Alexandria, Virginia
November 16, 2017
Paul Stevens arrived at Dulles late in the afternoon after a mid-day departure from Brussels. He checked into a hotel in Alexandria that provided easy access to the Washington Metro system. It had a constantly changing population of transients, tourists, and people who faced the Washington grind every day and were oblivious to anything around them. The glass and steel structures of Crystal City were a stone’s throw away and that was the location of his next engagement. He had two full weeks before the annual DHS expo, a three day affair where government officials, contractors, and vendors would make deals in a collegial party atmosphere lubricated by free booze and the prospect of easy money.
Paul smiled to himself as he strolled along the Alexandria waterfront looking for a place to eat. He had started his career in Crystal City after joining a small firm desperate for work and being squeezed out by the big defense contractors that always seemed to attract the best and brightest talent and greased the skids politically to make their competitive selection easy. His company had worked for months trying to get on one of the prime contractor teams for a US Navy procurement but were just not making any headway. They were too small and lacked the past performance credentials that the government looked for to justify their awards. They needed to change the game, but how? Paul had met with the confident lead of the large defense contractor in the acknowledged pole position. Despite the fact that his company had a great product, he was politely dusted off and not even given the chance to demonstrate the capability. It was frustrating, and Paul realized that his company did not have the financial staying power to survive unless they got a piece of the action. Angry at the way the big company had dismissed him, he quickly decided to take an unconventional approach to level the playing field. Teams had been formed and were completing proposals, and his company looked like it would be left at the station when the competitive train moved down the tracks.
While everyone attended an evening reception with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy at the last conference before submission of proposals, Paul Stevens easily broke into the Business Capture Manager’s suite and photographed selected pages of the draft Technical and Cost volumes that were to be submitted to the government two weeks later. His colleagues were shocked when they were unexpectedly invited to demo their product a few days later to the well-known prime expected to win. A formal Teaming Agreement binding the two companies together quickly followed the first meeting. People were stunned when the government’s announcement months later named the winner as the company they’d joined just before the proposals were delivered. Paul Stevens displayed the same excitement as the rest of the team when the government contract award was announced. But he was not surprised.
He walked through the old Torpedo Factory on the waterfront that had been re-furbished and now housed a vibrant artists’ colony. As he looked past a massive old torpedo, one of many that were cradled throughout the building, at a striking watercolor of Chesapeake Bay, he felt relaxed, and invisible. This should be an easy putt.