“Just as the IT dashboard took us from a static, paper based environment to a dynamic digital environment, the new cybersecurity dashboard will provide the government with a real-time view of threats facing us and our vulnerabilities,” said Kundra recently before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security.

The impetus, he added, is clear: “Historically, the federal government has not been as effective as necessary in its cyber defense … an inadequate cybersecurity workforce, a focus on compliance rather than outcomes, and a cumbersome and time-consuming process for collecting information hindered our cybersecurity management capabilities.”

The Cyberscope system, a new tool released by The Office of Management and Budget that allows federal agencies to report FISMA compliance through an authenticated web-based reporting, is a step in that direction. “We’re moving from a manual, reporting-based, compliance-focused approach to a real-time measurement of actual cybersecurity,” said Kundra, of the “Cyberscope” system that debuted in October. “You cannot address real-time threats with a solution that’s focused on reporting requirements on a quarterly basis.”

Share your comments here.

---

Frankly, that was surprising.  We expected the business to trim down and in fact we’ve grown nearly four percent over that time frame. – Robin Lineberger

---

ExecutiveBiz: There is a lot of change going on at Deloitte.  Can you tell us about your new role as CEO?

Robin Lineberger: I feel very fortunate to be appointed as the CEO of the new Federal Government Services at Deloitte. This role entails leading the combined Deloitte federal business, which preexisted the acquisition, as well as the core federal business that was part of Bearing Point’s public services business.  My responsibilities will include leading the Federal Government Services to market; focusing on further integrating the two businesses;  and getting Deloitte’s four functional areas of tax, audit, consulting and financial advisory services more integrated within Federal Government Services seamlessly.  Additionally, I will  be assessing the business’ infrastructure breadth and scale to ensure it will operate effectively not that we are significantly larger than the pre-acquisition business at Deloitte.

ExecutiveBiz: What is your biggest challenge right now in this transition period?

Robin Lineberger: One personal challenge I have is learning my way around the Deloitte organization. Deloitte’s revenues are over $10 billion in the US and $27 billion globally so learning the ropes in order to be effective is in some sense a personal challenge.  Second, is bringing together two large businesses that preexisted the acquisition. One which was $450 million combined and another a $730 million business to really stitch together, in a very short period of time, a billion plus dollar business. And third, getting to know the assets we have and  how we can go to market together. It’s the scale which is the largest challenge.

ExecutiveBiz: Where are the areas that you see the biggest potential for growth over the next 12 to 18 months?

Robin Lineberger: For us the biggest areas of growth are around helping the government execute the financial stimulus in its various forms. Whether it’s assisting in the spending transparency or helping to track the bank losses for the FDIC.  As they execute those short, middle and longer term activities our services are very well aligned particularly with our core financial management capability that the business is built on.

ExecutiveBiz: I know the headquarters is moving from DC to Rosslyn.  Can you talk a little about that as well as the transition you’ve had for your employees?

Robin Lineberger: We evaluated what we call the “Greater Washington area real estate plan” and as a result we’ve taken five and a half floors of the Corporate Executive Board Building near the Key Bridge in Rosslyn.  It’s about 270,000 square feet.  This represents an exclamation point on the end of our integration.  While we are still working through some human capital integration, back office business practice development and other minor activities, we are physically integrating this core federal business in Rosslyn.  As a result of this major move, we are reshaping our footprint and moving other staff in what we call our satellite or project offices around the Washington area.

ExecutiveBiz: Can you tell us about Tom Davis’s role going forward as Director?

Robin Lineberger: Tom leads Deloitte’s Federal Government Relations team and is the point person in helping us better understand the federal legislative landscape.

ExecutiveBiz: Has the issue of in-sourcing or employee poaching by the government impacted your business?  Can you give us your thought on that?

Robin Lineberger: Yes in-sourcing has had an impact on our business, but I wouldn’t call it profound or threatening.  The government is thin on internal staff for certain jobs that are viewed as augmentation. However, there are other areas where the government has determined that they want to bring the work back in-house because they want that competency back in government. We continue to monitor this trend and assess its impact.

ExecutiveBiz: You have a long history of working in the non-profit world.  Can you talk about what efforts you are involved in currently?

