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Joanne Newman joined L-3 Communications Corporation in May 2001. Here’s her take on the current contracts environment:
ExecutiveBiz: How, if at all, is the current insourcing discussion affecting your overall approach to business?
Joanne Newman: The inherently governmental discussion is being looked at hard within L-3. We're anticipating and in fact are now negotiating a change with our U.S. Air Force customers; they will integrate some positions they consider inherently governmental. This discussion will impact how we go after new business. We will be moving away from SETA (Systems Engineering Technical Assistance) kind of work; that, I think, will be hit most by this “inherently governmental“ interpretation.
ExecutiveBiz: Organizational conflict of interest is another hot button issue. How is L-3 addressing it?
Joanne Newman: I've seen a dramatic change in the way the government is interpreting the clauses with respect to OCI; far more stringent than they were even as recently as five years ago. The government is really gravitating toward taking a position where you either need to do services or you need to do products. For a company like L-3 we're taking a look at how we can continue, like all of the other large companies, to service the government in both areas while still ensuring that we don't put ourselves in a position with any potential OCI.
ExecutiveBiz: What new markets will you be pursuing?
Joanne Newman: We're not trying to move outside our core capabilities. For example my division provides security solutions to various government customers. At the same time, we're realizing that those same solutions have applicability in the international and commercial markets. For example, L-3 developed a security solution for the Mind, Safety, and Health Organization under contract with the federal government to develop a tracking system for coal miners. Now we are out in the commercial market selling that to miners to install in their mines.
ExecutiveBiz: What's your biggest challenge in business?
Joanne Newman: Like everybody else, we're having to do more with less. Where we're asked to do more with less, we want to make sure we're bringing in the right kinds of resources to support the requirements.
ExecutiveBiz: How can industry address the competition for talent?
Joanne Newman: We as an industry need to do better grooming young professionals in the contracts arena. It isn't a traditional career that one might think of when you're in college, to be in government contracting. I think it's incumbent upon people like me to get the word out to young professionals “” I'm talking about twenty-somethings coming right out of college “” that this is a career path with a very defined growth ladder. You can work your way up and get involved in different kinds of things, contracts, subcontracts, pricing. It's not just a sitting behind the desk kind of a job, it's really being involved and it's an opportunity to have an impact on the business.
ExecutiveBiz: You came to this industry out of college as well, correct?
Joanne Newman: Yes, I actually started with Computer Science Corporation. I was hired by CSC to support a Department of Energy contract they had years ago.
ExecutiveBiz: How do you retain young professionals?
Joanne Newman: One thing we are doing internally here at L-3 is staffing our groups in such a way where we've got a mix of different levels of contracts professionals. I've got junior level contract administrators working directly with a more seasoned contracts professional so they can mentor them and afford them the opportunities that I had when I came up through the ranks.
ExecutiveBiz: What's the most exciting part of your work?
Joanne Newman: After almost 30 years in this industry, there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not faced with a new challenge. The market is always changing, government regulations are always changing. That's what's so fun, there's always something new.
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