From the Editor-in-Chief O @
Email Nelson McCouch III
ArmyALT@gmail.com
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K, what do Yankee Candle Co., Mattel Inc. and Apple Inc. have in common? While they are titans of industry today, they all started out as
small businesses and grew to dominate their mar- kets. No overnight successes here, just a vision for a product or service and, in most cases, decades of hard work to get to where they are now. So, what does this have to do with Army acquisition, you might ask?
Well, just like those companies, there are small businesses out there today with cutting-edge technology or products. Small business provides many of the same services and products that large companies do: aircraft, ships, land vehicles, elec- tronic equipment, weapons and ammunition, medical services and even research and devel- opment. With a little help from the Army, that technology or product will provide our Soldiers a decisive advantage in any mission.
Tey may be small, but these businesses have a huge impact on America and the Army. Accord- ing to President Obama, “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of our communities. Tey create two of every three new jobs in America, spur economic growth, and spark new industries across the country.” Along those lines, the Army, as part of DOD’s commit- ment to maximizing the contributions of small business in acquisitions, leads all the other services in supporting small businesses and ensuring that they have a place at the table. For 2015, the Army obligated more than $17 billion in “small business eligible” dollars to more than 20,000 businesses. In doing so, the Army blew past its target obliga- tion goal of 26.5 percent for those eligible dollars, as measured against overall small business-eligible contract spending, and reached a DOD best of 31.6 percent!
Far from a jobs program, the Army’s focus on small businesses is just good sense. Small businesses increase competition and broaden the industrial base, resulting in better value, cost and contract performance—all vital elements of the Hon.
Frank Kendall’s Better Buying Power 3.0. Also, small businesses have several advantages over large businesses: Tey tend to be nimbler and quicker to innovate. An owner can make a decision quickly without going through a huge bureaucracy if she or he thinks an idea will work. Small businesses inter- act with their customers on a daily basis and know them personally. Your business is their livelihood, not just another account; and they want to expand their revenue and market share to possibly become the next Apple, so performance is critical.
Much of the $17 billion the Army obligates to small business is courtesy of Army acquisition—which makes sense because everything the Soldier uses on the battlefield is acquired by us. In this issue, we feature Tommy Marks, director of the Army’s Office of Small Business Programs. Learn how he and his office identify small businesses and help them compete for Army contracts, and why small is good. See how our Program Executive Office for Ammunition is working with small business to fill a capability gap that large manufacturers haven’t filled: replacing brass casings with a polymer that could lead to as much as a 30 percent reduction in the weight of small-caliber ammunition! Tink you have what it takes to sell to the Army? Just like the popular TV show “Shark Tank,” experi- ence how small (even minute) businesses compete in the Army’s first Cyber Innovation Challenge to sell their promising technologies for cyber Sol- diers to use.
Finally, we bid farewell to our leader of the past five years, Ms. Heidi Shyu. Along with her keen sense of humor, we’ll miss her staunch advocacy for budget certainty, research and development investments, small business and the Army Acquisi- tion Workforce. Best wishes, Ms. Shyu, on your future endeavors from your acquisition family!
As always, if you have suggestions, comments or story ideas to help make the magazine better, please contact me at
ArmyALT@gmail.com. And, don’t forget, there is more content online with our digital platform. See what you’re missing at http://
usaasc.armyalt.com. Cheers!
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
ASC.ARMY.MIL 5
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