Acquisition

Important Skills for Contract Professionals, Part 2

Today, we have answers specifically from Tim Cummins, founder of International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM). Last time we covered core skills as they are defined by IACCM. As a refresher, additional skills are not mandatory for all contract positions. Rather, they are required on a position by position basis. Additional Skills KnowledgeRead… Read more »

Tactical Approaches and Governance relating to the Open Gov Directive

After combing through the Open Government Directive very carefully over the last few days, I transitioned from the strategic to the tactical and started asking the question: How are we actually going to get all of this work done in the next 120 days? Given, the directive calls for some discrete action within the nextRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Controversial security firm loses Kabul contract

Updated 5:48 p.m. ET The State Department will not renew the contract of the private security firm that guards the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, follows allegations of sexual misconduct by the company’s guards and potential weapons shortages at the embassy. A senior State Department official confirmed the contract that ArmorGroup North America’s contract would notRead… Read more »

The role of conflict and mediation in collaboration

As newer, web-enabled forms of collaboration have been gathering steam at all levels of government, it’s common to hear the discussion be all about the positive and little about the negative. But clearly, an ability to accommodate criticism, disagreement, and passionate debate are important aspects of a productive collaboration. The media coverage of the stolenRead… Read more »

Contract Negotiating Lessons from Hell: the DMV

Every interaction is a negotiation, even at the DMV. You can use these lessons to strengthen your contract negotiation skills. Long lines. Paperwork. Inconsistent information. No smiling (in Virginia at least). Yes, the DMV truly is hell. And yet, there is help — use negotiation skills to make friends with DMV employees. It pays off.Read… Read more »

Dept of VA DepSec Gould taking live questions on Weds at 10:00 AM

Deputy Secretary Scott Gould and Glenn Haggstrom, the Executive Director for Acquisitions, Logistics and Construction at VA will take questions on VA acquisitions & procurement, as well as provide an update to VA’s Supplier Relationship Transformation Initiative via live webinar Wednesday, December 9 at 10:00 AM EST. This webinar is a follow-up to the SupplierRead… Read more »

TSP Weekly Wrap-Up

Hi everyone – It’s your weekly dose of TSP Talk from www.tsptalk.com. Last week was certainly an interesting week as we started out on Monday, coming off of that large sell-off on the Friday before caused by the Dubai credit issue. The low volume sell-off left questions as to how investors would react when theyRead… Read more »

Webinar next Wednesday on VA’s Supplier Relationship Transformation Effort

The Department of Veterans Affairs is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, December 9 at 10:00 AM EST to discuss the status of its Supplier Relationship Transformation Effort. VA began this innovative effort, working with the vendor community, to effectively and efficiently deliver the highest quality cost-effective products and services to Veterans, at the right time,Read… Read more »