Alex DerHovhannessian

Avoid 🛑complacency, hubris, and apathy, so you don't catch the dreaded "#incumbentitis" for your current #govcon work. For all your recompetes in the back half of📆 2024 and beyond, get some fresh perspective on how your competitors can beat you. Do yourself a favor, look in the mirror 🪞, have an honest assessment of your contract performance📊, dust off your old proposal, and the debrief... And throw🗑️ all that out! Or have #artificialintelligence write 📝your proposal for you. Think 💭about how your competitors can beat you on technical and price, based on the original criteria, and your knowledge of where the effort is going. Plant the seeds 🌱 NOW with your customer to influence the evaluation criteria to your favor to better protect your turf. Talk 🗣️to your staff and have a game plan on retaining your high performers, tap into their insights into challenges and opportunities with the customer, and figure out who else is #recruiting them. While it’s OK👍🏼 to make mistakes, it’s uber important to 💡LEARN from them. And GROW 📈with your customer as they pursue their mission and your #govcon company monetizes your government contact. Before it’s time ⌚to recompete for YOUR hard earned work, consider getting outside expertise and unbiased opinions to develop a gameplan BEFORE the new opportunity drops… Oh and #pricing. Figure out how to get lean and mean if LPTA or ensure that your technical proposal will be rated HIGHER 🔝than your competitors so you can get a price premium with your 🏆award. Companies looking for any unbiased #proposal or pricing help, please contact📨our experts at SGA Strategic Growth Advisors. Make it a great day and keep your head up, eh 👊🏼

6

This week in Fortune, I shared my thoughts about the critical need for a “peace through speed” approach in our national security strategy.    In this new era of great power competition, maintaining our technological edge is paramount. The United States must embrace a whole-of-nation approach, leveraging the private sector’s ability to innovate swiftly and effectively. The future will be defined by our agility in communications, cyber, AI, and other emerging technologies.   Booz Allen Hamilton is committed to fostering deeper collaboration between industry and government to accelerate innovation cycles. This isn’t just about keeping pace; it’s about setting the pace. Our national security depends on our collective ability to iterate quickly, scale fast, and work together differently.   U.S. businesses need to play a pivotal role in this transformation. By prioritizing national security, making proactive investments, and co-creating solutions across traditional boundaries, we can ensure that our nation and our democratic values remain resilient and secure.

465

18 Comments

Recently my colleague, Charles Kozel was asked how he saw #predictiveanalytics supporting the mission of #VeteransAffairs. Watch to see how we can use data to get better #outcomes for #Veterans!

39

Is your organization incentivizing innovation and creating an entrepreneurial culture? If so, how? If not, why not? Would love your thoughts and input! #Outcomesdelivered #GovernmentInnovation #Innovation

22

1 Comment

Sharing my last reflection after attending #ATD24 on behalf of Clarity Consultants. Was thrilled to see some of the great work that Booz Allen Hamilton is doing with their internal capability academies in their session, "A Guided Workshop on How to Launch a Capability Academy", led by Jason Jury and Li-Ming Yang. Some highlights from the session: 💎 The evolution of corporate learning over the past 25 years (as very nicely illustrated below). 💎 The emerging technologies that have become critical capabilities for so many organizations, and the importance of scaling these internally in a way that supports your organization's culture and business outcomes. 💎 Understanding that valuable capability building includes elements of learning, application, and networking among peers. Did you attend this session at #ATD24? Let me know your takeaways in the comments! #ATD #CorporateLearning #LearningandDevelopment #Learning #Training #CapabilityBuilding #JustAddClarity

11

6 Comments

Newbies...start following Luke Nascimento for how to tips for using Government tools to aid your Federal marketplace research.

17

1 Comment

Friday inspiration: This article demonstrates an important mindset change when thinking about the attraction, retention and development of talent. ✅ Employers are asking deeper questions about how universities prepare all students for the future of work instead of depending on a legacy reputation alone. ✅ They value a more diverse applicant pool and those with prior work experience. ✅ They are leveraging new ways to find talent (necessitated during the pandemic) vs. going after the same pool as everyone else. This allows employers to consider applicants from a wider slate of colleges and universities where they have found high quality hires in the past. Whatever background and skills they might be missing become a part of their professional development plan. This is truly how you win the war for talent. I am impressed by the case studies highlighted from PwC, Bank of America, and Booz Allen Hamilton. This will be even more important as employers seek out graduates with an appropriate level of AI and data literacy to be successful across job categories. My feed is full of amazing champions on both sides of the talent supply chain demonstrating a commitment to make sure that no one gets left behind. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation #talentpipelinemanagement #supply #demand #techtalent #diversityintech #ailiteracy #dataliteracy #leadership Thanks for sharing Joe Rohner!