Robin Lineberger: I support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of the National Capitol Region and I am on the Executive Committee.  My youngest brother is a cancer survivor so we are pretty passionate about this cause.  I’ve spent a lot of time on everything from selling raffle tickets to selling tables to help generate the revenue to continue the research.  There is another organization that my wife and I are involved with called the Fishing School, which is an after school and summer program for under privileged youth in the District of Columbia.  An interesting point on that is, the Fishing School was chosen for the Extreme Home Makeover show on ABC.  It is one of the very few times they have done a community building, so we were very fortunate this past August to have a beautiful, new facility built by Birch Builders and many other volunteer organizations.

ExecutiveBiz: Did you think of any personal anecdote that you’ve been going through over the last 12 to 18 months?

Robin Lineberger: I think there are a couple of things that I have learned over the last 18 months.  One is keep your team focused on customer relationships and service your customer in a high quality way and that will serve you well.  I can’t reiterate enough how well that has served us.  Our clients really looked for ways to support the teams during the very difficult times at Bearing Point, and the result was that we now have a larger federal business than what we went into with last year.  Frankly, that was surprising.  We expected the business to trim down and in fact we’ve grown nearly four percent over that time frame.  I think that’s attributable to the great client service.  Second is communications. I believe a major factor in our success was our internal and external communications. We kept employees and customers up-to-date on the events as they transpired and let them all know our alternatives. As a result, the uncertainty and fear were eliminated and they stuck with us. I can’t over emphasize the importance of open and honest communications.

It’s really getting the power of our combined entity working together. – Gene Procknow

ExecutiveBiz: Can you tell us what your current role is?

Procknow: I’m moving into the position of a Federal Market Leader, and in this position I have responsibility for our go to market efforts including coordinating our lead client service partners in the marketplace, as well as our marketing and business development activities.

ExecutiveBiz: It has been announced that Robin Lineberger will be the CEO of this, can you talk about that?

Procknow: Robin is responsible for coordinating all of our services for the federal government including coordinating all of our functions.  We operate four functions: tax, management consulting, accounting/auditing, and financial advisory services.

ExecutiveBiz: How is the integration going with the Bearing Point effort?

Procknow: It’s going well.  We started off with a champagne moment where we got a lot of euphoria around the acquisition and then we got down to hard work.  Bringing the organizations together is a lot of work and it raised some issues.  We’ve resolved most of those issues and now we are moving forward as one entity and that has led to a spectacular end of government year sales results for Deloitte.

ExecutiveBiz: What would you say your top priorities are for the next twelve to eighteen months?

Procknow: It’s really getting the power of our combined entity working together.  We’ve retained over 4,500 new people – that’s a lot of new creativity, a lot of new talent and a lot of things that we can leverage.  We are going to look at how to leverage that resource across a broader set of clients and how to add resources from Deloitte.  There is a lot of opportunity that we have yet to mine.

ExecutiveBiz: What are some of the trends you are tracking that your customers are worried about?

Procknow: One of the things we are finding out is that former BearingPoint clients are expressing more confidence now that the teams are in a secure stable organization – they are expressing more confidence in our team and adding more tasks and adding more funding to their contracts.  It is really rewarding to see.  Through this last government fiscal year end, none of the BearingPoint recompetes have been won.  That is impressive in this marketplace.

ExecutiveBiz: How would you describe your management style?

Procknow:  We’re a partnership so partners run the business and our job as leaders is to help other people succeed.  That’s our culture and that’s what leads to success.  We are not a top down organization.  We are not an organization that is necessarily directive.  As a partnership our view is to help each other to succeed and that is our real key management philosophy.

ExecutiveBiz: How have the employees handled this transition?

Procknow: Fairly well.  Our turnover each month has gone down which is pretty impressive.  We actually had to re-recruit all of the BearingPoint team and over 98% of the people that we made offers to accepted.  Most of those people are still with us today of those people are with us today.

ExecutiveBiz: What would you say your biggest challenge in business is today?

Procknow: I think the key thing is to figure out where the next opportunities are and the white space.  I think we’ve got some good ideas around cybersecurity.  We are organizing to attack that marketplace.  That is a very growing need in the federal government to be able to protect the country’s information assets from attack.  That is something we see as a mission that we can really help.

ExecutiveBiz: I know that you have Harry Raduege onboard and maybe you can talk about his role and what area in cyber security (offensive side, defensive side) that you think there is an opportunity?

