TO A SELECT FEW:

WILFONG'S THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
JANUARY 20, 2007

ISSUANCE NO. 3437: LET US TELL YOU A LITTLE STORY....

Back a long time ago, an energetic group of fairly young entrepreneurs got together with a few "old pros" and developed a thing we called, "The 8(a) Program". A youngish Congressman from a place called Baltimore, with the help of some dudes from Detroit, New York and California, formalized it under a law entitled P.L. 95-507.

The Law basically allowed the federal Government to take contracts and set them aside for award to firms owned by socially and economically disadvantaged persons. You know, it was very much like they take contracts like Space Station, Iraq Rebuilding , Gulf Rebuilding, etc. and set them aside for the Big Guys, now.

We entrepreneurs were charged with "Self-Marketing" for these requirements. That is, we firm owners had to seek out contractual opportunities and convince program people and contracting officers to take the requirements from their "general" market, and convince them that we were ready, willing, and able to perform the service or produce the product-on time and at a fair price.

An important part of the process was "negative impact survey". In other words, before the Agency could take this opportunity out of the general market, they (SBA) had to determine that the contract was not so vital to the business base of another SMALL company that it would have a "negative impact". The threshold was 20%. If it would have such an effect of 20% diminution of the contract base--there was no deal.

We went out and "Self-Marketed" about $5 billion worth of contracts over the next several years. We were in SDB Heaven. We saw the figure rising to $20 billion of so by the year 2000. We're sorry to say, however, that the 8(a) figure is "stuck" on $5 billion. What happened??

Well, a number of things. But, the main thing is "Self-Marketing", as we defined it and knew it is gone. Today it is seen basically as "I'll sell you on why you should take the 8(a) contract that "XYZ" had and award it to me." But, you might ask, "What about the "negative impact" on "XYZ"? "Tough" is the answer. Even if this means that XYZ loses 80% of its contract base. As to the new firm bringing in new contract opportunities-fuggitaboutit.

So, today, we've got the original $5 billion base of contracts "revolving" from one group of new 8(a) recruits to another. We've heard a lot of suggestions on "bundling" being a problem. We've yet to hear anything about "negative impact surveys". We don't hear about "self-marketing" responsibilities. We don't hear about them bringing new requirements into the program.

The 8(a) Program has pretty much become a minority-business welfare program. We, and those dudes from long ago didn't intend it to be this way.

Are we the only ones who remember things like this? Are we the only ones who care???

The struggle continues, until we succeed-and we shall,

Henry T. Wilfong Jr., MBA, CPA
President, NASDB
Current or Former Positions:
Three-time Appointee of Governor and President Ronald Reagan
Pasadena, CA City Councilman
Member, Bush-Cheney Transition Team-SBA Advisory Group
Member, Department of Energy, Small Business Advisory Committee
Associate Administrator for Minority Small Business/Capital Ownership Development, SBA
Member, National Council on Policy Review-Black Capitalism
Member, Presidential Task Force on International Private Enterprise
Member, California Council on Criminal Justice
Member, NASA Advisory Council
Chair, NASA Minority Business Resource Advisory Committee

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