Noblis is struggling to shift from the traditional "directed, sole-source awards" revenue model to a competitive revenue model requiring aggressive capture management and mature proposal development procedures.
Many of the employees have VERY long tenures with Noblis, starting back in the MITRE days before Mitretek Systems (rebranded to Noblis in 2008) broke away from MITRE in 1996. Although this wealth of individual experience can be a strength, several "cons" also emerge from this demographics reality. Almost all the executive and management positions are staffed by former MITRE individuals who gained their business experience within a cloistered FFRDC (Federal Funded Research and Development Center) world. Most of these individuals lack the experience or inclination to aggressively pursue Federal business in an increasingly competitive landscape. Additionally, many of these managers lack the "people skills" or any type of "management by objectives" leadership as these were long serving "technical contributors" (i.e. scientist) which were promoted by a system that seems to reward length of service over demonstrated capability. Strong cliques are in place at Noblis. If you are within one of these cliques, you are safe. If you offend or find yourself on the outside of these cliques, you can find yourself marginalized, ignored, and sometimes even searching for coverage on a project.
This has resulted in almost no revenue growth for the company in at least five years which significantly limits opportunities. Since many individuals stay with the company for much - or the entirety of the career - there is little room for real advancement. This is not a company you can join, develop business cases/proposals, execute, achieve objectives and receive compensation. The company uses metrics such as "head count" or "FTE" to measure program growth. Lacking in the analysis are financial concepts of profitability, margins, ROI, NPV and the real use of business cases for decision support.
The "Baby Boomers" are the ones running the show at Noblis. The numbers of Baby Boomers far outweighs the number of Generation X employees. Due to the bad economy and comfortable dynamics for Baby Boomers, many of these individuals have delayed retirement to continue working at Noblis. Just recently, a concerted effort was undertaken to identify, mentor and train a new generation of leaders. Unfortunately, for the Gen X crowd, the Baby Boomers have looked almost exclusively to the Generation Y crowd for future leaders and have handed out scarce growth opportunities to Gen Y over many qualified, patient Gen X employees.
Senior leadership has continued to identify, recruit and hire executive leaders, business development managers, proposal managers and other skill sets to reorient the direction of the company to the competitive space. Despite these laudable efforts, "business oriented" new hires (i.e. BD managers, sales, proposal leaders) often become frustrated with the entrenched behaviors which are slow to recognize the changing business realities and adjust the corporations approach. There is a lot of turnover with these type of individuals - business development personnel in particular as these individuals seem to be changing every 1-2 years, not enough time for a BD person to learn the entire corporation's capabilities, build rapport within the organization and engage in long term marketing efforts across the Federal government Departments and agencies.
Change is the new flag being flown at Noblis. This was started in 2008 when Noblis announced their second CEO in the company's history - Amr ElSawy. In concert with this announcement, the company was rebranded from Mitretek Systems to Noblis. ElSawy has championed meaningful policy changes and initiated programs, however, the "rank and file" of Noblis has very slow to adopt these new behaviors. Due to the scientific mentality of a large portion of the employee base, a certain profile of fierce independence, reluctance to change, the need to analyze (analysis paralysis alert!) dominates even the most minor policy or procedure change. Even changes specifically endorsed by the CEO and his executive board are challenged and resisted by the long serving, entrenched middle management of Noblis. This can be very discouraging for those supporting the innovations and programs that ElSawy is championing at the company. Some individuals are fighting these changes, while at the same acknowledging that the status quo is unmaintainable, but lack a reasonable alternative to the proposed change.
The benefits at Noblis used to be superior to almost any other company, but recently, significant cost cutting measures have reduced the value of these benefits in measurable ways. The health plan shift from 2010 to 2011 (Cigna) represents a very significant increase in employee borne cost.
