Washington, DC -- For the second time in three years the Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) Small Business Program has received the Secretary of the Navy’s Cup Award for exemplary achievements. Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy Eric Fanning presented the most recent Secretary's Cup for fiscal year 2008 to Dr. John Burrow, MCSC Executive Director, in November 2009 at the Pentagon.
MCSC primarily earned the award for significantly increasing the number of contracts awarded to small businesses in fiscal year 2008. The Command increased growth over the prior year by 102 percent for Historically Underutilized Business Zone small businesses, by 72 percent for women-owed small businesses and by 233 percent for serviced-disabled veteran-owner small businesses.
According to Dave Dawson, Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) Associate Director for Small Business Programs, the large increases came about because MCSC aggressively conducted many outreach events that featured presentations to several thousand small-business owners. The Command also offered counseling to small-business owners to help increase partnerships with the acquisition arm of the Marine Corps.
“MCSC’s outreach efforts increased its supplier base, which was key to the Command’s successful small-business programs,” Fanning stated in the award citation. “Through heightened awareness of the benefits of small-business programs, focused outreach and training, MCSC exceeded the federal statutory contract award goals for small business and small disadvantaged business by achieving 29 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively, for all business awards.”
Two years earlier, MCSC qualified for the fiscal year 2006 Secretary’s Cup Award by achieving a 358 percent increase in small disadvantaged business development and 102 percent increase in serviced-disabled veteran-owner small business programs compared to the prior year. In fact, of the $3.7 billion awarded for contracts that year, $261 million were awarded to small-disadvantaged business enterprises. The Command’s increased supplier base resulted in 71 percent of all its procurement actions being awarded to small businesses.