PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.
NOTE: This may seem like an arcane subject to warrant a blog, but, at least, it’s better than more on the impeachment that grinds on in Washington, D.C. That process seems more like a scripted play than anything else – a play in which the actors, the Democrats and the Republicans, utter hopelessly predictable lines.
The subject in the headline came to my mind late last week as I was invited to attend the annual retreat of the lobbying and public relations company I helped to found more than 25 years ago, CFM Strategic Communications.
Today, I am an emeritus partner, though I don’t get paid to do anything, even as I try to stay in touch with my professional colleagues because, if nothing else, I am a political junkie.
One reason I was asked to be at the annual meeting, I suspect, was that the event was held at a place called Top Golf in Hillsboro, Oregon, which, like other facilities around the country, has a golf driving range, augmented by food and drink.
I am a golfer while many in my old company are not, so there is little doubt but that I was invited to become a temporary golf coach.
In advance of the time on the three-story range, I sat in on about 30 minutes of the all-day meeting which considered company performance issues, including client development. It was reported that, since I retired about three years ago, the company has not been involved as heavily in representing private companies that want to do business with state government.
No surprise there in the sense that my background in state government, before I became a lobbyist, gave me an unusual type of expertise to represent private companies in their bids for state work.
At the same time, it was critical then – and it is critical now — to involve yourself in such representation with a specific set of commitments to preserve the work as being above-board and honest. That’s how we approached the work at CFM – and I recount this, not to take credit for it, but to underline how important it is to represent companies with a strong sense of ethics, including on the part of the companies.
Here is a summary of credentials that are important to do this kind of work. When I first wrote this a few years ago, I labeled it “A Primer on Representing Companies that Want To Do Business with Government, including Oregon State Government.” The title still works today.
There are at least three main keys to success in this line of lobbying; call them the three c’s:
- COMPETING: A major emphasis was to make sure clients understood the need to COMPETE for government business. Sweetheart deals were not in play, at least not as a matter of course — and, if on occasion, they were, I believed our client should remain above and apart from that kind of unseemly fray. We believed public officials needed to justify their decisions in the light of day by verifying that the competitive process they oversaw was fair and open to all comers.
- CONTENT: It was critical for clients to deliver a brief set of messages to the government officials who had circulated a request for proposals. Brief, staccato-like, to the point. Get the attention of those making procurement decisions without boring them with “sales or product pitches.”
There usually were three overarching messages to emphasize — as I called them, “the three on’s:”
* Be on budget: For most governments, there is no more critical commitment than to live within the amount of money that has been dedicated to a project.
* Be on time: Again, it is critical to illustrate an understanding of the time constraints any government is under.
* Be on track and on target: Wishes and designs of the government officials are paramount; clients need to understand they are the consultant, with expertise and experience to be sure, but are reporting to the contracting authority which sets the parameters of a project.
- CREDENTIALS: If someone is applying for a high-level job, there is no substitute for experience. The same was true for companies competing for government business. There is no substitute for experience. Show experiences and successes elsewhere, including welcoming first-hand tours of the sites of the other experiences.
CONCLUSION: Representing companies before government executive agencies can be a private, behind-the-scenes business. For me, it was not. I always registered with the appropriate agency, either the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) or a local government comparator. Our clients also registered.
This illustrated a critical commitment, both for CFM as the lobbyist and for the company seeking government business: There was no substitute for full disclosure.
To provide context for decisions such as this, I provide four examples where our representation helped to produce a contract for a client:
Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS): When Oregon state government set out to establish a new on-line system for managing medical payments for clients under the Medicaid program, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), decided it wanted to compete for the contract, as it done in a number of other MMIS projects around the country. The company came to me to ask for help and I readily agreed.
EDS won the contract. [Then, Hewlett-Packard bought EDS, so the contract was signed by H-P.]
Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network (OWIN): In the aftermath of the 911 terrorist attack in New York, authorities in Oregon agreed that they should create an “interoperable” public safety communications system to assure that various types of first responders could communicate with each other in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. One company that indicated it wanted to compete was M-A/COM Wireless Systems. It came to CFM for help.
M-A/COM won the contract. [The company eventually became Harris Corporation, so the contract was signed by Harris.]
State of Oregon e-government operations: As EDS won the Oregon state government contract to run the MMIS system, its credentials came to the attention of the State of Oregon chief information officer who asked EDS if it would be willing to take over operation of state government’s overarching e-government system.
The answer was yes. And, again, EDS engaged CFM.
EDS won the contract.
Oregon State Capitol Building Renovation: About 15 years ago, the “gold man” at the top of Oregon’s State Capitol building almost came tumbling down in what for Oregon was a major earthquake. That, coupled with a general recognition that parts of the infrastructure for the Capitol building were more than 75 years old, prompted legislative leaders to embark on a major renovation project.
On the construction management competition, a company with a long-standing Oregon office, JE Dunn, decided to submit a bid and sought help from CFM because our firm had worked with company officials over the years on a variety of other projects.
JE Dunn won the contract.
The successful projects listed above underline a final important credential for competing in Oregon — and that is to understand the political context within which procurement decisions will be made. A company doesn’t have to operate offices in Oregon, though that can be a clear advantage if it does. But it does have to illustrate an understanding of the political backdrop which exists for any major government project.
All in all, representing companies competing for government contracts is a purposeful business. It rests on the reputation of a company like CFM, which takes representation seriously and realizes that any useful project will be handled with full disclosure in the light of day. It also rests on the credentials of the company competing for state business.
May the best bid win, not always the lowest bid.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 