Strategic advice on winning with government

Working with government is hard and confusing, and organizations need good strategies to win.

I currently offer consulting services to organizations who either work with government, or are considering working with government. If you’re interested in working with me, grab a time on my calendar.

Services

Shaping a public-sector go-to-market strategy. Let’s face it, there are tons of folks who will promise you a leg up on working with government. I don’t. Instead, I offer practical insight into both traditional and unconventional methods of working with and near different layers of government so that you can have the best strategic approach. If you’re looking for a Rolodex with beltway or city-hall contacts, I can make referrals. But if you’ve developed a product or a service that’s been successful outside of government and are looking for advice into how to extend and leverage the unique capabilities that made you successful in the first place, I’m looking forward to partnering with you to achieve your organization’s goals.

Assessing an organization’s approach. Every organization has unique capabilities that make it successful. But due to inertia, entropy, and growth, organizations often miss opportunities to add new capabilities or to address those lingering sore spots where things don’t work quite as well as they used to. An effective strategic approach requires a clear-eyed assessment of the organizations’ goals, the landscape, the unique qualities of a company, and the actions needed to achieve the goals. For organizations that work with the government, I can provide a unique perspective about how to achieve your goals and leverage your organization’s capabilities. As someone with expertise in providing services to government and experience managing organizations large and small, I can help you assess and improve on your existing organization’s strategy, and identify new opportunities for organizational improvement.

Ad hoc advice. Sometimes you just want to pick up the phone or send an email and ask someone a question or get some advice. When you’re dealing with government, that happens… a lot. I may not know the answer right away, but there’s a decent chance I know someone who might and an equally decent chance that I’ve seen something similar. I work on a retainer basis with companies that need an extra set of eyes and some insight.

Workshops

How government really works. Set aside a half day with you and your team, and I’ll run through the fundamentals of how government really works. I’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly in government, from city-hall politics to appropriations to regulations to procurement. During this workshop, I provide a realpolitik — though admittedly optimistic — look at how government gets stuff done so that you can have a better understanding of how to navigate government bureaucracies.