|
TAPE |
|
|
March 4, 2013 Issue |
||
|
The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
||
|
With their Innovation Bridge® Methodology, TAPE is that Bridge between Government Challenges and Technically Sound Solutions |
||
|
TAPE is a CVE-Verified
service-disabled veteran-owned, 8(m) woman-owned, small business (SDVO/WOSB).
Incorporated in 2003, TAPE is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The
company is known for its systems engineering expertise in Management
Solutions, RDT&E, Education and Training, and Cyber
Security/Warfare/Operations and Intelligence. TAPE has also invested in the
creation of Centers of Excellence which highlight key technologies that
allow them to provide state-of-the-art support to the military and
government agencies. TAPE uses its trademarked methodologies, which are part
of the company’s Centers of Excellence foundry, to provide innovative and
proven solutions to its Federal clients. TAPE currently manages contracts
supporting the missions of the U.S Army, U.S. Navy, Office of the Secretary
of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal clients.
TAPE’s tagline “Measure Us By Your Results” is in direct correlation to the
company’s sustained growth which comes from its demonstrated experience in
managing large government contracts. Over the years, TAPE has been
recognized by organizations like Inc. 500|5000 and Washington Technology for
its achievements within the government contracting sector. For more
information about TAPE, please visit
www.TAPE-LLC.com.
During the last twenty years of her military career, Ms. Jaffe worked simultaneously as a Reservist and within private industry, where she has over 30 years of experience in business ownership and management, public relations, marketing and information technology. Her private sector roles included Marketing Manager for a major media/cable provider, Commercial Real Estate Appraiser and Facilities Manager for Xerox Business Services. Prior to starting TAPE, Ms. Jaffe also participated in the ownership and executive management of citrus grove retail, shipping and wholesale business in Florida.
Shortly following her retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army, she met William Jaffe. In 2003, they combined their personal and professional lives by marrying and incorporating TAPE. As President and CEO of TAPE, Ms. Jaffe manages TAPE's business affairs, client, corporate, and employee relations, and marketing outreach. She is a member of Women in Defense, Women in Technology, Retired Military Officers Association, National Defense Industrial Association, Army Women’s Foundation, Renaissance Executive Forum, and several women's and executive groups.
Ms. Jaffe holds a BA in English from the University of Florida (Gainesville) and a BS in Citrus Management from Florida Southern College (Lakeland). As part of her post graduate studies in business management, Ms. Jaffe completed certification training as an ORACLE Database Administrator as well as course work towards a Masters of Arts in Business at Central Michigan University. She is also a graduate of the Women's Army Corps Officer Basic Course, Army Adjutant General Basic and Advanced Courses, and the Army Command and General Staff College. |
Solutions
TAPE |
|
|
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – March 4, 2013
Ms. Jaffe: TAPE is a systems engineering company. We design and implement solutions for various government customers. We are primarily in the Army, Navy, Department of Homeland Security and the Veterans Administration.
CEOCFO: What types of services are you providing and what are the challenges you are helping to meet? Ms. Jaffe: We do a great deal of work with the federal budget. In the Army for example, we help analyze the resources needed to accomplish Army training. The Army actually defines on a global basis. The Army must determine at a very high-level what their training requirements are and how they will provide funding for training which is not strictly performed in the classroom. One of the most interesting and largest pieces of work that we have is to help the army evaluate the requirements for training and how much it would cost into a very detailed level. For example, in the case of Army flight training, the Army Helicopter flight school at Ft. Rucker would need to know, how many helicopters and much fuel needed. Also how much maintenance service is needed, how many beds they have for students and how many people they can accommodate in the food service areas and so forth. We go deeply into all aspects of what it costs to train the Army in all ways that they train.
