HII recent technology service contract wins include the $1.3 billion U.S. Africa Command Personnel Recovery Enterprise Services and Solutions (PRESS) task order.
HII has caught the attention of the investment community with a series of significant contract wins to provide support services to multiple branches of the U.S. military.
While the contracts are for widely varied mission-critical work — from technical analysis and research on artificial intelligence for the Air Force Research Laboratory, to casualty evacuation support to a geographic combatant command — they highlight HII’s growing reputation for success in the management and execution of U.S. government programs, and demonstrate HII’s steady progress in translating its strength in naval shipbuilding to becoming a premier service-solutions provider to all branches of the military, in all domains.
HII: Optimizing for agility at scale
So how did HII win these large service contracts? First: by recognizing the necessity of empowering nimble and inventive teams to tailor solutions to the customer. HII’s acquisition of several companies with specialized capabilities and top engineering and technical talent, and positioning them within HII’s Mission Technologies division, enabled agility and innovation within the context of HII’s credibility, infrastructure and resources.
Garry Schwartz is chief operating officer for HII Mission Technologies.
“Security, subcontracts, talent acquisition, human resources — everybody at HII pitches in and they’re focused on timely and successful execution,” said Garry Schwartz, who was recently promoted to chief operating officer for Mission Technologies. “It’s the agile mindset across the business that actually enables program managers to succeed.”
Second: Rather than selling a product or service, HII presents customers with the platform and solution-agnostic options that meet their customers’ unique requirements. While HII is also a provider of its own mission systems, the company believes that its credibility comes from providing tailorable solutions to complex customer problems.
“Our philosophy is to approach every program through the lens of the warfighter,” Schwartz said. “It’s not about HII and its products and services; it’s the best solutions and the best team in the service of the mission. Some companies only sell hammers and hope that customers will believe that every problem is a nail. The truth is, that’s not the case. HII is remarkably good at understanding the mission first, then assessing the pros and cons of both its own products and services and those from other companies and presenting those options with explanations about how each will operationally support commanders.”
Trust, objectivity, ingenuity, credibility. Those are some of the most important attributes HII can bring to the customer and none of them can be bought, said HII Mission Technologies COO Garry Schwartz.
When HII’s C5ISR business unit recently competed to provide a combatant command solution for a contractor owned/contractor operation (COCO) airborne medical and casualty evacuation program, it brought multiple aircraft platforms to the table with detailed reviews of the strengths and weaknesses of each platform to support the mission. The company won that task order.
HII also prides itself on partnering with people and companies that have the right mission focus. For larger programs, HII shrewdly puts together large teams to ensure it has the breadth, depth, and diversity of expertise needed for the job — even when partnering with outside companies.
“For HII, it’s about getting the right partners and solutions on the job,” Schwartz said. “When a contract calls for a smaller team, the same strategy is in effect: solve the customers’ problems and successfully complete the mission.”
HII has earned its reputation for trust, objectivity, and credibility, something that Department of Defense contracting officers often say they see too little of. This is HII’s plan of action for programs big and small. It’s also a strategy that focuses on the mission.
That’s especially important for programs that are award-fee contracts with performance evaluated by their respective military commands every six months at award boards. Because the fee comes from performance, HII thrives in this model.
HII is very proud of its exceptional win rate on re-competes. Once the company starts working with a customer, it tends to hold onto that relationship for a long time because of trust built by putting mission ahead of revenue.
The company knows that if it does the right thing for the mission then good things will follow, such as a doubling the size of a recent Air Force Research Laboratory AI/cyber task order because of the success that HII demonstrated over the previous five years.
Schwartz emphasized, “Trust, objectivity, ingenuity, credibility. Those are some of the most important attributes HII can bring to the customer and none of them can be bought. They have to be earned by understanding customer missions and successfully executing on task orders. The proof is HII’s strong win rate.”
HII is clearly demonstrating that its transformation to a solution provider beyond shipbuilding is very real.
