What Keep Me Up at Night?

Back in 2007, I moderated a CPN panel discussion titled, "GSA and Government Leasing: Slow, but Steady."  The War on Terror had dampened real estate funding for the GSA, which accounted for almost half of Washington D.C.'s leasing activity and the space it was taking was increasingly emerging in submarkets like Southeast and NoMa, where large blocks of space were found to be much more affordable.  Meanwhile, the D.C. government was becoming more "GSA-like" in its approach to the marketplace as it responded to many political inquiries surrounding the redevelopment and construction within those markets.  The panel, made up of some of the finest minds in both government and federal leasing was asked and answered many questions about the possible market impact of the upcoming presidential election, longer term leases, project planning, proposed net of utility leasing, soring issues, termination rights and holdovers were all a part of the discussion...not much has changed.  The final question asked of each of the experts is the one that was most memorable to me, which was: "What keeps you awake at night?"

As each panel participant answered this question, I began to think about how I would answer this question.  It came to be one that has stuck with me all these years since as I have grown into my role in this industry.  What keeps me awake is knowing that some bureaucrat within the government is not willing to meet and at least have a discussion about how the federal government, specifically those departments and agencies responsible and accountable for the giving private sector a chance to understand how to do business with the GSA.  I lose sleeping by thinking about the experience and frustration a business that has invested a significant amount of money in order to get a "foot-in-the-door to do business with the federal government is told that the leader of a particular office within a region is not open to meeting with one of my industry colleagues.  To me, that is totally unacceptable! 

It doesn't matter to me that the government's "busy season" is such that no one wants to meet with industry to discuss business opportunities and best practices during the fourth quarter of the Fed's fiscal year, which are the three months leading up to October 1st.  I can't understand why year after year the most our Government continues to operate in such an inept and inefficient manner to the point where it's acceptable to push back when taxpaying citizens want to meet the leaders in charge of doing business with the private sector.  It's not enough to just be open to "reviewing the statement of capabilities," because that's not how business really gets done and citizens know and should receive better.

Recently GSA decided to disband it's Industry Relations Division (IRD), which had the mission of engaging collaboratively with industry and nongovernmental  organizations (NGOs) to ensure that GSA delivered better value and savings, expanded opportunities for small businesses, helped make a more sustainable government, led with innovation, served its partners and thus built a stronger GSA.  It was IRD that regularly engaged with industry through its National Call Center, which offered assistance to those seeking to do business with GSA; participating in meetings, conferences, outreach events and the development of partnerships with NGOs nationwide.  Now that this office is gone, the culture at GSA's Regional offices is shifting back towards a "walls up" mentality and some of their key people just won't meet with industry and you have to seek out other relationships with GSA personnel who want to help and will do what they can.  Unfortunately, folks like this are becoming increasingly hard to find and it's creating anxiety and bad feelings about "getting on" a GSA Schedule.

Without an agency like IRD to assist them, the private sector becomes more likely to act on the misperceptions they hear (some substantiated) about how hard it is to do business with the federal government.  Eventually, this will negatively impact the performance of businesses seeking to and engaging in business with organizations and agencies of our government.  As I write this it's 4 a.m. and I have just experienced another night without sleep thinking about one of my clients who was recently denied a meeting; however, this person was willing to "review the capabilities statement" which is not at all equivalent to a face-to-face meeting.  A capabilities statement is nothing more than government-induced marketing data used by program managers, COTR's and contracting officers to make interpretations and decisions about a firm.  So here I am again, up late or early depending on how you see it, sleep-deprived and wondering if a Congressional inquiry may be in order.  Hmmm, or maybe I just need more sleep.