Whether you’ve already successfully done business with the DoD or you’re just getting started, you’ve probably come to the same conclusion as many before you…the DoD Acquisitions Process is vast, broad, and frankly, complicated. To get a snapshot of just how complicated, look at what is called the DoD Acquisitions “Horse Blanket”. If you’ve never heard that phrase before, Google it. The official name is the “Defense Acquisition Life Cycle Wall Chart” but as a prior military acquisition person, we just called it the horse blanket. What you will see when you find this document, is a chart full of many colors, boxes, arrows, columns, and rows. It looks complicated and cumbersome. True story, this is the slimmed down version they put out several years ago, it used to look more complicated. So why did I bring up this chart? The first reason is because if you’ve never really looked at what the government must go through to field and maintain something, this wall chart can really help to open your eyes. The second reason is because I think it’s important to remember that this process is a marathon, not a sprint. And really, it’s more of a relay marathon race than an individual race.
As a small business owner, if you view this process as two members of the same relay team, the government being one member and your business being another member, the process can be a little bit easier to digest. There will be times when you pass the baton to the government, and everything will be in their hands. If they drop the baton, you’re out of the race. However, the same pressure equally applies to you. If your technology just can’t get to where it needs to be, this race may be over, and you can try again in another one. Both members of the team have different skills, strengths, and knowledge bases, so each is required for the process but you’re both working towards the same goal, to bring to market a product that will improve our ability to defend our Nation and to grow a diverse and prosperous defense industry base.
In your case, as the small business, you have your own unique challenges. In addition to bringing to life your vision and product, there are employees to care for, investors to find, hiring challenges, and the general hoops and hurdles of building a business. Your government counterparts face similar challenges in a revolving manner just like you do, except in their case, it is finding funding and the appropriate amount and type, personnel turnover, training new people, and conflicting and changing priorities. They have a challenge one step farther in that for the government to acquire services and products, there are multiple organizations involved and often those people aren’t physically collocated, barely know each other, or have differing opinions on a solution.
Don’t be discouraged by this list of challenges, both members of the relay team are professionals. And while there are people on both sides who could stand to learn a thing or two about the process, the need for more knowledge is generally recognized. This means the process shouldn’t be viewed as small business David trying to gingerly approach the giant government Goliath, it should be viewed as a group of people trying to do business with another group of people, as we’re all just people after all.
So, if you’re feeling like this process is starting to wear on you, stick with it and know that you are not alone. There is a way to achieve your dreams, there will be setbacks, there will be frustrations, but know that those issues occur on both sides of the team. Keep pushing, no one wins every race but, in the end, you’ll continue to grow and inch closer towards success.
Keep moving forward,