Procknow: Harry runs our Center for Cyber Innovation.  He is a tremendous asset for us because ,as the former Head of DISA, he understands the need and the capabilities of the government to defend against cyber attack.  You mentioned both offensive and defensive and certainly the government is working on both of those issues as you might expect.  Our focus is to help the government in its mission so we would work at both areas.  However we are starting to see across a broader set of commercial clients also the need to help in the cyber security area and that area.

ExecutiveBiz: What is something most people don’t know about you personally?

Procknow: I am a history buff.  I like to draw parallels from history to today and use lessons from history.  Our leadership change has a parallel to Lewis & Clark.  One of the most successful partnerships in all time history is between Lewis & Clark.  That would be emblematic of the partnerships that we form at Deloitte.  Today does anybody know who the leader was of that expedition?  Was it Lewis or was it Clark?  I can tell you it was Lewis but that expedition would not have been as successful without the leadership of Clark.  That’s what happens at Deloitte–we work together to further our partnership here.  We are not looking here for individual glory.

ExecutiveBiz: Was there anything you would like to add?

Procknow: One of the key things for us is that this is never going to be done.  We are going to continue to acquire organizations.  We are going to continue to grow and expand.  We are going to grow two or three x the market rate of growth in this marketplace.  We see a lot of opportunity with the Federal government and we are going to continue to acquire companies.

HIGHLIGHTS

• “When you think of health IT, you often think of bringing electronic health records and IT to the doctor and hospital levels. Our approach is to broaden that perspective,” says Hall, who runs SRA’s health and civil services sector.

• Customers include the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Veterans Administration.

• Looking toward the future, “If we look at electronic health records, our goal will be to make technology of that nature interoperable at all levels and provide a better capability for all users,” says Hall.

---

“Our growth strategy is focused on areas of the health market that have high public and political visibility.” — Max Hall, SRA

---

ExecutiveBiz: As head of SRA’s health and civil services sector, who are some of your customers?

Max Hall: In this sector, we run all of the programs across our health, federal civil, state, and local agencies, (with the exception of homeland security). We have a really diverse portfolio by customer set, from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Veterans Administration, to the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. Then, work-wise we are very involved not only in infrastructure technology and development-type products, but also mission support to a number of agencies. We have folks at NIH involved in cancer research, as an example.

ExecutiveBiz: What’s SRA’s approach to the healthcare IT market?

Max Hall: When you think of health IT, you often think of bringing electronic health records and IT to the doctor and hospital levels. Our approach is to broaden that perspective; we look to see how healthcare IT might apply across the entire federal health continuum and how technology, in turn, supports it. We’re involved not only in all the health and human services agencies like CDC, NIH, and FDA, to name a few, but also the VA and military health side.

ExecutiveBiz: Where do you see opportunities for healthcare IT up ahead?

Max Hall: Some of the money certainly flows down to the state and local level. We’re looking at playing in a number of individual states where opportunities are presenting themselves.  In addition, we’re also seeing that healthcare is an obvious priority for the current administration, and we are looking at how we leverage the capabilities we have to support all of those federal agencies in supporting their missions.

ExecutiveBiz: What’s your biggest challenge in growing your business?

Max Hall: One of the things a lot of other companies do is what I call “stove-piped” opportunities within specific agencies. For SRA, it’s about leveraging the capabilities we have across all those groups or sectors. For example, the lessons we have learned from places like the CDC where we are involved in the H1N1 virus response — how do we also use those lessons in support of NIH, or how do we leverage our IT capabilities in other parts of the business to bring those capabilities to support health IT? This is the type of expertise we are trying to leverage across SRA. If we look at some of the activities we are involved in with data and text mining, which we’ve used in other areas such as cyber security and intelligence – they have real applicability within the health industry. So, our biggest challenge — really, opportunity — is bringing those ideas and technologies to market to support our customers.

ExecutiveBiz: Tell us more about your text mining and data mining capabilities.

Max Hall: We have tools that can track group-types of activities. That capability originated in our support of the intelligence community, and it’s now being applied to different parts of the health industry, specifically instances where you’re looking more at preventive approaches than reactive activities. We help our clients extract value from their unstructured data by converting text into knowledge. We also help by recommending the most effective techniques and tools for turning unstructured data into actionable information that is readily available to the people who need it. For example, for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Enteropathogen Resource Integration Center (ERIC) project, SRA used the NetOwl text mining tools to accelerate scientific research on food pathogens by extracting not only gene names, but also what the function of those genes are from more than seven million scientific literature abstracts – far more than any scientist could ever read.  This provides researchers with a centralized resource that dramatically reduces time and effort to conduct literature based research.

