SPI President & CEO Mary Scott Nabers
Hundreds of companies from Canada, Europe and Asia are sending representatives to the United States each week to set up operations. Their objective is pursuit of upcoming opportunities in the United States government marketplace.
The new competitors have done their homework and they are interested most in state and local opportunities. Most focus on regional public markets rather than on the federal government. That’s because the upcoming opportunities at the state and local levels of government are more abundant and the bureaucracy, although it still exists, is much smaller.
The task of preparing to compete for business, however, can be daunting. In America, there are 50 states, 3,000-plus counties and more than 36,000 township and municipal governments…not to mention special districts, quasi-agencies, school districts, military bases, public hospitals, port authorities, transportation authorities and hundreds of colleges and universities. They are all different.
Once a jurisdictional level of government is deemed to be of interest, there is much to research. The states are structured differently, as are cities, counties and regional authorities. Every public entity has its own way of procuring services and requiring registrations and certifications.
At the state level, there are two categories of governing structures. Some states are managed by a cabinet style of government. When this is the case, the governor is very strong. Appointees to the various agencies report directly to the governor and when a governor leaves office, the appointees are out of power as well. Other states have a strong agency governing structure and most of the power resides with elected and/or appointed individuals who govern from agencies. In this case, it is not uncommon to see an agency official stay in a position for more than a decade and these individuals wield quite a bit of power.
At the local levels of government, there are even more governing structures. Some municipalities are managed by a strong mayor-council type of government while others are set up to operate through a strong city manager.
Once a new company has maneuvered the intricacies of governing structures, certification processes and registration, it is important to learn a bit about the politics of the public entity, the history of the people in power, the fiscal year and budget process and finally how procurement works.
While it sounds almost intimidating – and, in the beginning it can be frightening – the rewards are great and the opportunities are large and abundant. It’s a multi-trillion-dollar marketplace…and it will likely double over the next decade. That justifies the effort.