Sometimes the best defense is diversified

Simon Everett has been supporting kglobal, a DC-based communications firm, on an innovative grant program aimed at helping defense firms diversify in anticipation of declining defense spending. Two of South Carolina’s jobs agencies – the Department of Employment and Workforce and the Department of Commerce – are sponsoring an initiative to offer business consulting services to companies that will be negatively impacted by Department of Defense budget cuts.

kglobal (a Zenetex company) and Simon Everett have teamed to help these firms by conducting internal business assessments, identifying adjacent markets for targeted business development, and crafting strategic messaging initiatives to reach multiple stakeholder audiences. Our tailored suite of consulting services is helping SC-based defense firms to better understand and manage internal and external factors affecting the success of their approaches to new markets. As a result, South Carolina will improve its economic resilience and the defense sector will retain key capabilities and expertise for future needs.

We look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with kglobal and supporting additional SC firms in their diversification pursuits. To that end, South Carolina is still accepting grant applications. If your business operates in South Carolina and is interested in reaching new markets, just take two easy steps: 1) send us an email at inquiries@simon-everett.com, and 2) download the Defense Industry Adjustment Application from Commerce’s website to see if your company qualifies.

Crossing t's and dotting coms

We are pleased to announce that the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded Simon Everett a prime contract to conduct a desk study review of Kenya’s National Cybersecurity Master Plan.

This project is particularly exciting for us, since Kenya is at the leading edge of cyberspace in Africa. Although it has long been a regional finance and technology hub, Kenya’s reputation as an incubator for emerging technologies leaped after the 2007 launch of M-PESA - a platform that is now recognized as a mobile payments pioneer. But in Kenya as elsewhere, the transformative promise of innovative information and communications technologies (ICT) goes hand in hand with cybersecurity risks.

In 2011, USTDA awarded a grant to the Government of Kenya to procure technical assistance with national-level cybersecurity planning. USTDA sponsors projects like this all over the world - in order to both spur economic development and expand the global market for American goods and services. As both a force for growth and a force for good, USTDA represents a salient success story for American foreign policy: the agency indicates that it is now generating $76 of returns for every $1 invested in international programs.

To ensure that its investment in Kenya’s cybersecurity future maps to the objectives of the grant, USTDA has retained Simon Everett to critically review the Master Plan and its associated components. We have developed an analytic framework that enables the technical expertise of our team to be applied in an objective, constructive, and logical fashion. Although this is the final step of this particular grant process, it’s just the beginning of an enhanced cybersecurity posture for Kenya and a new period of opportunity for cutting-edge American cybersecurity firms in East Africa.