On the heels of being announced as an Elev8 GovCon Honoree – again – Bland & Associates shares insight into how they reach and exceed the bar when it comes to partnering, taking care of employees, and being engaged in their community.
Partnering That Goes Above and Beyond
First and foremost, successful partnerships require trust. Bland & Associates, P.C. (Bland) strives to build the utmost trust by going above and beyond expectations for all of our partners, whether that be fellow consultant firms or federal clients. For example, we assist prime partnering contractors during the proposal phase by not only providing technical expertise and content writing but offering editing, formatting, and compliance services by our internal Publishing department. By producing high-quality services and work products, everything we do has one ultimate goal in mind, and that’s being a great partner. This equals success – success for our clients, our partnering firms, and our own firm and employees. This success cannot happen without trust between all parties; this trust cannot happen without proven partnerships.
Growth that Includes Soft Skills
Bland’s staff are the heartbeat of our consulting body of work. We constantly grow and enhance our staff’s technical skills and knowledge base to ensure all work is completed at the highest quality and in full compliance with contract and federal requirements. We hire credentialed staff and invest in continual education of these staff for certification maintenance. In addition to building these hard skills, we promote soft skill growth through our 18-month internal management program, named the Bland Leadership Institute for the Next Generation. Our ultimate goal is to have all staff complete this training. Also, our Training Team determines growth needs across various areas and conducts as-needed and quarterly training across our core processes.
Low Cost Opportunities
Bland continuously scans the technology landscape for potential software and innovations that could improve our processes and outputs. We understand the ever-growing importance of technologies (including artificial intelligence) and the efficiencies and benefits they provide, with an understanding of risks they also come with. By narrowing our focus to technologies that can directly affect our audit and compliance monitoring processes, we look for areas where technology can accurately and effectively replace man-hours, thereby giving our clients low-cost opportunities and saving taxpayer dollars.
Bland Cares
At Bland, we take great pride in our philanthropy and local charitable contributions. To demonstrate this, we have Bland Cares, an employee-run and fully employee-funded charitable organization that serves our local community. We raise awareness about the efforts of local non-profit organizations and our employees volunteer their time, talents, and charitable contributions to better others around our community. By investing in our local businesses, charities, and non-profit organizations, we better all those around us. It allows our staff to get out of the day-to-day operations of supporting our federal clients to concentrate our bettering our neighbors.
Bland doesn’t stop with local charity work. We engage with other organizations and businesses in the federal contracting landscape through various avenues. Although we may be competitors at a contracting level, we understand that industry strength as a whole is a betterment for all – “a rising tide lifts all boats.” To accomplish this, we participate in industry events, learning seminars, requests for information, and shared interest groups. Our capture manager is on the board for the OASIS+ Small Business shared interest group, which meets regularly to improve business development initiatives and serves as an open forum for industry discussions and information exchange, not just amongst fellow small businesses, but also between these businesses and the federal government.
Employee Owned
Our initial recognition as an Elev8 honoree was greatly appreciated and seen as a culmination of decades of hard work and successful client support. By continuing to be recognized on an annual basis, it serves as confirmation of our commitment to not only achieving success but not resting on our laurels. As a 100% employee-owned firm, our staff have a vested interest in our ultimate goal to improve, diversify, and prosper. These staff are our number one asset and we do everything possible to grow this talent because we know this leads to better work products and services to our partners and federal clients, which ultimately leads to the betterment of the American public.