ExecutiveBiz: What will your business unit look like in two years?

Max Hall: In two years? We’ll continue to look for ways to grow more on the mission support side for all our customers. Take IT, for example. IT is an enabler – it allows folks to complete their mission in a better fashion for not just infrastructure support activities, but can bring people together to do things differently. If there is a tool that we can bring that allows people to do that, then I think that is a great thing. If we look at electronic health records, our goal will be to make technology of that nature interoperable at all levels and provide a better capability for all users.

ExecutiveBiz: What’s your prognosis for bringing this vision to fruition?

Max Hall: Broadly speaking, our growth strategy is focused on areas of the health market that have high public and political visibility and that provide great value and enhanced care for our citizens. We are focused on the data sharing and joint initiatives being undertaken by DoD and VA to improve the care being provided to our military personnel, veterans and their families. At the same time, we are focused on areas of the public health market that support the regulatory and public safety mission of FDA, particularly food safety programs; provide  support for the CDC in preparedness and response to emerging public health threats such the H1N1 virus; work on technology modernization programs for critical infrastructure programs; and implement emerging scientific technologies within the national research program, including new approaches to research such as systems biology.

Share your comments here.

In-Sourcing

In-sourcing has worried CEOs around the beltway since President Obama took office in January and pledged to move “inherently governmental” functions out of the private sector and into government.  Also, claims abound that the government is “poaching” the best talent from the private sector with lucrative job security and health and retirement benefits.

Our reporting shows that some sectors will be hit harder by in-sourcing.  First: acquisitions.  Jim Moran told ExecutiveBiz this when we interviewed him in July: “…11,000 [acquisition jobs will be] converted from contracting positions.  The acquisition process is inherently governmental.” Congressman Gerry Connolly agrees that the acquisition process should be brought back inside government.

Second: data center operations.  Regina Gibson of OnPoint Consulting offered this in a recent ExecutiveBiz exclusive interview: “There could be some reorganization of work, especially in areas like data center operations…As far as our long term planning, we are looking at the opportunities that would not be affected by competitive insourcing or at least less affected.”

Organizational Conflicts of Interest

The new Presidential administration brought a slew of new ethics rules which are challenging the business models of large integrators.  Contractors are becoming victims of their own success: a large and successful advisory services business unit can hamper the ability of a major integrator to stay in the new swim lanes of contracting.

Trouble is, the only buyers available for a multi-billion-dollar advisory services practice would face the same ethical restrictions as the seller, leaving major integrators with developed advisory services business units up a creek without a paddle.

Healthcare

As healthcare legislation struggles through Congress, most integrators know there’s a pony in there somewhere.  It’s just hard to find.  Since the value proposition of healthcare IT to government is cost-cutting, leading some executives to wonder how they can expect to maintain healthy profit margins in the long-term.  The opportunities are in implementing administrative changes undertaken by healthcare reform.  The biggest opportunity: interoperability, specifically making DoD electronic health records (EHRs) compatible with the VA’s.

Stimulus

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) passed on February 17, but so far only $159 billion of approximately $270 billion allocated for major projects have been distributed, leaving major integrators asking “where’s the rest?”  And, with a significant percentage earmarked for transportation, infrastructure, and public safety projects, many govcon executives are wondering if federal contractors will ever get a significant share of stimulus money.

Our opinion: don’t hold your breath.  Most of the money will likely wind up in the hands of state and local contractors, rather than federal players.

Cyber

Cybersecurity is a lot like a unicorn.  We all know what they look like, we just can’t seem to find any.  President Obama’s speech in May 2009, in which he announced the creation of a “cyber coordinator” position, was widely greeted with approbation. It is now November and we are still waiting for the White House to name someone to the position. Jim Lewis of CSIS calls the delays “indecision and turf fighting,” while Susan Collins has called for the cyber coordinator to sit in the Department of Homeland Security rather than the White House.

A number of contracts have already been awarded for cyber security, largely as a result of the still classified Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), and more money is still available in these areas. Companies that secured these contracts are in an ideal position, particularly given the growing focus on cyber security throughout the government.

