Getting Defensive
The Defense Alliance of Minnesota serves as a network for companies doing business with the Department of Defense—and for those who want to.
BY SARAH GILBERT
Chip Laingen, a retired Navy officer who spent the bulk of his career as a helicopter pilot, came to Minnesota reluctantly in 2004.
It was Laingen’s wife who initially wanted to return home after living the transient military life for 21 years. But he had hesitations about finding work. “I had gone to Google and typed in ‘defense jobs in Minnesota,’” he says. “I got zero results. If I typed in Texas, California or Washington, D.C., there were thousands of hits, but not one in Minnesota.”
Today, Laingen knows the truth. Not long after moving to Minnesota, he was referred to St. Paul based Minnesota Wire & Cable, a custom manufacturer of wire and cable assemblies that was just starting to get involved in defense work. Now he splits his time working as director of communications for Minnesota Wire & Cable and as executive director of the Defense Alliance of Minnesota.
The initial idea for the Alliance was born out of conversations with Sen. Norm Coleman at a round table event for five or six businesses looking to garner defense contracts. As the event came to a close, Coleman stopped Minnesota Wire & Cable’s chairman/CEO, Paul J. Wagner, and expressed interest in continuing the conversation with more people at more events. From there, the idea grew and Laingen took the helm.
“One of our strategies [at Minnesota Wire & Cable] was to contact other companies doing government work to see if we could learn from them,” Laingen says. “About six months after we started doing that, I woke up one day and realized that we had a nice grouping of names. I thought we ought to call it a network and have a meeting.”
That network turned into the Defense Alliance, now a 274–corporate member organization representing a wide variety of Minnesota companies.
The Alliance exists to “nurture and expand Minnesota’s defense industry job base and further promote the state’s important contributions to the nation’s defense.”
Quarterly meetings are now attended by upwards of 150 representatives from member companies. Some are large companies that have long had contracts with the government, like Honeywell and 3M. Some are names probably not expected to show up on a list of defense contractors, like Weber Shandwick Public Relations. Many, however, are smaller, more specialized companies like Minnesota Wire & Cable that have found or are looking for a niche working for the government.
Laingen estimates that there are easily 2,000 local entities that do something for the Defense Department. “That includes everyone from ATK Ammunition, the world’s largest munitions supplier, all the way down to one guy working in his garage.”
Taking the Lead
Defense Alliance members pay no dues and raise no funds (the organization has not applied for, and at the moment is not interested in applying for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status). Their only commitment, Laingen explains, is to one another. “There’s no financial obligation to members,” he says. “But there is a cost, which is that if another member calls you with a question, you’re obligated to share the lessons you’ve learned with them. The theory is that if you share your knowledge, then you’ll get something shared with you in return.”
Some of the returns have been quite profitable for member companies. As the Alliance has grown, it’s been noticed by defense organizations such as the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Ohio. The AFRL is charged with building the equipment and designing the technology for the Air Force of the future, maintaining the current fleet and discovering technology to solve urgent problems as they occur in the course of day to- day warfare.
Last year, the AFRL needed help solving what was known as the “brownout” problem. Helicopter pilots trying to land in the desert in Iraq and Afghanistan were being blinded by massive amounts of swirling sand. “From 100 feet on down, the sand was so thick that the pilots just couldn’t see,” Laingen says. The helicopters were coming down on their sides or slipping over, often wrecking the aircraft and sometimes killing the crews. The AFRL put out a call for help across the country—including to the Defense Alliance of Minnesota.
“Within a week of putting out their request, we had 10 white papers in to the Air Force Research Lab,” Laingen says. “Three of those were immediately looked at, and one turned out to be very intriguing to them.” The AFRL asked Natural Process Design, Inc., the Winona-based company responsible for the white paper, to begin working on the project. “That’s just one example of what happens when you build a network like this,” Laingen says.
“It’s a place to find opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t know about.” It’s also an opportunity to tap into the professional expertise of peers. Minnesota Wire & Cable, for example, has benefited from a pair of member companies who are especially good at crafting white papers— reports documenting both what a problem is and how to solve it that must be submitted for government projects. When Laingen gets a call requesting help on legal issues, for example, he can offer a handful of resources.
“I may not have the answers myself, but I do know of five law firms who are members who understand government contracting law,” he says. “I can help make the connections.”
Building Alliances
The Defense Alliance and its Web site are organized and run by Minnesota Wire & Cable. It’s not a money-making venture, but it was never intended to be. “It’s meant to make money for the member companies individually, but not for the organization,” Laingen says. “If we make any money at all, at an event, for example, we use it to buy phone cards for soldiers and send them overseas.”
Minnesota Wire & Cable pays Laingen’s salary for both positions. He estimates that he splits his time almost half and half between the two. Building the Alliance, he knows, is as good for his employer as it is for the other companies involved. Minnesota Wire & Cable has been so successful landing research and development grants (the national win rate is about 10 percent, Laingen says, but Minnesota Wire & Cable’s is about 51 percent) that it has developed Minnesota Defense, a division devoted entirely to defense contracts.
But Laingen is just as interested in achieving the same results for other companies in the state he has grown to love (“I bought a boat and now I love it here,” he admits). He’s pleased that the Alliance has helped raise the profile of the state in general but is eager to see it become even more prominent. “I think we have made progress,” he says. “There are pockets within the Department of Defense and Homeland Security that are looking to us now. But it’s an uphill battle and we have a lot to overcome. If we can start to have an impact, it will grow from there.”