I have spent my last 14 years working with SPAWAR Atlantic as a defense contractor. I have worked for both large and small contractors and have seen the good times and the bad. This series is a collection of my lessons learned and strategies for being successful. One axiom is what worked yesterday will not always work tomorrow, SPAWAR is a moving target.
If you have been in this market for more then a year you have met the types that do not subscribe to this axiom, they talk of better days when task orders were walked through in a week. Rather than accept the fact that the process has forever changed they try and make the old way still work. This approach is a huge waste of time and if you are guilty of this in your organization you will end up spinning your wheels endlessly.
What is the alternative? Understand the process that exists today while recognizing it will likely change again in a few months time. Rather than try to fight the bureaucracy, embrace it and find the best path through it. For example, months can be shaved of the PR process if documentation is in order on the left side of the contracting process. Time and labor is better spent learning what is required at each step rather than trying to avoid the process just to be later stopped and sent back to the beginning.
