Noblis has taken the concept of employee recognition to an extreme that some employees think borders on absurdity. People are given awards for simply being a part of a team or for re-publishing the same paper for the 10th time in one of the company’s many unread publications. Noblis hands out more prizes for ‘just showing up’ than a typical college sorority
Noblis’ self-funded research is a great idea but is typically not utilized for anything innovative. The company funds initiatives in trendy areas like ‘carbon foot printing’ or ‘cyber security’ – but these efforts are usually less serious or impactful than a high school junior achievement project. Most are mothballed after a single ‘research season.’
Noblis, which was spawned from Mitre about 15 years ago, has struggled to build its own identity or grow its own market base. It survives on a few ‘milk cow’ contracts with the federal government’s GSA/FTS program that have – for some inexplicable reason – been sole sourced to Noblis since the days of Mitre. Noblis provides little more than paper shuffling amd meeting management services on these contracts. Once part of an esteemed government think tank, Noblis is now frequently viewed as a government welfare program for people with advanced degrees.
The CEO means well and has tried to change the culture of lazyness. Several high profile VPs have been brought in and have attempted to “light a fire” under the middle layer of management, only to encounter a passive but powerful and institutionalized resistance to change.
