This briefing covers active market intelligence, regulatory guidelines, and tactical capture recommendations for federal and defense contractors pursuing opportunities in this procurement classification.
How do we truly begin the process of innovation in the government? It’s an age-old question that seems to have no definitive answer.
For a small to mid-size government contractor, when you’re dealing with an entity as large as the federal government that’s been doing what they do for decades on end, it can feel almost impossible that you could effectively break through with innovation.
However, according to the most recent U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) data, the federal government reached its small business federal contracting goal for the fourth consecutive year, awarding 24 percent in federal contract dollars to small businesses totaling $99.96 billion, an increase of over $9 billion from the previous year.
Small and medium sized businesses should feel empowered by this trend and work to understand what the government needs.
With an agency’s inability to sit down with each individual contract team to hold a tailored discussion around their specific challenges or pressures, it becomes exponentially more important for any contractor to independently take the steps necessary to become a better partner to the government.
After my time at NASA and now having transitioned to private industry, I’ve figured out a couple of focuses that can help with easing the government-contractor relationship.
EMPHASIZE INNOVATION
Government agencies are often torn by the fact that they want to modernize, but the logistics of doing so often prove difficult.
PROVE YOUR AGILITY AND FLEXIBILITY
Contractors need to ensure that they can get up to speed quickly without hindering their agency partner. A partner that’s self-motivated to do external reading, research, or learning about a particular challenge provides much more value to a government-contractor relationship than simply waiting for someone to hopefully provide you with that information.
ALIGN YOUR MISSIONS
As a contractor, it is your job to make sure that missions are aligned so that you and your government partner are working towards a long-term goal that positively affects both parties. Without a shared mission, it’s highly possible that miscommunication will occur and innovation will be prevented.
Read more: 3 steps to understanding your customer and fueling innovation
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