Small business office director shares goals, opportunities at AUSA conference

The Defense Logistics Agency Office of Small Business Programs Director discussed new website updates, partnerships and success with the mentor-protégé program while serving on the OSBP directors panel Oct. 15 at the Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

DLA OSBP Director Daniele Kurze and fellow OSBP directors for the Defense Department, Army, Navy and Air Force engaged with the small-business owners on how to overcome specific barriers to obtaining government contracts, as well as the importance knowing who and what entities their business can benefit before doing business with the government during a recent panel discussion.

"One of the things that we are building upon this year through our website is creating a 'Pathway to Supplier,' a roadmap to help them understand from an industry perspective, how to do business with DLA through our diverse supply chains," she said.

"A lot of companies do not know that for subsistence, DLA does not only provide meals to the services but also to our whole-of-government partner, the United States Department of Agriculture's School Lunch Program," Kurze added.

Kurze briefly explained a few of the benefits of the Pathway to Supplier roadmap.

"Our goal is to help suppliers to see themselves easily in our different supply chains, to identify the certifications that they need, understand the upfront costs associated with doing business with the government, and the timeframe to expected to receive a return on investment," she said.

The panel also challenged the small-business owners to consider partnering with each other on contracting opportunities and fulfilling contracting needs across the services.

Kurze also shared that one of her near-term goals was to help DLA's small businesses navigate the complex contracting market by providing easier ways for her customers to find opportunities for growth and sustainment.

In terms of long-term goals, Kurze added that she and her team will focus on building pilot programs across the services, like one she recent started this year with the Air Force to facilitate a single point of entry for source approval requests.

"We are really creating a one-stop shop coming to Air Force or DLA, where we have different processes, but we are working to streamline our processes to reduce the administrative lead time to becoming an approved source," she said.

"To me, I think that means we have slowed and stopped the bleeding but now we have to reverse it and help it to grow," he said. "We need our programs to help us do it."

Mitha added, "The mentor-protégé is now permanent, the Rapid Integrated Scalable Enterprise is now in the president's budget and our other programs have been extended for a length of time - there is not a better time to do business with the government."

Kurze thanked her fellow panelist for their support and assistance in helping DLA launch its inaugural mentor-protégé program.

"DLA just awarded its first three mentor-protégé agreements thanks to the collaboration of everyone here in helping us get there," Kurze said. "We are excited about the program and intend on growing it this year."

The theme for this year's AUSA conference was, "Transforming for a Complex World." DLA was one of the hundreds of vendors in attendance, with representatives from the agency's headquarters and several major subordinate commands on hand to share information and answer questions from conference guests.