Project 38: The Future Of Federal Contracting

Don't sell small town America short. In this episode, Brendan Walsh from 1901 Group talks about how today's tech revolution is creating an opportunity to build a successful business in rural America. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic became a large-scale technology and business disrupter, the Fourth Industrial Revolution was underway with growing adoption of technologies around the Internet of Things and cloud computing. What COVID-19 did was throw gasoline on a fire that was just starting to burn. Walsh, 1901 Group's senior vice president of partner relations, explains to Editor Nick Wakeman how the pandemic has accelerated this revolution and how a great business opportunity awaits in small towns and rural areas across the country.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced agencies and companies to field a dispersed workforce that relies on technology to stay productive and connected. In this episode of Project 38, Gary Hix of Hitachi Vantara Federal discusses how much those change could be permanent. As the company’s chief technology officer, Hix keeps a close eye on the IT challenges government agencies face now and the emerging challenges they'll face in the future. Hix also wears the hat of a solution architect to help customer visions become a reality. In his view remote work does not mean easier work and particularly when it comes to company culture, as he shares with Washington Technology Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers. Different skills and cadences are needed when employees are dispersed -- one of many lessons agencies and contractors need to learn about today’s environment to be successful in tomorrow’s.

NCI Information Systems is navigating its way past some headwinds with a focus on artificial intelligence solutions and a move away from low-price contracts. In another of our Top 100 podcasts, CEO Paul Dillahay tells Editor Nick Wakeman where the company sees its future opportunities and some early signs of success along with challenges he sees on the horizon.

The last month has brought more than its share of important news for government contractors as well as their agency customers. In this Project 38 podcast a panel of leading journalists discuss some of the pressing topics of concern for the GovCon market. FCW Executive Editor Adam Mazmanian, Washington Technology Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers, and FCW Senior Editor Lauren Williams join WT Editor Nick Wakeman to discuss topics such as the latest activity around CMMC, the extension of the CARES Act and the looming possibility of a government shutdown in December.

In part two of our interview with Leidos' business development chief Roy Stevens, he talks about how the 2016 merger with Lockheed Martin's services business continues to pay dividends today and how more recent acquisitions are positioning the company for new opportunities. Even though Leidos is the No. 1 company on our Top 100, it sees a need to evolve and grow as the market changes. Stevens shares with Editor Nick Wakeman opportunities the company sees on the horizon, including the Asia-Pacific region to health care. The company continues to grow organically and through acquisitions, but Stevens also points to nimbleness and agility as at the center of many key strategic moves.

In this episode of Project 38, Nazzic Keene shares her thoughts and perspective after one year as CEO of Top 100 company Science Applications International Corp. Keene started the year with three priorities and she talks with Editor Nick Wakeman about how those priorities continue to drive the company forward, with some tweaks and adjustments of course. Keene also goes over the integrations of Unisys Federal and Engility, plus how COVID-19 is complicated everything. But through it all, she has guided the company with a focus on people and customers. SAIC has also scored some big wins, both recompetes and takeaways. This conversation explores how to balance the big wins with what she calls the smaller “bread and butter” contract awards.

In this episode of Project 38, we hear from top public sector executives at the 2020 Washington Technology Top 100’s three highest-ranked telecommunications firms on their work to keep government agencies and people connected during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost overnight, the COVID-19 situation created a vast dispersed workforce that sees many people based at home and all of them primarily using the same networks provided by the three largest telecom companies – AT&T, Lumen and Verizon – and others. That shift posed new questions around the networks themselves, cybersecurity and work culture that will last beyond on the end of the pandemic, whenever that is. These conversations with Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers reveal more on how the network providers worked with agencies to get ready quickly for a new working world and what that looks like today. Also up for discussion: the technology and business trends already shaping today’s environment that are accelerating and perhaps here to stay. Participa

In our continuing series of Top 100 related podcasts, Serco Inc. CEO Dave Dacquino explains how the company started laying the groundwork years ago for a monster 2019. Last year, Serco Group's U.S. subsidiary posted 20 percent organic growth and closed the $336 million acquisition of the Navy design business of Alion Science & Technology. But getting there required serious soul searching and a focus on changing the company’s culture that relied too much on low-price bids. Those moves helped the company land at No. 34 on the 2020 Washington Technology Top 100 rankings of the largest contractors in the government market. Dacquino and his team continue to look for deficiencies as the company looks to pursue more complex work. He shares with Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman how they have done that and is what next for the company.

Rarely does a blue chip defense hardware company close two deals it views as transformational in the same calendar year. In this episode of Project 38, BAE Systems Inc. Tom Arseneault explains the thinking for why the company moved quickly to put its best foot forward for a military GPS business and airborne radio unit formerly of Raytheon Technologies. The British defense company’s U.S. subsidiary has a lot on its agenda right now beyond integrating those acquisitions. Managing through the coronavirus pandemic remains a fluid situation with many moving parts, so Arseneault shares what the subsidiary known as “Inc.” internally has done on the supply chain and workforce front. While it too early to make firm conclusions, Arseneault sounds fairly certain that BAE as a company and the industry as a whole will have a different work cadence and environment in a post-pandemic world. Arseneault shares with Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers what BAE has done to take in everything it is learning now, plus how the compa

In this episode, Roy Stevens, executive vice president and chief of business development and strategy for Leidos, the No. 1 company on the Top 100, shares insights on how Leidos chased two of the biggest contracts of the year. The company pursued and won the $6.5 billion Global Solutions Management Operations contract or GSMO. Leidos was the incumbent on that one. They also successfully challenged the incumbent for the Navy’s $7.7 billion NGEN contract. That contract is still tied up in a protest but it is still worth exploring how Leidos chased that contract.

