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By Debbie Gregory.

By Debbie Gregory.

Today we will review how two tech companies, who rely heavily on government contracts to provide income and to keep their workforce busy, were able to adjust, and ride out the recent shutdown. Additionally, we will learn how they applied innovative thinking to not only retain their team but to positively ride out the government shutdown.

Evans Incorporated was founded by Sue Evans in 1994; with a single contract. Ford hired Evans Inc. to help them to reimagine and automate a paper-intensive, OSHA-mandated processes.  To help them to successfully transition away from that manual paper-based system to a much more streamlined computer-driven web-based work process. Thus Evans Incorporated was formed.

They have grown quite a bit since those early days; currently approximately 90 percent of Evans Inc.’s revenue comes from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). And recently, nearly all of the company’s contracts with the FAA were under a stop-work order during the government shutdown. Instead of furloughing valuable employees, Evans Incorporated kept working; internally reassigning their team to focus on and update the company’s strategic plan. To also identify and implement improvement goals for the year.  Employees focused on internal research and development efforts, resulting in several innovations.

“We’re committed to them, they’re committed to us,” said Bob Etris, a partner at Evans Incorporated. “We were fortunate. Airplanes still need to fly, the government will eventually reopen, so let’s continue to do good stuff in the meantime.”

HumanTouch, a McLean, VA IT consulting firm was founded in 1998 and specializes in cybersecurity, cloud and IT modernization.

HumanTouch found a unique way to ensure its employees and team remained whole through the shutdown. Because the company could not afford to lose their talent pool, the management team decided to take a very unique approach: they sacrificed a portion of their salaries to retain employees working on contracts that had been stopped.  CEO Moe Jafari forwent his salary altogether.  These actions directly resulted in salaries being covered and health insurance premiums being paid for their team.

Should the threat of another shutdown in mid-February come to pass, similar government contractors could potentially survive it a little easier by paying attention to the actions of these two companies highlighted above on how to weather the political storm.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,

Focus on Contractors, Not the Press and Media

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By Debbie Gregory.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan believes that increased communication with defense contractors is a step in the right direction in order to optimize the Pentagon’s relationships with industry. The Defense Department’s No. 2 civilian, Shanahan manages the Pentagon and oversees the acquisition and budget efforts.

In a March 2 memorandum entitled “Engaging With Industry” Shanahan wrote: “Conducting effective, responsible and efficient procurement of supplies and services while properly managing the resultant contracts requires department personnel to engage in early, frequent and clear communications with suppliers.”

As the Trump administration sought to deepen relations between private industry and government, last April Defense Secretary Jim Mattis encouraged expanded Pentagon-industry relations.

The push for more Pentagon-industry communications comes after other top leaders have ordered restrictions on talking with the public and the press. Most recently, on March 1, U.S. Air Force leaders suspended all interviews, embeds, and base visits for media organizations “until further notice.”

Prior to that, in March 2017, the Chief of Naval Operations cautioned his people to be more careful in what they say in public, saying that he did not want to give adversaries useful information.

“Industry is often the best source of information concerning market conditions and technological capabilities,” Shanahan wrote. “This information is crucial to determining whether and how the industry can support the Department’s mission and goals.”

Shanahan believes that complying with ethical and legal limits “should not” cause defense and service officials to be reluctant to engage industry.

“The department’s policy continues to be that representatives at all levels of the department have frequent, fair, even and with industry on matters of mutual interest, as appropriate, in a manner that protects sensitive information, operations, sources, methods and technologies,” Shanahan wrote.

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