships to determine what is important to everyone and seeing what we can deliver on needs or wants.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Charles Diggs: Success in 2025 means continuing another great year. We are developing into a great company. In the last several years, we have made several step changes in revenue. With each step, we have to develop ourselves to that level before we can take the next step. This means continuing our path of maturity while keeping the flat and fast-decision company that we are today.
