The Good:  Your CEO scored a meeting with the head of a major customer agency.  The Bad:  It’s about negative performance on one of your contracts.  The Ugly:  The Hill and the media are now also involved.

Contractors need to remember that there can be substantial penalties for non-performance, sometimes regardless of how much a specific incident is “your fault”.  HP Enterprise Services (HPES) CEO Meg Whitman learned that one the hard way when she recently met with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to explain remedial action her firm was taking to improve performance on its ACES contract with the agency.  Though HPES perhaps lagged in implementation and service levels, experience contractors know that there is also a good bet that NASA created post-award hurdles on its end that contributed to the creation of a negative situation.  No matter, it’s the contractor’s reputation on the line and, in this case, HPES is truly under the gun to make things better.  All contractors need to understand that there is more to federal business than just conducting it.  The oversight and political aspects can substantially impact your company if it is not prepared.  Make sure your firm knows what it’s getting into before it bids on that next big, visible project.