Saturday, November 11, 2017
Bid rumour
Some random rumors Webster is heading the UTexas bid. Jon Sarao? is the head of the UC bid. If this is the case than if either of these teams win I would not expect much will change at LANL, both these guys have been in the LANL systems their whole career. I would guess they would put in other current LANL people for the new PADS, ADs so we are just gonna get exactly the same kind of management as before. I am not saying that either of these guys are bad on a personal level I am just saying that they have only been exposed to the LANL way of management, this is all they know so no doubt will continue to manage the place they only way they know how to manage. Why are we even going through a contract change if we are going to just end up with same managers and exactly the same management culture. Make no mistake everyone knows that the issues at LANL are due to the management culture, just look at every survey, look at the annual scores that come out and read the reports of on
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10 comments:
So who do you want to lead a bid? Corporate CEO? Disaster. Military General? We tried that. DOE lab director? University President? Somebody else at LANL or LLNL like a AD or Division Leader? Who?
Not much new in this, since Sarrao has been traveling around the country for the past several years trying to land a lab director position. He is a nice enough fellow, but as the top post highlights his world view is restricted to LANL only. In many ways, he is the "mini me" of Wallace, with priority first on local position and last on National service.
If this story has any credibility it shows that both teams are betting against NNSA recent history. SNL generated four bids, and the top three each were led by director candidates that came from outside SNL.
This could prove to be a very risky gamble for both UC and UT, since the recent odds have been against an internal director for NNSA recompetes. Maybe it will wind up being won by Bechtel after all?
This could prove to be a very risky gamble for both UC and UT, since the recent odds have been against an internal director for NNSA recompetes. Maybe it will wind up being won by Bechtel after all?
November 12, 2017 at 9:49 AM
I would bet that Bechtel will win in the end. Perhaps there are many that believe that UC is the root cause of all the problems not to mention that Bechtel has real power in DC. Of course this will be the complete end of LANL as any kind of a scientific organization but this could be exactly what NNSA wants and Bechtel is the team to do that.
So a big question is what does NNSA want? Do they want a credible and reliable deterrent? Do they want to make as much money as possible with as little effort for themselves? Are they just confused. Do they want some of these things but are under constraints by New Mexico which also wants it chunk of free money? Is it really in heir best interest for things to run smoothly or in fact is it beneficial for them if things are messed up? NNSA was created not that long ago so they may want keep things just they way they are so NNSA can justify its own existence. In any of these calculations do the considerations of the people of the United States ever come under consideration, I guess not. We can assume than that NNSA will do what is in their personal best interests but what exactly is that? The simplest and safest solution is to keep LANL for profit and give it to Bechtel. New Mexico will be happy and keeps things going as they always have.
You can say how screwed up LANL has been for the last 10-15 years but think about all the people that become very wealthy with how things have turned out. You have more mangers than ever that are paid way more money than they could have ever dreamed of under the old non-profit UC system, the NNSA was created which made for an explosion of new high paying jobs in DC with little to no work needed, in other words the NNSA/LLNL/LANL systems has been extraordinarily profitable for many people so perhaps things have been going great in fact so great that not only should we keep it going but we should expand on it by putting Bechtel in full control, so Bechtel will be the winner. Come on admit in your hearts that we all know this how it is going to turn out. Can you give me one credible argument as to why Bechtel will not win under the conditions that I have laid out. There is too much money and too many people invested in this system now to change anything. The LANL/NNSA system has no choice but to go to full throttle and pick Bechtel.
I sure hope the Sarrao rumor is wrong. An LANL old timer who hit gold under LANS LLC, he epitomizes in every way the current LANS management cohort. Can it be that UC really thinks that there is nothing wrong with this cohort and that nobody outside qualifies to run the Lab? That the only thing LANL needs to turn things around is more of the same?
So a big question is what does NNSA want? Do they want a credible and reliable deterrent? Do they want to make as much money as possible with as little effort for themselves?
November 12, 2017 at 8:06 PM
Plese explain how NNSA can "make money"? You do understand it is a federal agency with a Congesssionally authorized budget? Are you suggesting NNSA takes kickbacks from the LANL M&O contractor?
5:29 PM
No it is nothing that fancy it is just that the NNSA personal like to have high salaries with lots of perks and little work. Not that different from people at many other federal agencies. Their decisions and what they want from LANL may be based on what maximizes these considerations rather than what is good for the nation.
I am not talking about kickbacks but this could come into play as well. I though Lockheed got in trouble for this?
The UC bosses must've conducted a lessons-learned exercise on the causes of recent failures and concluded that the culprit was not enough management from the LANS team. Accordingly, a decision was made to double down on the said team. Hence, John Sarrao is leading the effort.
Look, Sarrao has already successfully lead a failed signature science facility bid. I'm certain he is capable of leading many other failures.
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