Defensive Contracting?
Post reporter Dana Hedgpeth has been receiving a flurry of missives about Pentagon contracting in the last 24 hours. Here's what she has to say:
Guess what?
Defense companies are hawk-eyed about the coming changes to contracting from the Obama administration. So are the analysts who track the jot and tittles of Pentagon procurement like raptors looking for prey - and threats.
Here are some of the thoughts already put into circulation. NeoSystems chief executive Michael Tinsley believes the change in the White House will spur necessary re-evaluation.
"Obama's election may indeed serve as a wake-up to contractors to make sure they have highly effective management practices and procedures," Tinsley writes in a paper called "Obama, Government Contractors & the DC Region." He goes on to say, "This will be increasingly important to keep business, and to compete for new business."
"The Obama years, for better or for worse, will likely lead to change," Tinsley said. His advice: Focus on the core business.
Heidi Wood, a defense industry analyst at Morgan Stanley, said to expect cutbacks in defense spending growth in the coming years.
In her analysis, she writes that "the days of large year-over-year DOD budget increases may be over."
Among the possible victims: the Army's expensive Future Combat System (FCS) and missile defense.
Her winners: the Air Force's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Navy ships, and space and unmanned systems.
The deciders (okay, that's going to be a stale phrase before long) could be people from the Clinton days, including Richard Danzig, Jacques Gansler, Rudy deLeon and others.
Sure this is all preliminary stuff. We'll find out before long how it's going to unfold.
Thoughts? Government Inc. is all ears.
By Robert O'Harrow |
November 6, 2008; 12:30 PM ET
performance
Previous: Thus Begins the Hard Work |
Next: More Defensive Contracting
Posted by: hclark1 | November 6, 2008 12:50 PM
hclark1,
Your suggestions are precisely why the Federal government has difficulty attracting and retaining highly qualified and motivated people. Managers who are focused on the clock and not on innovation, initiative, and productivity drive the best workers out of government and right into commercial companies where the government hires them back as contractors. Floor monitors? Hey, fella, its a Federal agency, not middle school. If you treat your workforce like teenagers, guess what level of performance you should expect from them?
Posted by: hisroc | November 6, 2008 2:30 PM
i am in the construction business & i deal with local, state & federal gov. all i know is that when i go in for a permit or for what ever, i stand and wait as these gov. workers drink there coffee, talk about a football game and do there nails. for me every minute counts, i work for myself but they don't care, they have security. for me everyday is like a crap shoot & i hope i win 9 out of 10 times. i think these people should be accountable for there time, we are paying them and they treat us like they don't have time for us.
Posted by: 123456ace | November 6, 2008 4:40 PM
hclark1, your management philosophy is outdated. You need to retire and move on. I had a supervisor like you at one time. I was one of the first one in the office in the morining and I always parked in a close parking space. One day, I parked further away and he assumed I came in late and demanded a leave slip. I laughed in his face and told him that I parked further away because I knew he would question it. He had too much time on his hands.
Posted by: simonsaid | November 7, 2008 9:38 AM
hclark1 I hope you weren't abusing your lunch break, or *gasp* surfing the internet during working hours when you posted this comment.
Actually, it appears you posted during working hours at 12:50pm. Do you think your employer would appreciate your misuse of furnished property to post items on a message board?? I think you should turn yourself in to HR immediately.
Posted by: Mustachio | November 7, 2008 10:44 AM
comments on this post are sad commentaries on: federal employees, those who disrespect federal employees, fools like me who visit this blog in search of any useful insight.
Posted by: axolotl | November 7, 2008 11:00 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Monitor all lunch breaks - federal workers abuse their scheduled lunch breaks - they far exceed their alloted time.
Monitor very closely the web sites they view during work hours - internet surfing is a huge problem (not related to job performance).
There should be a floor monitor - constantly walking around to make sure they are actually working.