Partnerships | The Contracting Education Academy

December 27, 2018 By AMK

Three competing options for acquiring innovation

The DoD’s technological edge is eroding.

Since 2015, the department has pursued a strategy to regain the lead. During the Obama administration, it was called the Third Offset. The Trump administration has abandoned that nomenclature, but it is pursuing the same objective.

The DoD seeks dominance in robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and three-dimensional printing, among other fields. It recognizes, however, that such innovation will not come from the usual sources — government labs or the defense industrial base.

Nondefense firms have a decisive lead: The center of gravity in cutting edge, military applicable research is shifting abruptly away from the defense establishment to relatively new commercial firms. The DoD must engage with these nondefense firms to build the next generation of weapon systems. But how should it do so?

Two decades ago, defense economists David Parker and Keith Hartley, mapped the options for procurement along a continuum. On the far left, managerial diktat determines sourcing, and prices have little role in the process. On the far right is a fully competitive market, where the “relationship between buyer and supplier is transitory, non-committal beyond the current purchase, and arm’s length”; between these extremes are, from left to right, subsidiary purchases, joint ventures, partnerships, networks, preferred suppliers, and adversarial competition.

Keiran Walsh, Yale professor of economics, distilled these options down to three:

[T]here are three basic ways of getting people to do what one wants done. One can force them to
behave as one wishes them to. One can give them a set of incentives that aligns their interests with
one’s own. Finally, one can try to shape the values that they hold so that they will naturally want to
do what you wish them to do.

Walsh’s three alternatives, Parker and Hartley explain, correspond to coercion, competition, and long-term partnering. Of course, the same option needn’t be chosen for every procurement, and perhaps different alternatives may work better in some cases than in others. But the DoD must choose from these options as it determines how to buy innovation from nondefense commercial suppliers and perhaps should identify a default that works best in most cases.

Keep reading this paper at: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/ASPJ/journals/Volume-32_Issue-4/V-Schoeni.pdf

November 24, 2015 By AMK

‘If I knew then …’

This is part of a recurring series sponsored by Federal Times, where former federal leaders reflect upon the lessons learned since leaving government.

If you knew then what you know now … How would you have partnered with industry differently?

When agency needs arise, in order to ensure fairness and equitable consideration, lengthy and detailed requirements are crafted and sent to the industry. However, this often leads to bad outcomes. In order to mitigate protest risks, requirements are increasingly specific and fixed, but they leave very little if any room for industry to offer alternate, compelling approaches to solve the stated problems. As a result, many innovative and compelling solutions don’t even make it past the first gate, and the government suffers as a result. It also reinforces a cycle of inertia, whereby since government employees don’t see those innovative solutions, they keep asking for what they know, and as a result, continue to get the same traditional approaches and solutions.

If I had to do it over again, I would find ways to re-think how government partners with the industry.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/management/agency/2015/11/16/if-knew-then-sonny-hashmi/75721794/

November 10, 2013 By AMK

Business counselors receive Academy’s instruction on managing a government contract successfully

How unusual is it for a business to put more time into winning a government contract than planning to manage one?

The answer to this question — unfortunately — is that, all too often, contractors give little thought to planning for contract performance. Because of this, some contractors run into contract performance problems and end up damaging relationships with government agencies as well as spoiling their chance to win follow-on contract work.

To address this problem, The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech (The Academy) designed a four-hour workshop entitled, “Establishing Partnerships with the Government.” The workshop was presented for the first time on November 10, 2013 in Washington, DC.

More than 125 counselors from procurement technical assistance centers (PTACs) across the country attended this training. The workshop was held in conjunction with the fall training conference of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC).

PTACs are funded, in part, by the Defense Logistics Agency to provide counseling and assistance to businesses seeking to compete successfully in federal, state and local government contracting. Ninety-eight PTACs — with over 300 local offices — form a nationwide network of dedicated procurement professionals working to help local businesses in the government marketplace.

The Academy’s workshop instruction was complemented by a 121-page manual produced by The Academy exclusively for APTAC members as well as a special web page where contract administration and training resources are available for download.

