Sometimes the best defense is diversified

Simon Everett has been supporting kglobal, a DC-based communications firm, on an innovative grant program aimed at helping defense firms diversify in anticipation of declining defense spending. Two of South Carolina’s jobs agencies – the Department of Employment and Workforce and the Department of Commerce – are sponsoring an initiative to offer business consulting services to companies that will be negatively impacted by Department of Defense budget cuts.

kglobal (a Zenetex company) and Simon Everett have teamed to help these firms by conducting internal business assessments, identifying adjacent markets for targeted business development, and crafting strategic messaging initiatives to reach multiple stakeholder audiences. Our tailored suite of consulting services is helping SC-based defense firms to better understand and manage internal and external factors affecting the success of their approaches to new markets. As a result, South Carolina will improve its economic resilience and the defense sector will retain key capabilities and expertise for future needs.

We look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with kglobal and supporting additional SC firms in their diversification pursuits. To that end, South Carolina is still accepting grant applications. If your business operates in South Carolina and is interested in reaching new markets, just take two easy steps: 1) send us an email at inquiries@simon-everett.com, and 2) download the Defense Industry Adjustment Application from Commerce’s website to see if your company qualifies.

Crossing t's and dotting coms

We are pleased to announce that the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded Simon Everett a prime contract to conduct a desk study review of Kenya’s National Cybersecurity Master Plan.

This project is particularly exciting for us, since Kenya is at the leading edge of cyberspace in Africa. Although it has long been a regional finance and technology hub, Kenya’s reputation as an incubator for emerging technologies leaped after the 2007 launch of M-PESA - a platform that is now recognized as a mobile payments pioneer. But in Kenya as elsewhere, the transformative promise of innovative information and communications technologies (ICT) goes hand in hand with cybersecurity risks.

In 2011, USTDA awarded a grant to the Government of Kenya to procure technical assistance with national-level cybersecurity planning. USTDA sponsors projects like this all over the world - in order to both spur economic development and expand the global market for American goods and services. As both a force for growth and a force for good, USTDA represents a salient success story for American foreign policy: the agency indicates that it is now generating $76 of returns for every $1 invested in international programs.

To ensure that its investment in Kenya’s cybersecurity future maps to the objectives of the grant, USTDA has retained Simon Everett to critically review the Master Plan and its associated components. We have developed an analytic framework that enables the technical expertise of our team to be applied in an objective, constructive, and logical fashion. Although this is the final step of this particular grant process, it’s just the beginning of an enhanced cybersecurity posture for Kenya and a new period of opportunity for cutting-edge American cybersecurity firms in East Africa.

One year in: retrospection, prospection

Is our first year already in the books? It seems like Brian and I were searching high and low for the perfect shade of Simon Everett purple just last week. When we turned the lights on back in January, we set reasonable expectations for what we could accomplish this year. Having helped launch new organizations before, we knew the early wins would be the hardest to secure. Building a business would take time, persistence, and a healthy dose of luck.

2014 turned out to be everything we planned for – and more. We’ve told you a bit about our portfolio throughout the year, but I’ll try to cram it all into one word: diversity. Project topics have ranged from municipal governance to emerging technologies to cyber strategy. Our clients are equally varied: they represent the public, private, and non-profit sectors, and they range in size from two employees to several thousand. We tallied nine discrete engagements, some of which have already concluded (while others are ongoing). We also secured a prime government contract, a milestone we didn’t expect to reach in our first year of operations.

If we started 2014 with cautious optimism, we are launching into 2015 with unbridled energy. In our search for analysts who run towards the hard problems, we have been steadily expanding our network of regional and functional specialists. We have strengthened long-standing partnerships and are forging new ones with both small and large businesses. We have joined key contract vehicles that will make it simpler for government agencies to access our services, and we are bidding on several large analytic services programs throughout the national security community.

The foundation is in place, and now we’re ready to build on it. Happy New Year to our families, friends, consultants, and colleagues, and many thanks for helping us to realize a successful year. See you in 2015.