Alion’s Phyllis Turvey: OCI routing system among keys to adaption
September 2nd, 2009 by JD KathuriaPhyllis Turvey is corporate director of contracts for Alion Science and Technology. Here’s her take on the current contracts environment:
ExecutiveBiz: Obviously, OCI is a big topic for industry right now. How are you addressing it?
Phyllis Turvey: With our acquisition of some of Anteon’s assets [in June 2006], we’ve been very aware of the increased scrutiny on OCI. What we’ve seen is we really need to vet our teaming partners to make sure they don’t have any conflicts with work we’re performing. We also have to be very aware of our partner’s [potential] conflicts. Our OCI system allows us to immediately identify any potential conflict to determine whether it’s mitigatable or one we just have to walk away from.
ExecutiveBiz: What advice can you offer other contracts executives in this current environment?
Phyllis Turvey: Number one: Remember that contracts is a service function; we serve our customers. We have multiple customers: external customers like the government and internal customers … the line performing the work for those government customers. It’s really important as a contracts person to remember your customer service and remember your objectives to make sure the customer gets what they need. We need to work together with the line organizations and our customers to address the changes we see happening and what they think their agencies are going to do. It’s also important to retain focus.
ExecutiveBiz: How can contracts executives retain that focus?
Phyllis Turvey: As contracts professionals, there are a lot of things that can be distracting. If you say, “This is what we need to do for our customer,” that helps a lot. In my case, at the beginning of each day, I ask myself, “What are the six most important things that I’m going to do today and how do they relate to our customers?” I try to make sure that those items get done. In addition I make sure to go out and meet with our customers. A lot of times we, as contracts people, tend to be internally focused. Sometimes you need to turn that focus externally and go out and talk to your customers about what they’re seeing and what is happening in their agencies.
ExecutiveBiz: How are you able to retain smart, technical talent?
Phyllis Turvey: Alion is an employee owned company; we get stock in Alion through our ESOP program. It was a factor for me in coming here and it’s a factor for other people. When you own a piece of the company you work that much harder and you care that much more about the company. You are less likely to leave it for another position.
ExecutiveBiz: Where would you like to see Alion a year or two from now?
Phyllis Turvey: I think Alion does really good work for our customers; I’d like to see us continue to provide that good work, providing the really interesting technical things that we do for our customers. My hope is that we stay in the spaces that we are most proficient in — areas like naval architecture and marine engineering, defense operations, and systems engineering — and keep doing that work for those customers and try to grow the business in that way. I think our customers appreciate the really smart guys we have doing that work. So I’d like to see us stay in those areas and just keep growing those areas with a good technical team.
Return to Top Contracts Execs feature.
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- Stacy Mendler of Alion: Technology and budget trends to watch
