WT 360: The market from all angles

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Top 100: Inside Serco's monster year Sep 17, 2020

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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.

Inside BAE's Top 100 strategy and COVID-19's impact on operations Sep 15, 2020

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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 company thinks about several broad uncertainties hanging over the industry.

Top 100 insights into Leidos' capture strategy Sep 10, 2020

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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.

GovCon’s most important number is not strictly a dollar amount Aug 27, 2020

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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 Protection Program.
Part of that ambiguity is also rooted in how the clock is running down on Section 3610 and where the money comes from. We recorded this episode Wednesday, Aug. 26.

COVID-19 as a trigger for innovation Aug 19, 2020

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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.

How the ban on Chinese tech impacts the GovCon community Jul 30, 2020

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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' Roundtable: NDAA, Alliant 2 SB cancellation and Lockheed's new CEO Jul 23, 2020

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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.

Understanding the impact of COVID and the social justice movement on the GovCon market Jul 17, 2020

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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.

Stress test on the defense industrial base Jul 14, 2020

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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.

What Deltek's Clarity report says about today's market Jul 06, 2020

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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.

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