• “[Cyber security] belongs to everyone who uses a computer, a network or any technology to run their business.  Executives have to understand what that means and how it relates to their corporate assets.”
• “…Executives need to be educated on how to protect their information…that’s the hard part, making the investment without being able to quantify the return on that investment.”
• “As technology advances, the very nature of the field demands that we need to evolve on a regular basis.   Regardless of these challenges, we need to stay ahead of the game and be more aggressive with what measures we use, how we train and how we prepare and protect our national security assets.”

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your background in cyber security?

Tiffanny Gates:  I was a Navy Cryptologic Officer after I graduated from the Naval Academy.  When I left the service, I started a company called Emerging Technologies Group that was focused in the cyber security arena; computer forensics, information assurance, etc.  Subsequently, that was sold to ManTech last August, and now I’m the Deputy Chief of the Cyber Sector for ManTech.

ExecutiveBiz:  What’s ManTech’s approach to cyber security?

Tiffanny Gates:  ManTech’s approach to cyber security combines professional services and the hands-on experience of our employees with research and development and innovation.  Our primary objective is to stay ahead of our adversaries so that we can better serve our U.S. government clients.   We have been operating in the cyber services sector for more than 17 years and have recently established ManTech Cyber Solutions, Inc. (ManTech CSI) to focus on product lines created as a result of continuing research and development.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is cyber forensics and how does it factor in to cyber defense?

Tiffanny Gates:  Cyber Forensics is the art and science of extracting data from digital media whereas cyber defense uses cyber forensics to identify threats and respond to incidents.  However, there are several steps necessary to ensure a strong defensive posture.    For example, conducting forensics analysis on a hard drive after a computer intrusion might help you determine what vulnerabilities the system may have had that were ultimately exploited by an attacker.  Network forensic analysis will help you identify malicious activity when traditional signature based cyber defense tools fail.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is the distinction between cyber deterrents and cyber warfare?

Tiffanny Gates:  Cyber deterrence inherently implies countermeasures that are employed in an effort to deter a threat or attack.  It is a defensive posture, mitigating risk that might otherwise be caused by a cyber warfare technique.  Cyber warfare refers to those techniques that are utilized to gain an advantage against an adversary, either offensive, through exploitation, or defensive in nature.

ExecutiveBiz:  What should every executive understand about cyber security and how it impacts their business?

Tiffanny Gates:  The first thing they need to understand is that it is a long-term challenge and investment.  It belongs to everyone who uses a computer, a network or any technology to run their business.  Executives have to understand what that means and how it relates to their corporate assets.  First, executives need to be educated on how to protect their information.  They need to be aggressive with participation in public-private sector groups focused on resolving cyber issues.  Finally, they need to invest in mitigating those risks that would otherwise negatively impact their businesses.  That’s the hard part, making the investment without being able to quantify the return on that investment.

ExecutiveBiz:  What will cyber security look like in two to three years?

Tiffanny Gates:  There is not an easy answer.  There are short-term and long-term predictions about what’s going to happen in cyber security.  As technology advances, the very nature of the field demands that we need to evolve on a regular basis.   Regardless of these challenges, we need to stay ahead of the game and be more aggressive with what measures we use, how we train and how we prepare and protect our national security assets.  That means that public and private sectors need to come together to adopt best practices, apply consistent standards, policies and procedures and invest and implement those improvements.  Even as we work to improve our cyber postures, so do our adversaries.  We need to be better, faster and stronger when it comes to identifying threats and responding accordingly.  We need to focus on game-changing solutions, not game-playing solutions.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your opinion of the newly created Cyber Command?

Tiffanny Gates:  I think it is a positive sign that the government and the private sector are moving toward a trend of collaboration and integration from an information sharing and responsibility perspective.  The Cyber Command will be the entity used in that collaboration so that we can start looking at possible solutions in how we are going to strengthen our posture as a natural result of coming together.  I’m sure you’ve seen the Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative (CNCI). Both the recommendations of the CNCI and the creation of the Cyber Command will have a large role in implementation of the initiatives that are required for our national security.

ExecutiveBiz:  How urgently does the U.S. need a cyber coordinator?

Tiffanny Gates:  The first question for the Cyber Coordinator is “what will my role be, what am I accountable for and what are my responsibilities?”  So much of that is still being fleshed out.   It will be a challenge for those working to establish the new entity, to define who is in charge of what so that we can then work as cyber security professionals to support varying requirements.  Everyone wants to know who the Cyber Coordinator is going to be.  Everyone wants to know what the structure will be.  Everyone wants to know how that money is going to flow.  Those are questions that need to be answered way above my pay grade.

