Al Leung

To my industry colleagues,

Cost estimating and analysis is a profession in the truest sense. By definition, it requires special education, diligent training and formal qualification. Those who are good at it are naturally inquisitive. They are analytical. When warranted, they are highly quantitative. They are not academic: they understand their work must be thoughtful, thorough and practical. Cost estimating and analysis is not easy. It isn’t as simple as 1-2-3. It’s not supposed to be. If it were easy, the unskilled and the uninitiated could do it. Many people can make recommendations. Wise clients expect more though because they need more. They expect and need us to provide defensible rationale. To live up to these expectations, good cost estimators and analysts must be critical thinkers. They must excel in communications and take initiative rather than needing to be asked or told. They must have the strength and courage to speak inconvenient truths when it is the right thing to do. Finally, they must always be eager to provide more—more quality, more quantity, more complexity, and more responsibility.

The service our profession provides is a critical part of the value chain. The outcomes we deliver, more often than not, affect multi-hundred-million dollar programs over years, if not decades. Sometimes our services can even affect not just quality-of-life but lives.

I am proud to be a small part of our profession. I am proud that we in our profession are not “butts in seats”. I am proud that our clients rely on our support and counsel for their critical decision-making. I am proud that we are able to teach others to be part of our profession.

Because I am so proud, it pains me to continually see an alarming trend—companies bidding work they cannot staff. Attempting to fill one or two slots to round out the team is one thing. That’s just normal business. But scrambling to fill key positions, or worse, an entire team is a reflection of poor preparedness and business practices.

The talent I described above are not commodities. They are not individuals you can easily “rebadge”. Instead, they are a product of many things—not just the organization, but also the culture, the proven methods and techniques, the tangible and repeatable assets, the training and development opportunities, the peers, the managers, and the formal and informal mentors who would not hesitate to occasionally dole out the appropriate tough love. When you bid work knowing full well that you do not have the requisite talent, you jeopardize your client’s success. Beyond that, you diminish the integrity of our industry and of our profession.

This isn’t about winning or losing. In our industry, we win some and we lose some. That’s just business. This is about the sanctity of our profession. Because I am so proud of our profession, I commit to Technomics’ current and future clients that we will continue to never bid on work we cannot staff with high quality people. Knowledge and preparedness are not a luxury. They are a necessity. They are what our clients need and deserve. I encourage my industry colleagues to do the same for the sake of our profession.

Al Leung

Al Leung

Springfield, Virginia, United States 2K followers 500+ connections

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Experience

Technomics, Inc.

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Education

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Languages

Chinese

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