Student Guide — Workshop participants received a detailed manual, access to a website, and other resources developed exclusively by The Academy.

The Academy has conducted training for APTAC before. “We were honored to once again conduct training for the elite corps of PTAC counselors who advise businesses about government contracting,” stated Donna Bertrand, The Academy’s program manager. “PTAC counselors provide vital assistance to businesses, especially small businesses, nationwide.”

In designing the workshop and the printed manual, the Academy’s curriculum development team analyzed the entire federal contract post-award process and selected those elements most critical to the success of businesses engaging in government contract work. The Academy’s team then developed the training workshop and materials designed to assist PTAC counselors in their work with those businesses.

Of special value to the trainees is a special pocket guide distributed during the workshop. Entitled “30 Tips for Successful Completion of a Government Contract,” the pocket guide consists of 30 one-page tips that they can pass along to their clients.

The Academy’s instructor, Kathy Cames, was pleased to share her knowledge of the government contracting process with the PTAC counselors. “My goal,” she said, “was to provide insights and practical experience to PTAC counselors so they can provide good advice to their clients in advance of winning a government contract. After all, it can be too late to plan after winning a contract.”

125 PTAC counselors received expert instruction from The Academy's senior instructor Kathy Cames. — 125 PTAC counselors from across the country gathered in Washington, DC to receive expert instruction from The Academy’s senior instructor Kathy Cames.

In all, The Academy presented 13 specific “PTAC Tools” during the workshop — each designed to educate PTAC counselors about a specific aspect of the FAR that is especially important to PTAC clients.

At the conclusion of the workshop, each attendee was presented with a certificate of completion and was awarded 0.3 CEUs from Georgia Tech.

Click on the image below to see the table of contents of the printed Guide which served as the outline for The Academy’s workshop:

September 12, 2013 By AMK

Recent criminal antitrust risks for government contractors

The business of government contracting is a high-risk, high-reward activity. Many contractors, large and small, relish the opportunity to profit while also directly providing critically needed products and services to the government.

That opportunity, however, comes with a risk many would-be government contractors may be unaware of: the increasing presence and aggressiveness of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in prosecuting bid-rigging, collusion, and price-fixing cases in this area. These criminal cases often result in jail time for the executives of these companies.

This article will focus on the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. §1), specifically the criminal antitrust considerations that government contractors face. The Sherman Act prohibits competitors from agreeing to fix prices or rig bids. A violation of the Sherman Act is a felony and may be punishable by a fine of up to $100 million and/or ten years in jail.

The implications of the Sherman Act are critical for government contractors to understand because of the unique aspects of their business. Also, these characteristics of the business of contracting with the government make the antitrust analysis more complex. This article will focus on recent cases in this area and the ramifications for contractors. The article will conclude with some practical tips for antitrust and government contract counsel.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=01a9b2bf-aeef-4e77-bde1-d044db69d68c

November 19, 2012 By AMK

For DoD, better buying demands high quality acquisition workers

The Defense Department’s acquisition workforce has recovered from the hacksaw cuts of the 1990s.

But that’s just in numbers, not in overall quality.

That is why DoD added the professionalism of the acquisition workforce as one of the seven focus areas under the Better Buying Power initiative version 2.

“Frankly, I think there is no more important legacy that any of us as managers can have than to leave behind a stronger workforce than the one we inherited. That is what this is all about,” said Frank Kendall, the under secretary of defense for acquisition technology and logistics, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012 during a press conference at the Pentagon. “We have a lot of very capable people in the workforce. We have a lot of very professional people, but we could be better and we could have a deeper bench.”

Since 2001, DoD increased the number of acquisition workers by more than 30,000, to 151,000 from 129,000. In the last three years alone, DoD added more than 26,000 new acquisition workers — a 20 percent increase — according to DoD’s acquisition workforce website.

Keep reading this article at http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3118630/For-DoD-better-buying-demands-high-quality-acquisition-workers–

The DoD’s technological edge is eroding.

This is part of a recurring series sponsored by Federal Times, where former federal leaders reflect upon the lessons learned since leaving government.

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