Empowering The OSDBU to Be Your Advocate Without Its Knowledge!

by John Hale III, founder and CEO, The Cornerstone Group LLC, and former director, U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

This is the second column in a series on strategies for engaging and leveraging the Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).

Why you?

OSDBUs invest significant sweat equity in forging and maintaining relationships with contract officers and program officials. They engage their colleagues in “give and take” conversations to determine small business opportunities – the intersection of agency missions and small businesses’ capabilities.

The OSDBU’s mission is to advocate for and maximize small business contract opportunities (as mandated by Congress).

Your objective is for the contract officers and program officials to know, trust and like you. These relationships are the cornerstone of successful federal government contractors. The OSDBU can facilitate introductions for you for market research purposes and validation that the “Rule of Two” criterion is fulfilled. However, are you and your firm worth the OSDBU’s investment of its reputation and political capital, for your benefit?

Are you making it easy for the OSDBU to assist your firm?

Your objective when engaging the OSDBU should be to equip and empower the OSDBU to advocate on your behalf. The OSDBU is responsible for performing a myriad of activities as outlined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 19.201 so it is not resourced to provide ongoing time-intensive assistance. Therefore, your firm must be what I call an “add-water business” in order to maximize your relationship with the OSDBU.

“Add-water businesses” are procurement-ready firms to which the OSDBU can provide direction and information (the water) that the firms execute from that point forward.

What is a procurement-ready business?

• Possesses intimate knowledge of agency missions and current challenges.

• Understands the priorities of the agency Secretary, Deputy and Undersecretaries, and is cognizant that a discrete set of objectives must be accomplished by political appointees in a short window.

• Maintains knowledge of and leverages the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency acquisition regulations.

• Proactively presents to the OSDBU procurement ideas that assist the agency in achieving its mission, for example by transforming from capability briefings into articulating how their innovations and product/service will enable the agency to overcome its challenges.

• Targets specific contract awards and/or missions within an agency. If you ask an OSDBU about a specific contract at an agency, the OSDBU can react more effectively than if you ask about a broad category of contracts.

• Concludes the meeting with the OSDBU with three actionable, reasonable and achievable actions for the OSDBU, keeping in mind that the OSDBU (like all people) is most responsive when it can answer the question, what’s in it for me?

Information is Power

The OSDBU’s assumption is that you possess at least a working knowledge of federal government contracting and understand “how the system works.” So, how do you gain access to information to become an “add-water business”?

Good sources of free information are the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC).

You also can gain greater insights by doing the following:

• Conduct an on-line search of political and career decision-makers for your targeted agency and specific programs within the agency. Senior-level officials give speeches, interviews and testimonies on a regular basis and they can be very revealing.

• Watch agency budget hearings before their respective appropriations committee(s). Agency’s priorities are supported by their budget requests. Identify budget priorities where the administration and the appropriators agree and disagree. Also, attempt to tie agency budget priorities to contract actions.

• Identify and contact the SBA Procurement Center Representative for your targeted agencies. They can provide useful insight into agencies’ acquisition processes and contracts.

• Read the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) report on your targeted agency’s top management challenges. This report will influence agency management priorities.

• Seek the assistance of a professional with specialized knowledge of the nuances of federal government contracting processes and procedures. Next column: Insight from several former OSDBU executives and staffers.