Elizabeth Malone believes collaboration, coordination, a strong leadership team and an innate understanding of what’s needed to support customer-facing operations teams are foundational elements for success in contracting.
“I have the privilege of working with a phenomenal team of leaders within my functional organization,” she said. “This enables us to manage the complexities of our broad range of contracts and contribute to business growth.”
Looking back at the past year, Malone attributes success to the ability to pivot and be proactive. She’s most proud of how her team has addressed the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Actions were taken to proactively enter into negotiations with customers on teleworking benefits, resulting in approvals for increased teleworking authorizations, she said. The team also engaged in follow-up discussions with customers on the company’s demonstrated success with teleworking, and the team encouraged contract modifications to increase the ability to perform mission essential activities remotely.
“All efforts were continuously coordinated with our program managers and this collaboration resulted in needed contractual changes, ensuring mission continuity,” Malone said.
Why Watch
Looking ahead, Malone will continue to proactively address the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on customer missions while ensuring compliance support to programs — obtaining approvals to use teleworking on contracts to the maximum extent possible and assessing processes enhancements to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the overall contract lifecycle.
Additionally, Malone plans to focus on continued support to program operations teams, mitigating potential challenges earlier in the contract life-cycle process and identify opportunities for on-contract growth.
See the entire Top 10 Contracting Execs to Watch in 2020 list here.