CEOCFO: Would they be providing you with that detail or do you have the experience to know what you need? Ms. Jaffe: That is a great question. An example of work we have done is for the Army Training Models (ATM) contract. Though TAPE won the project in 2007, there are people on our team who have been working on this contract for 25 years. The same person has been the project and program manager on this project for 25 years. We have very experienced subject matter experts who analyze the data. TAPE employs a methodology for analyzing the data gleaned from the computer models. We have subject matter experts who stay current with what is going on in the Army to find out what has changed since the two year budget process began. For example, questions will be asked such as,” Are we still at war this year or not and how does it change the needs of training?” It is not just dry information that the Army provides us but it is an interactive process based on our own proprietary methodology for interfacing with the Army and the models containing the financial data.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the Innovation Bridge®? Ms. Jaffe: The Innovation Bridge® is a TAPE methodology we created whereby we review technologies that are developed by other companies, small companies in most, if not all cases. The Innovation Bridge® is designed to be a conduit which brings innovation from the private sector to the federal government. We have had the most use of the Innovation Bridge® for cyber security technologies that can handle some very sophisticated cyber security needs, such as continuous monitoring. The people who create these technologies do not necessarily have access to the federal market. In many cases technologies have been tested and sold in the commercial arena but never to the government. We partner with those companies and we develop an understanding of how to use those technologies so that in our relationship with the government, we can offer a solution based on mixing and matching these technologies by our subject matter experts who will create a customized solution for the government to apply TAPE trademarked methodologies. The Innovation Bridge® is a TAPE connector that brings innovation from the private sector to the government.
CEOCFO: Having spoken with other people in your general industry it seems that TAPE is a much deeper level of detail, attention and innovation. Your company seems to be so much more in depth. What is the competitive landscape? Ms. Jaffe: Thank you for that observation. I think it is a true one. We have developed our own trademarked methodologies for how to do things as well as how we train our people. We are a quality driven company. In 2012, we became ISO 9001:2008 certified and that simply means that we have gone to a great deal of effort to become certified in running our business with documentable and repeatable processes to which we apply quality metrics. We have always been very process driven, so the first question that I ask, when something does not go as planned, is “What do our processes say to do in a situation like this?” If our processes are not covering that particular thing, then we change them or create new processes. In other words, the processes are not there dictating to us but the processes are there to empower us to exceed the customers’ expectations.
CEOCFO: Are you able to hire returning veterans? Ms. Jaffe: Oh yes!
CEOCFO: Are you finding as good a pool as most people have been telling me? Ms. Jaffe: Approximately, 30 percent of our employees are retired military. Because of the type of work we do, military veterans are drawn to us and we to them. For example, the work we do on the Army budget is going to be best done by people who have been in the Army and have had exposure to that kind of work. A very high percentage of TAPE employees on just the Army Training Models project alone are Army Reservists or National Guard personnel or retired Army vets. We also do a great amount of work for the DHS and the Veterans Administration. We are very proud to have work that supports Veterans directly. TAPE has all the branches of military represented as veterans or retired personnel on our staff. There is a very big pool of veterans and we are very open to hiring military. I would even say we give preference to military.
CEOCFO: Are there areas where you would like to have more involvement in either specific agencies or types of projects? Ms. Jaffe: That is a good question. It is within our strategy to become better at what we do on the contracts we currently support. Within the Army, for example, there are agencies and commands, other than our training models project, which we hope to support in the future. That is true for all of our customers, Army, Navy, DHS, and Veterans Administration. For instance, as a result of the Army Training Models, we have staff that supports all training centers in the Army. We have translated that to supporting training at the Veterans Administration. Going forward, we plan to support training in many other parts of government. We can initiate innovations to make the training experience better and to measure the effectiveness of the training received. We make it a knowledge-based analytical experience for the customer responsible for the success of the training. Our motto is “Measure Us By Your Results®.” In another entity in DHS, we are analyzing the security applications processes. From that, we have built some work flow models and trademarked our methodologies. We can use those models across government to support security applications or any other type of application process. In both the example of training support listed above and our work flow process management described here, our management innovation has resulted in historic levels of reduction in backlog and increased efficiencies. We want to enhance our success by applying our methods and systems engineering approach for new customers. As with all successful small businesses, we need to prepare for the future when we will have to become a “full and open” company where we will have to compete not as a small business. We have grown every year of our existence and we plan to keep on growing.
