A federal workforce leader recently told a room of executives they would be the last generation to manage an all-human team. Paul Serotkin has spent 40 years watching this industry change, and he thinks that one line explains most of what is coming next.

On today's episode of GovCon Unscripted, Paul Serotkin, CEO and founder of the Serotkin Group, joins Chelsea Roberts for a wide-ranging conversation on adapting your federal business while the ground keeps moving. Paul began his career fighting for what became the Small Business Innovation Research Act and was in the Rose Garden when it was signed in 1982. Since then he has run a mergers and acquisitions practice, founded the boutique investment bank Minuteman Ventures, operated small and socio-economic government contractors, and mentored founders through SCORE and Boston Business Mentors.

In this episode, Paul and Chelsea get into the difference between change that lasts and change that is just the pendulum swinging back, why a business plan is now a quarterly discipline rather than an annual ritual, when a subcontractor should stop being afraid to prime, how to build business development into every role in the company, and why the leaders managing teams today may be the last to manage an all-human workforce.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Paul's 40-year GovCon arc

02:00 Excitement or dread: what is really changing

03:00 Pendulum swing versus permanent change: commerciality, AI, SBIR

05:00 Contracting-officer discretion, fixed-price default, a roughly $1 trillion DoD request

08:00 Write it down: a business plan that survives the quarter

11:00 Focus versus shiny-object syndrome

13:00 The subcontracting pathway, and when to stop being afraid to prime

18:00 BD as a team sport: aligning the front office and the back office

21:00 Everyone is a salesperson

26:00 Aligning incentives with what the company wants

27:30 The last all-human workforce

30:00 The proposal that bans AI: a double-edged sword

30:30 SCORE and Boston Business Mentors: free expertise most never use

34:30 How to reach Paul

Resources:

Paul Serotkin's LinkedIn profile

Chelsea Robert's LinkedIn profile

Serotkin Group's Website

Other resources:

Boston Business Mentors' Website

SCORE Organization's website

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