3

Last week I asked what was the top factor, in your opinion, that will impact AI adoption in the DoD and IC. The options were quality data, lack of skilled talent, senior leader buy-in and middle management buy-in. No surprise to me that of 18 poll responses, 50% picked lack pf skilled talent as the main challenge to AI adoption. What was a surprise is that senior leader buy-in and middle manager buy-in tied for the second biggest challenge. Both received 22% of the votes. Lack of data quality was a distant fourth with 6% of the vote. Lack of data quality coming in fourth is of interest because most of the CDAO speakers talk a lot about data quality as an important effort and goal of the DoD. However, the responses to this question (while limited) tell us that AI adoption is a PEOPLE issue. Thanks for your participation. FedLearn

3

1 Comment

Key Factor for DoD Projects: Understanding the Importance of Labor Supply Why Labor Supply? When it comes to defense projects, the demand for specialized skills and clearances is non-negotiable. The availability of a skilled and credentialed workforce can make or break the operational capabilities of any facility. From engineers to IT specialists and security personnel, each role is crucial and requires a specific set of skills and certifications. Strategic Site Selection Choosing a location isn’t just about land and logistics; it’s fundamentally about people. Before committing to a new site, we rigorously analyze the local and regional labor markets to ensure there is a sustainable supply of qualified workers. This often means looking beyond current statistics and forecasting future educational and training trends. Building Local Partnerships Engaging with local educational institutions and training centers is crucial. By fostering these relationships, we can help shape curriculums and programs that not only benefit the community by providing job opportunities but also create a reliable pipeline of talent tailored to meet the unique needs of defense projects. The Bottom Line For anyone considering where to locate their next defense-related operation, our advice is clear: prioritize your labor supply strategy. Understanding and integrating into the local workforce ecosystem is not just a good practice—it’s essential for long-term success. Looking to expand or establish new operations? Let’s connect and discuss how to strategically navigate your next site selection to ensure access to the best talent available. https://ow.ly/6UK250RnbCe #DefenseIndustry #SiteSelection #WorkforceDevelopment #LaborMarket #StrategicPlanning

3

Happy ☺Fri-YAY! So I received a text this morning from an old SXE 📈 (now CGI) colleague. IYKYK 👊🏼 This person inherited my old >$100M 💰annual U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs #govcon portfolio and knew the quality of my work and relationships with those contracting officers. This was before I even did #pricing 💸for companies. Anyhow, this person told me that they were Google-ing pricing and read an great 💡article... And I wrote 📝it. Made my day 😊 The article was an explainer that I had written ✍🏼through the encouragement of Kim Koster of Unanet about #wrap rates; what they mean for companies and their importance to pricing your job(s) correctly. Please contact me at Strategic Growth Advisors if you need any assistance with your pricing needs. Whether you need to better understand your wrap rates or justify that your rates are ⚖ "fair & reasonable," our team can help out companies at any stage of their business journey. Make it a great day out there ✌🏼

19

1 Comment

Want to help shape the future of USAspending.gov? When preparing to release new features, USASpending.gov's team conducts user testing sessions to ensure they are creating the features you need! If you are interested in participating in one of their regular testing sessions, send a message to USAspending.Help@fiscal.treasury.gov. Include the info below in your email: ▶️ My familiarity with federal spending processes and data is [low, medium, or high]. ▶️ I use USAspending [almost never, sometimes, often]. ▶️ My professional background is […].

11

Finishing up the first day of Summit Consulting, LLC leadership training with Kaye Burton on making Scrum work within the Federal government context. Reach out for more information if your team or organization would benefit from this specialized Scrum training for Federal government contracts! #scrum #agile #government

49

1 Comment

To win federal best value tradeoff proposals and win government contracts, you need to have the best and possibly the most strengths (Strength-Based Winning®). This class sets the framework for how the government evaluates proposals and what constitutes a strength to government evaluators. Attendees learn how to perform Strength-Based Capture, Strength-Based Solutioning®, and Strength-Focused Proposal Reviews, as well as write proposal text that highlights those strengths. Click here to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ehuMzCQn #proposals #RFP #RFQ #proposalmanagement #proposalwriting #bids #bidmanagement #bidwriting #capture #governmentcontracting #govcon #strategy #winning

1