Companies in the government market always cast glances at the budget, but now they are zeroed in on whether they will see a key piece of legislation to help them manage through the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of Project 38, Kea Matory of the National Defense Industrial Association updates us on where the situation is regarding Section 3610 of the CARES Act economic stimulus law that expires Sept. 30. NDIA is one of the major trade groups that represents companies in the government market. As director for legislative policy, Matory tracks developments on Capitol Hill and helps government contractors make sense out of laws and policy that govern the industry. CARES Act Section 3610 lets contractors seek reimbursement from agencies if employees cannot get to their worksite because of a pandemic-caused closure or if COVID-19 directly impacts them. But as Matory explains, there is still ambiguity across industry on how to go through the process and especially if companies are considering the Paycheck Protec

As chief technology officer for Science Applications International Corp., Charles Onstott is constantly looking to understand new technologies and how they can be applied to customer problems. In this episode of Project 38, he explains some myriad ways the COVID-19 pandemic has become a trigger for innovation. The virus is changing how we work, the kind of health care services we need and even the business models government contractors adopt. All of these changes have a technology impact, from how vaccines are developed to the communications infrastructure we need to how data is collected and used. Onstott shares his views on where these trends might be headed and why companies need to be intentional about how they pursue new technologies and find new ways to apply existing tools.

Defense policy expert and attorney Samantha Clark explains the far ranging implications of a new rule that bans agencies from awarding contracts to companies using or selling telecommunications equipment from certain China based companies Clark, special counsel at law firm Covington and Burling, talks with senior staff writer Ross Wilkers to help understand what this new rule means and how government contractors are making sense out of it in this episode of Project 38. A former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer, Clark was a key player in driving the annual passage of the National Defense Authorization Act and this new rule stems from the 2019 edition of the NDAA. Much is still to be determined given how the so-called Section 889 provision is still fresh, but Clark explains how the rule came to be and how GovCon companies will adjust to its implementation.

Reporters from FCW and Washington Technology discuss the latest news including the cancellation of Alliant 2 SB, the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, and the direction Lockheed Martin's new CEO is taking the company. Ross Wilkers from WT and Lauren Williams and Mark Rockwell from FCW join host Nick Wakeman in a roundtable discussion of the latest news in the market. They dig beyond the headlines and share what stories are on their radar and why those stories are important to the government market.

The continuing acceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the simultaneous revival of diversity and social justice movements in the United States can be overwhelming. In this episode of Project 38, we attempt to distill what it all means with the help of Capitol Hill veteran and GovCon community leader Tonya Saunders. Saunders watches how policy sets the environment in which government contractors operate and how events in society often dictate policy as a government relations specialist and advocate for mid-tier firms. She is the founder and head of both Washington Premier Group and Mid-Tier Advocacy. While today’s ongoing events are a lot to take in, Saunders share her professional and personal experiences with Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers to help make some sense of what's going on and what the future might hold.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the defense industrial base through a stress test unlike any other but one that did have some groundwork laid before it. In this episode of Project 38, John Luddy of the Aerospace Industries Association explains what the sector was concerned about before the pandemic and what this national emergency has highlighted. AIA is one of the major trade groups that represents companies in the government market to federal agencies and lawmakers. As its vice president of national security policy, Luddy has his eye not just on member companies but how their government customers and the Defense Department in particular are managing through the crisis. Major questions remain to be answered and the funding environment remains a significant question mark, but Luddy walks us through the items that warrant consideration and what DOD has done so far to support cash-strapped companies in particular.

Deltek's annual Clarity report is a yearly snapshot of the industry that looks at people, processes and best practices in the government contracting industry. But in the midst of a pandemic that has turned the world of contractors and customers upside down, the report offers an opportunity to focus on what companies can do to improve and how they compare to their peers. Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman talks with Amy Champigny, Deltek’s senior product marketing manager and leader of the annual Clarity effort. She shares key takeaways from the report and areas of opportunity for the industry such as human capital strategies, how data can drive better decisions and IT and business development trends.

The conversation about diversity in the national security and overall public sector ecosystem goes through peaks and troughs, and the past month would certainly qualify as a peak period. Get a glimpse at how talk and action go hand-in-hand in this episode of Project 38 with Maggie Feldman-Piltch, founder and CEO of #NatSecGirlSquad. Feldman-Piltch lives and breathes the subject of what she and the consulting and networking firm call “competent diversity” and leadership to make that happen. Competent diversity to them means building a national security and defense workforce that is more resilient, capable and agile. Guidehouse worked with the Squad on a survey released earlier this year to ask members about the challenges they face in entering, working in and leading in national security. Feldman-Piltch discusses with Senior Staff Writer Ross Wilkers some of the broader trends and findings that illuminate what is happening on the ground floor, plus how to turn the conversation into action.

Successful companies have always had closely-aligned sales and marketing teams, but the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the usual way of doing business, creating a significant challenge across the market. Allan Rubin, head of marketing at ORock Technology and recognized expert in the field, shares how sales and marketing teams can stay aligned in a world where traditional activities such as live events and in-person networking have fallen to the wayside as everything has shifted to digital and virtual interactions. ​Alignment is critical for survival in today's market. In this interview, Rubin describes how teams need to collaborate and communicate as they make their way forward in this changing environment.

David Berteau sees the myriad ways the coronavirus pandemic from his perch as President and CEO of the Professional Services Council. In this episode of the Project 38 podcast, Berteau shares his thoughts on the health of the market and where it could go from here. PSC is the leading voice of government services companies to federal agencies and lawmakers. Those firms' services cover a broad swath of the market and as such, the impact of the pandemic has ranged greatly from company to company. But one common thread they all share has been how to manage the impact on employees. Major questions still remain to be answered and Berteau reviews these as the market looks at how it will arrive at a new normal and when that might be.