State remains a laggard in attracting major investment for its military sector.
Six years ago, I wrote my first column for this magazine.I had just retired from newspapers after more than 40 years, but I wanted to keep writing. I started freelancing for Business North Carolina.
Time passed. The editor had an opening in the magazine’s Daily Digest newsletter teams so I started writing the Tuesday Digest. Looking for stories, I got interested in the military economy in North Carolina. I kept running into companies in the sector. In retrospect, this is unsurprising. The military makes up the second-largest sector of the state’s economy, behind agriculture. That surprised me, even though I had worked in Raleigh since 1996. The state’s military installations are from Havelock to Jacksonville, where the Marines live. They are in Fayetteville, where Fort Liberty is located. The Air Force is in Goldsboro, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
There are 91,000 active-duty warfighters, 20,000 guard and reservists and nearly 23,000 civilians based at our installation, yet it is easy to live in the cities and be unaware of the opportunities that come with being a defense state. This is a problem. More folks should know about the military in North Carolina.
Leaving Money on the Table
North Carolina could get more business from the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and the intelligence community if more folks knew how. North Carolina punches below its weight in defense R&D spending relative to defense-related personnel, ranking 26th in contracts but fourth in uniformed and civilian DoD personnel here.
This idea was reinforced for me at a June conference at the NC Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park. The two-day military medical conference was sponsored by the North Carolina Military Business Center and the Biotech Center. The purpose of the first day was to help companies understand how to do business with military medical and biodefense agencies.
The last speaker of the day was Liz Powell, a Washington lobbyist whose firm helps life sciences companies get military R&D funding. She has raised $528 million for clients. Powell spoke for 45 minutes, a tour through programs and agencies, their quirks and tendencies. She gave her listeners concrete things they could do to get federal funding. Some were common sense: Attend conferences, meet decision-makers, build relationships. A lot was stuff that would take a long time to learn on your own.
It was a valuable session for folks in the room. But a lot of folks who needed to hear it weren’t there. It was the kind of presentation that should be on the road every week in North Carolina.
Getting the Word Out
We have a group of folks trying to do this, with limited resources, organizations working to boost our share of the defense budget. This includes the Military Business Center, and its Defense Technology Transition Office. The Defense Alliance of North Carolina. The Biotech Center. The Board of Science, Technology & Innovation. NC State’s Industry Expansion Solutions. The UNC System. First Flight Venture Center at RTP. The Global TransPark in Kinston. The Small Business Center Network and the SBTDC. They are all working parts of the problem as an informal coalition of the willing.
I run into people who are unfamiliar with this support network. One of its biggest challenges is getting the word out. I have been trying to do this since January in a weekly NC Military Report newsletter.
The Military Business Center has a central role in this network. The center’s existence is an example of how things happen when people with clout get behind a good idea. When started 20 years ago, it was supposed to be just a Fayetteville operation. Local leaders wanted something that would help businesses get more military contracts from the former
Fort Bragg.
Then the late state Sen. Tony Rand decided it should be statewide. He helped fund the military center within the community college system. Today, its headquarters are at Fayetteville Technical Community College and its staffers are located throughout the state, many of them community colleges. It has helped businesses land nearly $18 billion in contracts since 2005. Scott Dorney, a 22-year Army veteran and former deputy garrison commander at Fort Liberty, has led the group since its founding.
Starting Out
The military buys everything, from shoelaces to cruise missiles. But if you’ve never done business with the government, it can be daunting. The first step isn’t necessarily to call the Military Business Center and say you want to go after a government contract. The first step would be to go to the center’s website and look at a three-page document called “Getting Ready to Sell to the Federal Government.”
What you will probably want to do after you read it is make an appointment with a Small Business Center at the nearest community college, because they can help you get through this document. After you have spent 30 seconds on Sam.gov, which is where everything starts in federal acquisition, you are probably going to want help getting a Unique Entity Identifier and figuring out your North American Industry Classification Code. It also helps to determine if you are a small business or operate in a HUBZone. Help is also available from the SBTDC at the universities, especially its Government Contracting Assistance Program.
That program is good at preparing companies, in general, for federal contracting. The Military Business Center is good at helping companies go after specific contracts. About 24,000 companies are signed up for its free MatchForce.org service, which sends out federal contract opportunities tailored to registered businesses daily. There are more than 200,000 N.C. businesses with less than 20 employees, so more should register. The government has congressionally mandated small business contract goals.
I keep watching efforts to get more help for this network. In his April budget, Gov. Roy Cooper included a $2 million proposal from the Board of Science, Technology & Innovation for the NC Defense Innovation Network. It would “lead and support efforts to significantly grow the defense innovation economy in North Carolina and increase national security by providing enhanced state leadership, targeted strategic priorities, coordinated tactical operations and sustained funding.” The network would operate under the board in consultation with the Military Business Center. It would be a force multiplier for the state’s military-business ecosystem, but it hasn’t gotten traction yet in the legislature.
Federal Technology Symposium
One can see the military-business ecosystem in action at events like the Federal Technology Symposium Aug. 6 at Fayetteville Tech, which brings together innovators,
academics and DoD folks. Fittingly, it will be at the Tony Rand Student Center.
These events aid entrepreneurs who have a product they want to talk about. But they are also useful in getting acclimated to the defense market. It is cumulative. You can’t expect to attend one event and understand this world. But the good news is there are lots of folks who want to help, and that may be North Carolina’s edge. ■
