![]() “We’re spending a lot of money at the department on prototyping projects and building technologies, bringing in new veteran and non-traditional companies,” he said. The OSBP is also focusing on aligning national security priorities with small business activities and making sure disadvantaged small businesses have a better chance at being successful. The office encourages contracting officers and program managers to take the courses, he added. The OSBP established a common credential at the Defense Acquisition University that provides training for the small business workforce. “I learned that small companies can mentor other small companies better than a large company can, so we’ve worked with Congress to lower the revenue threshold required for a mentor company,” he said. A pilot program now allows the OSBP to provide 25% reimbursement for certain areas of manufacturing and software development to protege firms. The program is successful, Mitha said, with former proteges contributing $3-5 billion of work to the federal government, including DOD.Īt first, only mentor companies were reimbursed for providing developmental assistance through the program, he said. The OSBP also created the small business integration program so companies can share best practices and communicate with each other, as well as a website to serve as a single source for forecasting information, resources and other data, Mitha said.Īdditionally, his office’s mentor protege program brings in large companies to provide business development assistance to small companies and teach them how to work with DOD. ![]() ![]() It promotes a strong small business industrial base by focusing on reducing barriers to entry, increasing set-aside competitions and leveraging programs to grow the industrial base. DLA and the military services helped shape the office’s new small business strategy, released in January. The OSBP is working with small businesses to make it easier for them to work with DOD and comply with its regulations, he said. “In our local communities, we're really the heartbeat of the American economy,” Mitha said May 4 at the Defense Logistics Agency Supply Chain Alliance Conference and Exhibition in Richmond, Virginia. Over the last two years, 10.5 million Americans applied to start small businesses and created 3.5 million jobs, which are record highs, said Farooq Mitha, director of the Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs. While those figures may be concerning, there is positive news about the nation’s small businesses. The Defense Department also reports a 40% loss of its small businesses over the last decade, according to a DLA study. ![]() Small businesses made up 2,300 of those losses. ![]() The Defense Logistics Agency lost about 22%, or roughly 3,000 vendors, between 20, according to agency information. Recent data about small businesses in the defense industrial base shows loss. ![]()
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