ExecutiveBiz:  Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Tiffanny Gates:  Well, it is well known that ManTech provides outstanding professional services in the Cyber Sector – but what is less known is that one of ManTech’s goals is to utilize the experience of our employees and the Corporate investment commitment in R & D to create innovative products and solutions that help us make game changing decisions that are critical to staying ahead of our adversaries.  We have been in the cyber field longer than most companies and bring a lot of experience to the table.   Our newest addition—ManTech CSI—provides a unique forum for product development based on customer needs, with a renewed focus on revolutionizing the cyber field.  For example, we just released Crowbar, a forensics tool used to crack PINS in the field.  Crowbar gives investigators the ability to crack a PIN within minutes, as opposed to what used to be a manual process that took hours to days.  We plan to keep moving forward and are already working toward improvements, new tools and other solutions based on the needs of our customers.  Innovation is definitely a necessity in the cyber field, as well as collaboration and patience.

• “We’ve made a significant investment in making sure that our customers have the ability to operate either remotely in a single environment and be able to share content.  This dovetails nicely into cloud computing.”
• “We’re in every market that you can imagine…[including] every single agency in the federal community.”
• “…we think that for every dollar that the government invests in Autodesk that there will be a seven times reward on the commercial side of our business.”

ExecutiveBiz:  What are Autodesk’s core competencies?

Bill Goodson:  Autodesk is a world leader in 2D and 3D design engineering and entertainment software.  We help our customers visualize their ideas before they realize it.  By helping customers imagine their products (ranging from little bluetooth accessories to skyscrapers),we give people the opportunity to picture these and experience their products digitally before they start building.  You can save a lot of money and time in doing that.  Something that Autodesk is probably not known for is that we play an important role in the media and entertainment world. A fun fact is that Autodesk has received 14 Academy Awards for best visual effects.  When you go to the movies and see The Lord of the Rings or other major blockbuster movies with a lot of visual effects, there is a high probability that Autodesk is behind them.  Another thing that we try to do is to make sure that we continue to draw some of the best, brightest and most talented creative people in the industry.  Relative to the government side of the business, in the past, there has been  a need for spending around rework. This adds to cost and delays in construction.  We help people in transportation to better plan how they are going to build roads, so they can  understand where all of the utility lines are, and to make sure that they take into consideration all of those things before you actually build the roads.  If we can help on the front end of the design side we’re looking at huge savings for our customers.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your ratio of government to commercial clients?

Bill Goodson:  I am responsible for the public sector business and it is one of the fastest growth areas for us at Autodesk.  We’ve been growing at a double digit rate over the last couple of years and we attribute that growth to three key areas which tie in very nicely with the stimulus packages: transportation (such as roads and highways), more sustainable design for energy efficient buildings, and renovating and repairing the aging infrastructure surrounding water and waste water.  Those are big focus areas for job creation and for new opportunities within the government community. We look for almost a 7:1 ratio for government to commercial clients: we think that for every dollar that the government invests in Autodesk that there will be a seven times reward on the commercial side of our business.

ExecutiveBiz:  Who are some of your biggest clients?

Bill Goodson:  We’re in every market that you can imagine.  We’re in every single agency in the federal community; some of our largest customers are in the DOD community, the Air Force, the Navy and the Army.  We’re also prevalent in the federal civilian agencies as well.  As part of our responsibility we have a state and local community; we are really focused on the transportation side of the business in that particular phase of our market.

ExecutiveBiz:  How is competitive insourcing affecting your business?

Bill Goodson:  We see in-sourcing as an opportunity to help our customers become more efficient and knowledgeable, even if they may not be engineers and may not really understand a lot of the technology.  One of the mandates from the new administration is to renovate 75% of the government’s buildings for greater energy efficiency.  Designers are looking for easy-to-use tools, and Autodesk offers a very robust suite of off-the-shelf software packages that allow them to model these ideas on a computer in three dimensions so they can examine the project and ask “how can we get this to be more energy efficient?” and “where do we have potential leakage that we need to control?”  A lot of people are struggling right now with “what does going green mean?”  How do I get there?  What kinds of tools are available?  This is a focus area we’ve been pursuing for a long time.

ExecutiveBiz:  How will Autodesk keep growing in this difficult economic climate?