CEOCFO: TAPE was recognized by Inc 500|5000; how do you continue at the same level? Ms. Jaffe: That is another good question. I know that things like Sequestration hanging over us are a concern to people, but the truth is even with Sequestration the government is still going to have to buy goods and services. We work hard to maintain good relationships with the people we support and the people whom we hope to support in the future. I think things like downsizing of government, if that ever does happen, means it may not be as easy in some cases as it has been in the past to get contracts. My husband Bill Jaffe and I founded this company. He is the general manager of TAPE. He writes a small business blog which can be found at FederalSmallBizSavvy.com. Because we both see the value and need to mentor other small businesses, Bill named the blog “The Fish Don’t Jump in the Boat.” Bill and I are often asked, “What is the secret to our success?” We honestly tell them that as a small business we cannot afford to take the attitude of “Well, where are my contracts or why has not anything come to me? I have a GSA schedule and am a service disabled vet and where is the work?” That is what we call expecting the fish to jump in the boat. At TAPE, we do not expect every fish to jump in the boat. The name came about because we work with and mentor small businesses through a number of organizations we support. One of those is called Mid-Tier Advocacy (MTA) which supports small businesses growing into the “Mid-Tier” between small and large. We also work very hard in promoting our company’s brand. We have made great strides not only in our branding, but also our messaging and methodologies, all of which we have trademarked. I have a very active and interactive Communications Department. Communications is very important in helping me both create and distribute our messaging and branding internally and externally. Wherever I go, people know something about TAPE because our branding is consistent.
CEOCFO: Is that an extension of your personal involvement with personal affairs and media while you were in the military? Ms. Jaffe: Absolutely it is! I was a Public Affairs Officer (PAO) in the Army. I was originally in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and then the WAC merged with the Army and I spent 28 years mostly as a PAO. I was in the Reserves for the last 20 years or so. I was also in business for myself and my family as well as doing public relations in the private sector. I have always done public relations in some form or another in every job I have done. Whether it was in the government or not, I always found a way to make whatever I was doing a public relations job because that is just how I operate. I brought that perspective to my job here. My interest in public relations is probably a differentiator for TAPE in the sense that most CEOs and presidents do not focus in a personal way on the branding and the messaging the way I do. It just happens to be very important to me.
CEOCFO: Why should the business and investment community pay attention to TAPE?
Ms. Jaffe:
There are several things that set us apart. We are very process oriented and
methodology oriented so that we can duplicate and expand what we do in many
places. We focus on our culture as a company. I am just starting a culture
blog with my employees to interact with them and learn what they are doing
in their various jobs across the company to bring innovation to their
clients. We have a strong system of values. Everyone understands our mission
and our vision. I think it is the bridge concept, which comes into our
mission statement. “Our mission is to be a bridge between government
challenges and technically sound solutions.” The other thing is that we have
made the decision to grow. We have created an ambitious pipeline and we are
ready to keep working and go for bigger numbers. My husband and I love doing
what we do and we want to bring more solutions to more government
departments and to more government people. We work very hard and we love it. |
||
|
“We have always been very process driven, so the first question that I ask, when something does not go as planned, is “What do our processes say to do in a situation like this?” If our processes are not covering that particular thing, then we change them or create new processes. In other words, the processes are not there dictating to us but the processes are there to empower us to exceed the customers’ expectations.”- Louisa L. Jaffe |
||
|
|
||
|
Systems Engineering Companies, TAPE, CEO Interviews 2013, Systems Engineering Solutions for the Army, Navy, Department of Homeland Security and the Veterans Administration, Innovation Bridge Methodology, Business Services Companies, Recent CEO Interviews, Business Services Stock, Technical Solutions for Government Agencies, veteran-owned businesses, businesses owned by women, small business (SDVO/WOSB), systems engineering expertise in Management Solutions, RDT&E, Education, Training, Cyber Security/Warfare/Operations, Intelligence, Centers of Excellence, state-of-the-art support to the military and government agencies, Centers of Excellence foundry, solutions for the Federal government, supporting the missions of the U.S Army, U.S. Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, TAPE Press Releases, news, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, business services companies seeking investors, systems engineering companies needing investment capital |
||
