LMI describes its mission as minimizing time to value and accelerating mission success, with an emphasis on agile development and human-centered design.
A year and a half ago, Kimberly Stambler stepped into her role as vice president of capture, helping bring that promise to life for government customers ⏤ many of whom are struggling to make sense of a complex and fast-changing technology landscape.
There are an ever-growing number of new technologies and capabilities available to enhance the mission in both defense and non-defense agencies.
“Government customers are sometimes bombarded by all the options, making it even more challenging to decide what to buy and how to best implement,” she said.
Government wants to do this right, but trying to analyze all the options in depth, “can lead to ‘paralysis by analysis,’ and then no decision is made, leaving government customers to continue with legacy and antiquated technologies,” she said. And it’s a moving target: With options changing monthly, it becomes harder to move forward. Many LMI customers face these challenges when it comes to bringing innovation to their mission environment.
LMI looks to break the cycle by delivering what it calls “Innovation at the Pace of Need™,” with the emphasis on the second part of that phrase.
“Many GovCons are bringing innovation,” Stambler said. LMI, in turn, focuses on delivering those modernized solutions in line with the customer’s specific needs, “and at the pace required for their mission space.”
Innovation is generally a positive for government customers, but Stambler said it can also come with risk.
To help contain the risks, “our teams partner with our customers and demonstrate the art of the possible when it comes to innovation,” while also helping them to understand the impacts of the innovation, Stambler said.
That means bringing to the table “multidisciplinary teams that focus on human-centered design, change management, workforce management, and agile development, to empower our customers and their missions,” she added.
As she leads a team focused on corporate-level capture, solution architecture, competitive intelligence and price-to-win, Stambler has helped LMI rack up a number of recent wins. The company had a record-setting year in terms of bookings and book-to-bill in both new business and recompete, Stambler said.
“Our biggest win in my time at LMI, and LMI’s biggest win in corporate history, was our DHS CBP APMTS II program,” she said. “This recompete included significant growth from the original contract — from over $250 million to over $600 million for the follow on.”
This particular win is significant. It’s a contract through GSA FEDSIM, a provider of assisted acquisition services for federal agencies housed within the General Services Administration’s Office of Assisted Acquisition Services. Stambler said those are very challenging proposals for industry to compile.
“LMI truly has an outstanding team that supports the CBP customer and their critical missions,” she said.
Looking ahead, Stambler is tracking the ever-changing nature of government contracting, and aiming to ensure LMI keeps in step with those evolutions.
“Industry continues to emphasize agility in many facets of GovCon ⏤ agility from the perspective of technology integration and implementation, and agility in contracting to keep up with more evolving requirements,” she said. “Companies that can be both internally and externally agile in how they meet their customers’ needs will be best positioned for growth.”
LMI meets that need with capabilities like the Forge, a technology studio that aims to speed innovation and adoption for government organizations.
“The Forge is purpose-built to help our customers explore and test new ideas, accelerating development time by integrating agile development methodologies with our expertise in human-centered design,” she said, noting this helps to position LMI for future growth while also meeting the needs of government agencies to surface innovative solutions, faster.
On a personal note, Stambler credits a number of key contacts with helping to elevate her efforts over the years.
“Many of these individuals were not ‘formal’ mentors, but I learned an incredible amount from them that I apply in my professional approach,” she said. “From a business development standpoint, Lee Ann Schwope and Tim Shepley instilled the importance of relationships both internally within your company and externally with customers or potential customers. Very early in my GovCon career, Vic Nicolai taught me the art and science of proposal writing and proposal compliance.”
Critical-thinking skills are essential in GovCon, especially in the capture and business development areas.
“My doctoral advisor, Dr. Joe Barbera, instilled the importance of taking a step back in critical situations and trying to look at problems and decisions from a different perspective” Stambler said. “This can always be a challenge when in the middle of a complex capture or proposal, but it is necessary to sometimes see a better or more strategic path forward.”