Bill Goodson:  The economic climate is not going to change any time soon, but right now we’re looking at different ways to grow, including focusing on our core competencies and listening to what our customers are saying, and one of our unique programs, by giving back to the community.  One way that we are doing that is through the Autodesk Assistance Program.  A lot of people have lost jobs in this particular market, and now they need update their skills.  The Autodesk Assistance Program offers free training and software to help them become more proficient, and learn new job skills that get them back into the marketplace.  It’s been a very, very effective and popular program that we’ve rolled out nationwide.

ExecutiveBiz:  How will Autodesk take advantage of new federal cloud computing initiatives like Apps.gov?

Bill Goodson:  That’s an emerging solution enabling to share content throughout the community and not having to have individual licenses.  We’ve made a significant investment in making sure that our customers have the ability to operate either remotely in a single environment and be able to share content.  This dovetails nicely into cloud computing.  It lets you take advantage of the ability to share software resources across a very wide community.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is your biggest challenge in business today?

Bill Goodson:  This is probably one of the biggest economic challenges that any of us have faced in our working careers.  We are taking a look and saying what we can do as well as what we need to do.  For us it is about focusing on what we do best and it’s not getting distracted or opportunist but being very intentional and focused on what we do.  We are going to continue to be focusing on our thought leadership, design, engineering and entertainment.  This is also an opportunity for us to really engage with our customers and our prospects and understand what emerging trends that they see and making sure that we are aligning properly.

ExecutiveBiz:  How would you describe your management style?

Bill Goodson:  I’m focused on people, communications and execution.  You are only as good as the people that you surround yourself with.  I put a lot of emphasis on attracting and retaining some of the finest people and I’m really privileged to work with some of the best people in the industry supporting me.  From a communications perspective I have an obligation to provide clear direction on where we are going, what we are going to focus on and what we need to do to achieve success.  I’m a huge believer in teamwork and also that we have a healthy balance of fun, hard work and focus.  At the end of the day, it’s all about execution.  We like to say that we’re not in the best efforts business, we’re in the best results business.

ExecutiveBiz:  What is something most people don’t know about you?

Bill Goodson:  I grew up most of my life overseas and had the opportunity to go to school in Argentina.  While I was there, I’ve always enjoyed sports – I think most people that know me well know that I have a competitive spirit and probably associate me with tennis or golf.  In high school I had the opportunity to learn ping pong.  Believe it or not it was a pretty heavily sought after sport in South America when I was going to high school.  I had the opportunity to travel all across the countries in South America to compete and represent our high school.  I don’t think people associate me with a ping pong champion in South America.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sponsored by the American Heart Association, Start! Heart Walk 2009 will bring together area companies and individuals on the National Mall to fight heart disease.

• This year’s chair is CACI’s CEO Paul Cofoni. “Having been the beneficiary of so much research sponsored by the American Heart Association, it was very easy for me to say, ‘This is a great way to help others,’” he says.

• The event is slated for Saturday, Nov. 14. For more information, visit startgreaterwashington.org or call 703-248-1715.

---

“We’ll be out there in our CACI jerseys leading the walk down the Mall!”
— Paul Cofoni, CEO, CACI

---

ExecutiveBiz: Why should area companies and individuals care about Start! Heart Walk 2009?

Paul Cofoni: Our employees are our future. They are CACI’s greatest asset and our greatest resource. That is why we want to look at every available option and program to help them learn about heart disease, understand the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and most importantly, place our employees on a path that will keep them heart healthy.

It’s not only good for our employees, it’s a sound business strategy. Companies can save anywhere from $3 to $15 for every $1 spent on health and wellness programs. Heart disease costs the nation more than $300 billion annually. Companies spend 25 to 30 percent of their annual medical costs on employees with excess health risk defined mostly by their risk for heart disease and stroke. As a survivor of heart disease, I have recognized the importance of establishing and maintaining heart healthy activities at CACI and increasing our employee’s awareness and education regarding heart disease.

ExecutiveBiz: What innovative ways has CACI found to promote employee wellness?

Paul Cofoni: CACI has brought people together in new morale-building ways. For example, I’ve been doing walks with different parts of the company. That idea come from one of our employees who said, ‘Why don’t we do a walk with the CEO at lunchtime?’ We also had a golf tournament with all proceeds going toward the American Heart Association. Along with the golf tournament, there was an auction; we auctioned off three weeks of vacation. People paid $25 for a raffle ticket; lo and behold we raised over $27,000.

