Interview transcribed:
Jim Carroll I spent my almost the entirety of my career working for the government, starting out local in Virginia, in Fairfax County, going to the state and eventually going to the federal government. And so I spent the first 20 years of my life working as a government employee. I switched to the private sector for about 10 years and then came back. And most recently left the federal government again, about three weeks ago. And it’s great to be back at PSC. And really, I think the reason that it attracted me so much was I felt this was the perfect marriage of my background of understanding the federal government, while also understanding the needs of the GovCon industry and the ability to work right alongside federal government employees.
Terry Gerton Well, whenever anybody comes into a new position like this, you get to reset the vision and the mission of the organization. What is your vision for PSC as you take it over?
Jim Carroll So this is my third week, and what’s really clear to me is that PSC is staffed with some incredible people really trying to do the absolute best of showcasing what government contractors can do in conjunction with federal government employees and these departments and agencies. And I really think my vision is making sure that everyone understands the value of the GovCon industry, and everyone understands that some of the changes that we’re talking about today are actually something that we have been encouraging for years, frankly, if not decades. And so, my vision is to really make sure that we are very visible in the administration, on Capitol Hill and that we’re representing all of our small, medium, and large member companies.
Terry Gerton Well, this is certainly an interesting time for the government contracting community. I mean, GSA just issued another memo asking 10 more firms to volunteer their cost reductions and efficiencies. How are you making the case for the value of federal contractors right now?
Jim Carroll These cost cutting initiatives that they’re asking us to think about are ones that we’ve actually been talking about: Doing away with some of the red tape, doing away with some of that bureaucracy that’s been holding us back, and deliver efficiency and flexibility at greater scale. It’s a difficult letter to read if you take it just at face value. But really what it is saying is, how can we be more efficient? How can we drive innovation? And we’re very happy to tell that story. We’re very pleased to be able to mention to all of our contracting officers, as well as the new administrators and secretaries who are taking over these departments, about our story and what we really can do.
Terry Gerton Well, certainly one of the biggest sectors for government contracting is the defense industry and Secretary Hegseth’s just come out with a new memo driving that same theme. What are you hearing there?
Jim Carroll What we’re hearing, again, when you look at Secretary Hegseth’s memo is a request to drive efficiency in the government. And our contractors are the government, right? The people that we send in, or the technology that we send in is, in fact, providing the best resources. I’ll be going up today to Capitol Hill to talk about some of the DOD issues and meeting, you know, with some staff and some members today to talk about the Hegseth memo. And we’ll be going over to DOD soon, to meet with some senior leadership, to make sure that they understand what we intend to do and how we intend, to not only comply with that memo, but to help them. And so this is an exciting opportunity for us, and we’re going to take full advantage of it.
Terry Gerton I guess the general gist of the memo has been teased or highlighted. You kind of knew it was coming, but was there anything specific in the memo that caught your eye or that your members are responding to?
Jim Carroll I think that one of the things that we are responding to is…a memo that was released the same day about the contract guidance. The specificity that was in that memo about how they want the federal contractors to be able to ensure that what we are delivering demonstrates value, and the specificity when they went through with the codes, talking about exactly how we should work closely with them — I was pleased to see that level of specificity. I think that gives us the opportunity to showcase what we really can do and we are fully expecting to be able to meet this challenge and we can’t wait to be to demonstrate our value.
Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Jim Carroll. He’s the new CEO of the Professional Services Council. So Jim, does this memo from Secretary Hegseth ask contractors to do anything different right away?
Jim Carroll Yes and no, but I think, Terry, you mentioned it a minute ago. We saw this coming very quickly, right? We saw some of the conversations, not only from the day after the election, but during the campaign, really about what the American taxpayers want. And what they want is a government that is not bloated. What they want is efficiency. And what the want is good value, and we can do all of that. There were really no surprises, in one sense, with this memo because we’ve been preparing for this since last summer and certainly, you know, since the election. The conversations have been the same. This is just a memorialized reflection of what we’ve already been doing behind the scenes preparing for this.
Terry Gerton Well, Tim, you mentioned a minute ago your upcoming conversations with folks on the Hill. How is PSC, under your leadership, going to advocate with GSA for the contracting community? This administration is centralizing a lot of procurement into GSA. What role is PSA going to play there?
Jim Carroll I think our best role is as they appear to be gaining strength and gaining influence is to partner with them and just really sit alongside them as they try to take over all of this ability to harness the innovation, technology services, solutions that we provide. It’s to sit alongside them and tell them what we’re absolutely capable of, and I actually think that we’ll be able to demonstrate to them our ability to exceed their wildest expectations in terms of delivering. And so I’m optimistic about working with GSA. There’s some really great people over there and we’re going to try this and see if this is the most efficient way for the government to operate and we’ll be a partner with them throughout this.
Terry Gerton So does that mean that PSC is going to be at the table as GSA and the administration have some of these really big policy and process conversations like the FAR overhaul, for example, are they seeking out your input?
Jim Carroll They are aware of what we bring. We are offering the opportunity to sit down with us and learn from the expertise that we have. And they have been very receptive as they’re going forward in this. You know, this is a little bit new to them as well. GSA has obviously done a lot of contracting over the years, but with more and more contracting coming to them, they are facing an uphill challenge. I’m sure they’ll be able to reach it. In the conversations that we’ve had so far, they’re open to the ideas of sitting down and making sure that we’re actually helping them achieve their mission. We’re not an obstacle, we’re a partner.
Terry Gerton That’s a good approach to take, and I’m sure, you know, as we’re talking about folks listening, you’ve probably been on a listening tour with your members. What are you hearing from your members as you get started?
Jim Carroll That we’re not just services, we’re solutions. And I think that the S of PSC stands for services and solutions because we really do have — when you sit down, what I’m hearing from our members, and you’re right, I’ve been on a listening tour, I think it’s more like drinking from a fire hose the last two weeks — but as I’m on this listening tour and they’re explaining exactly what they’re doing has really been an eye-opening experience. You know, the technology that we bring, as well as the flexibility — and I think that’s really a key word — is that we can scale up, we can scale down much faster than some of the government agencies and employees. And again, we love our government employees, we sit right next to them. We are shoulder to shoulder. But we can respond and move resources so much faster. And that’s been highlighted in the listening sessions that I’ve had so far. And I have another day full of them. Like I said, today’s listening sessions will be on the Hill. And then the rest of the week, I’ll also be back and forth with some of our member companies. And so it’s really been exciting.
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