Government Contractor Expands to Commercial Markets
Background
Nathan Associates (Nathan), a mid-size government contractor and leading provider of economic and management consultancy services worldwide, engaged growth[period] to implement a strategy to diversify their customer base. Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Arlington, VA, Nathan provides its global customers with highly specialized technical expertise in the following areas: economic policy and governance, private sector development, trade and logistics, infrastructure planning and finance, and financial sector development.
Challenge
Nathan Associates is a long-time successful contractor historically serving the public sector and whose high-profile clients include: USAID, MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation), and the Peace Corps. Their success in supporting these clients over the last 50 years has allowed them to expand to over 300 employees and $90M in revenue. However, despite all their success in the federal sector, they had historically little- to- no work supporting commercial clients. In 2017, with the company under new leadership, executives devised a three-year strategic plan focusing on customer diversification and breaking into new markets, among other objectives. The ultimate goal was: to grow their gender diversity training line of business increasing both the number of customers and revenue for this business line. To help fast track this goal, Nathan’s CEO retained growth[period] to help them achieve success. Recognizing the potential available in expanding into the commercial market, growth[period] devised a solution to help Nathan grow strategically into the private sector.
Solution
Recognizing the potential available in expanding into the commercial market, growth[period] devised a solution to help Nathan grow strategically into the private sector. We began by identifying several potential “A” targets for business development. Based on growth[period]’s analysis, Capital One Bank was the appropriate strategic target due to its size, location, history of commitment to similar initiatives, a changing political climate making such training highly relevant to their vision and mission, and ability to mine existing strong relationships with leadership who were actively interested in diversity initiatives.The growth[period] team facilitated meetings with both the Executive Vice President of Capital One and the CEO of Nathan to encourage trust and confidence between both parties, thus helping to ensure operational success and satisfaction upon execution of the contract. Due to the success of this contract, we were able to strategically market and target other “A” targets on Nathan’s behalf.
Results
As a direct result of growth[period]’s introduction, Capital One Bank hired Nathan to provide gender diversity training at their Tyson’s Corner headquarters location. Capital One Bank is ranked (as of 2020) as a Fortune 100 company and was a marquis client for Nathan Associates’ entry into the commercial training market. Nathan’s team successfully trained the staff at Capital One Bank and, based on their success, they were able to leverage winning another contract with Leadership Greater Washington to perform the same task. The relationship between Nathan and Leadership Greater Washington was also cultivated by growth[period] and a pre-identified “A” target for expansion of their commercial training. With growth[period]’s assistance, this successful expansion into the commercial sector has given Nathan a continual path to expand their diversity and inclusion business in the private sector. As of the summer of 2020 growth[period], continues to be retained by Nathan Associates to assist with future growth.
