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Inside a $5 Billion Federal Pursuit: What Capture Strategy Looks Like in Practice

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  Inside a $5 Billion Federal Pursuit: What Capture Strategy Looks Like in Practice A behind-the-scenes look at how a $14.4 billion company entered a new federal market and won. Why a $14.4 Billion Company Needed a New Plan In the fourth quarter of 2025, a privately held defense and logistics firm reported $14.4 billion in annual revenue, with four percent growth. Most of that business came from long-standing work with the Pentagon, NASA, and the national security community. That level of revenue can look like security. For the board, however, it also revealed concentration risk. When a business depends heavily on one kind of customer, a program cancellation, budget shift, or more aggressive competitor can quickly threaten revenue that once seemed stable. To reduce that exposure, the company looked to the federal government as a funding source large and steady enough to support a second business line. It chose the global health supply chain, a market it had never entered be...
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How a 70 Percent Stock-Out Rate Fell to 2 Percent: Rebuilding Zambia's Laboratory Supply Chain

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How a 70 Percent Stock-Out Rate Fell to 2 Percent: Rebuilding Zambia's Laboratory Supply Chain For years, Zambia's laboratory program ran short of the basic supplies that keep patients tested and staff safe. CD4 test kits, viral load reagents, gentian violet stain, gloves, and other personal protective equipment were often missing from the shelf. Without them, laboratories could not support the country's HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and maternal and child health services. The situation was dire. At baseline, more than 70 percent of essential reagents were out of stock. The few reagents that were available often came in the wrong mix. A single test might require four items, such as a test kit, saline solution, decontamination solution, and a lyophilized reagent, yet a laboratory would have only two of them on hand. The other two sat unused. Equipment told the same story. Analyzers broke down and stayed down because there was no maintenance contract, no service provider, ...
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US-Africa Leaders Summit

This week, the Biden/Haris Administration will engage in a series of meetings with 49 African Heads of State, including the Africa Union Chairman, President Macky Sall of Senegal, in Washington DC.  On the agenda is the renewal of the US Government's commitment to cement ongoing partnerships and support to African countries in multiple developmental and good governance initiatives on the continent of Africa.  The US States Department Secretary, Anthony J. Blinken put it mildly, "Africa will shape the future not just of the African people, but of the world.  Indeed with one of the world’s fastest-growing populations, largest free-trade areas, most diverse ecosystems, and one of the largest voting — regional voting groups in the United Nations, African contributions, partnerships, and leadership are essential to meeting this era’s defining challenges"(White House Briefing, December 8, 2022). This is an indication of the recognition of the significant role Africa can and MUS...
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2021 - The Year of Public Health Politics

 It has been exactly one year since I reflected on the success of public health in 2020. As predicted, 2021 has come with its own successes in public health. However, unlike 2020, the year 2021 is a roller coaster for the momentous up-and-down on the successful roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination and the lack of equity in the distribution and access to the same vaccines. I had hoped that by the end of 2021, the global effort to equitably distribute and access vaccines is successfully rolled out. But, this has not been achieved.  At the start of the year is the happiness of new vaccines that could potentially shape the public health response to the pandemic. The happiness was short-lived by the complete disregard to science over politics throughout the United States and other parts of the globe. The United States saw the January 6 insurrection or the so-called attack on democracy which vehemently derailed the success of vaccine introduction. Then came the conspiracy theories o...
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2020: The year of global health success

 Good morning to my esteemed readers and hope you are staying safe and following your local public health guidelines. Today, I reflect on the challenges and success of 2020 as seen from the global health perspective. You may be surprised to see my title of "global health success" in a year of pandemic, but, read on to see my perspective. It is no doubt 2020 will go down as one of the global health challenging years in recent centuries. The most important occurrence of the year is the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 is a disease caused by one of the families of coronaviruses called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 or SARS-Cov-2 virus, which when infected, causes severe respiratory disorder (first reported in 2019), hence the name COVID-19.  The virus was first "discovered" in Ruhan Province of China allegedly from human-animal interaction in the city's animal market. Now, whereas coronaviruses are not new, there are mostly present in animals inclu...
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Politico-scientific dimension of COVID-19 in the United States

 Good evening to my readers and I am happy to be back again for this post. It has been quite a hectic past few months for all including myself as we adjust to our new normal. I have been working from home since March 2020 and I don't see the end of this new normal insight.  Today my reflection is on the outcome of the just ended US election and its potential impact on public health practices in this country with particular emphasis on COVID-19.  At the start of the summer, there were multiple predictions and models on the potential second wave of COVID-19.  On daily basis, I watched multiple news conferences from "experts" with their predictions and models claiming accuracy in their predictive models. Of particular interest is the White House daily briefing on the COVID-19  Task Force response by the Trump Administration. We heard the President discussing and leading the conferences with different messages and degrees of accuracy regarding what is working and wh...
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Why are we not learning from the past? - Ebola and COVID-19 responses

 In this issue, I intend to reflect on the ongoing pandemic and whether or not public health practitioners have learned lessons from the COVID-19.  In 2014, there was an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea resulting in the infection of 28,000 people and 11,310 deaths in the three countries. During that time, there was both solidarity and neglect from public health practitioners and the international community. We saw multiple countries supporting to control the outbreak, including the US National Guards, to help the West African countries. At the same time, because the outbreak was geographically localized, there was a minimal global collective response to the diseases. As a result, only a few companies invested in research and development (R&D) in support of novel diagnostics technologies, treatment, or vaccines. It was also obvious that the affected countries have very weak health systems which further exuber...
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