ACQ 315: Understanding Industry

Description

This course covers an array of business insights including industry orientation, organization, cost and financial planning, business strategy/development, supplier management, incentives, and negotiating strategies. The skills to be acquired in this course include: aligning company strategies, finances, and operations that motivate company decisions to meet their business goals, gain fair and reasonable profits, while providing best taxpayer value to the government on defense products.

Learning Objectives

• Students will explain how scope and diversity of the current industry landscape influences companies’ methods of competing for defense contracts.
• Students will describe how a company’s organization adapts to strategy, resource capacity, and program phase.
• Using standard company financial reports and metrics, students will assess company’s financial health to enable best-value program decisions.
• Students will explain cost accounting basics defense companies use to manage direct, indirect costs, and rates for proposals and program execution.
• Students will describe the importance of defense company cost estimating requirements, methods, and key process elements.
• Students identify and assess company management challenges in optimizing prime/sub contractor relationships and decisions in its supply chain.
• Students will assess opportunities and constraints companies weigh in prioritizing market opportunities, B&P resourcing, teaming, and strategy.
• Students will evaluate a company capture planning bid/no-bid decision process and an RFP response from the proposal development process.
• Students will apply the strategies defense companies use to incentivize their workforce at various levels.
• Students will develop a company negotiating strategy using business acumen tools that promotes a fair profit and better taxpayer deal.
• Given a company financial situation and market segment, students will evaluate the company’s annual decisions to “meet the numbers”.

Course Details

• Course Length – 4.5 Days
• Graded Materials Include: Case Study Familiarization, In-Class Assignments, Attendance of all Instructional Hours, and End of Course Test
• Pre-course work Required: None