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Taking Apart a Press Release
And now for the late-night rant...
I was just reading a PR about a company getting a good-sized contract from USAID, which is the organization that provides assistance around the world in support of our Department Of State. You can find the release here. Let's take this apart piece-by-piece and ask ourselves some critical-thinking questions -- BTW, I have nothing against ICOR or USAID, I simply chose this release as a random example.
Q. How much is the contract for?
A. Looks like about 90 mil
Q. What is ICOR supposed to be doing?
A. They "will provide an advanced set of strategic management consulting services to include strategic planning, program integration, enterprise architecture, systems engineering, strategic portfolio management, investment governance, and PMO services."
Q. Sounds impressive. What does that mean?
A. Beats me. It could mean anything.
Q. Is there anything it doesn't cover?
A. From the PR, I guess it doesn't cover operations. Wait. That's the next paragraph. "The team will support USAID and DOS organizational alignment, business and technology transformation, and BSM efforts to include the deployment of integrated financial and procurement systems overseas."
Q. Wasn't BSM the abbreviation of that IRS project that blew billions of dollars and got nothing in return?
A. Yes. It is a bad acronym and should be avoided at all costs.
Q. If the contractor is going to be doing organizational alignment, investment governance, enterprise architecture, and portfolio management, what are the USAID managers doing?
A. Playing golf? Appearing on TV? Employee management? I honestly don't know. Investment governance, or "what are we spending money on" along with the PMO and portfolio functions are the key pieces of any business. Why the heck a contractor would be doing your key business is beyond me. If you don't know your business well enough to do it, then how would the contractor? And if you do know your business well enough, why would you trust it with anyone else? Implementing your portfolio operations, sure. Even supporting portfolio-type operations. But performing them? Geesh!
Q. How could a contract be awarded like this?
A. One of two options -- either the PR is misleading (which I'm guessing would be ICOR's response. I'm absolutely certain that ICOR is not taking over mission critical management decisions) or the customer didn't really know what they wanted. A bunch of nice people in nice clothes sat down in front of them, the ICOR people made the best impression, and bingo-slamo you've got yourself a $90 million contract.
Here's a final word -- I think the world of the job both ICOR, USAID, and DOS are doing (disclaimer. I have worked with projects associated with DOS in the past.) This PR indicates a contract that is fair, balanced, and unafraid. The people involved all have the highest motives, and I'm sure USAID will get their money's worth.
The subject of this post, and the point I am making, is that the entire concept of these huge contractual monstrosities does not meet the needs of the participants. Too many times, (and I'm not saying this is the case here) these contracts can mean anything from "wash the clothes, keep the lights on, do all the work, I'll take credit and send you a check" to "don't do a thing unless I strictly tell you." Most times the legalese can be read either way, and in actuality it's more like the former than the latter. Then performance is poor, people complain, money is poured down the drain, and everybody walks away with clean hands. It's a great country, no?
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