ExecutiveBiz: Recently, CACI made Fortune magazine’s list of “fit and friendly” companies. How did that come about?

Paul Cofoni: That’s right, Fortune magazine, in their Sept. 28 issue, published a list of “Fit Friendly Companies.” These are companies that are reengineering the contents of their vending machines and stimulating more activity amongst their workforce. We’re proud to say we made the list. It’s a great movement. It doesn’t have to stop there, though. There’s an application that companies can fill out and submit to the American Heart Association; the award or achievement level they can attain is called a “Fit Friendly Company.”

ExecutiveBiz: Tell us what’s on tap Nov. 14 with the Start! Heart Walk.

Paul Cofoni: This is going to be a fun day. We’ll have all of these tents, probably 30 or so, out on the National Mall — learning opportunity tents that teach people about heart health, tents that feed people a heart-healthy breakfast, tents for children to learn about heart health. There will be celebrations of people who have made lifestyle changes. Then, of course, there’s going to be the walk itself. We anticipate somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people walking three miles twice around the Mall. Not the whole Mall, but half – twice around. There’s also a 1-mile walk option.

ExecutiveBiz: How much money do you expect to raise?

Paul Cofoni: We have a goal to hit $2 million net, which will go toward research. The companies themselves have sponsored and written checks — $300,000 more than last year. We’re really proud of that, given it’s a much more difficult economic climate. We’ve raised in total $1.3 million from company sponsorships plus the commitments to walkers by sponsors of walkers. We expect to accelerate that growth in contributions raised between now and Nov. 14.

ExecutiveBiz: How much has CACI committed to the effort?

Paul Cofoni: Our company made a commitment of $125,000; we expect to exceed that amount. So far, we’ve got 91 captains of walking teams, as well as over 670 walkers and counting. Our goal is to get 1,000 walkers. I don’t know if we will but we’re still going to be well above 600.

ExecutiveBiz: How can people and companies participate?

Paul Cofoni: We’re at the peak of that; we can still get companies involved, people involved, pets involved — we have a dog and cat walking path as well. People can bring out their dogs! All you have to do is log onto startgreaterwashington.org or call 703-248-1719. Whoever wants to be a part of this fun day and improve their own health, we’re happy to get you signed up. For our part, we’ll be out there in our CACI jerseys leading the walk down the Mall!

Share your comments here.

Norm Augustine

Everything from your cell phones, televisions, missileguidance systems and war fighter situational awareness systems depend on satellite-based networks.  So why is America’s presence in space in jeopardy?

According to Norm Augustine’s Augustine Commission report, if NASA’s current program and budgetary constraints are followed, the space shuttle will be phased out in 2011. The International Space Station will potentially be scuttled in 2015 and after spending $44 Billion and intentionally will be crashed into the Pacific ocean.  The space shuttle will be removed from service without a replacement, forcing NASA to buy seats on the Russian Soyuz vehicle for its astronauts at $50 million per seat.
Norm Augustine, who will be speaking at the Potomac Officers Club next month, (Register here) might ask WWKS? (What Would Kennedy Say?) As NASA’s budget and operational plan stands, the US would have to buy seats from the Russians to send Astronauts to repair the damage caused by natural forces or potential enemy attack.  Here are some of the Augustine Commission’s key recommendations to reverse this trend and make NASA the world leader in space exploration it was during the days of John F. Kennedy:

The right budget for the right mission: NASA’s budget should match the scope of its goals, and NASA should be allowed to shape its organization and infrastructure accordingly while maintaining terrestrial and orbital facilities of national importance.

International partnerships: The US should retake its leadership role in international efforts of human space exploration.  We should actively engage international partners in all missions, yielding benefits to international relations and more resources for space exploration.

The space shuttle and the human-spaceflight gap: Under current budgetary constraints, the US will be unable to launch astronauts into space for at least seven years.  The committee found no way to shorten the gap to less than six years other than extending the life of the Space Shuttle program.

Extending the International Space Station: The ROI to both the US and international partners would be dramatically enhanced by extending the life of the ISS.  Failure to extend its operation would detract from US ability to develop and lead future international partnership in spaceflight.

To hear Norm Augustine’s insights into the future of human space exploration, be sure to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s luncheon event on December 2nd. Click here to register.