Give it up for the private-sector SysAdmin forces!
■"Next time: Companies are pleased with their responses to Hurrican Katrina, but the disaster has some re-examining their plans," by Del Jones, USA Today, 4 October 2005, p. B1.■"BearingPoint Thinks Global: From Kosovo to Kabul, McLean-Based Firm Finds Work Rebuildiing and Modernizing War-Ravaged Economies," by Ellen McCarty, Washington Post, 3 October 2005, p. D1.
Couple of interesting stories.
First one on how private companies showed a lot of moxie and clear-headedness in response to Katrina. Experts say the downside is that, during future disasters, the public will expect even more.
Damn straight, say I.
In the end, it will always be the private sector that shows the way in inventiveness and resiliency, and the Fed should be listening.
Second story is a perfect example of where the private sector fits best in the SysAdmin function: BearingPoint, the former consulting division of KPMG, that's become a specialist in helping recovering politically-bankrupt states get their governmental and private-sector financial systems back up and running (or really running for the first time). The company's done a bunch of jobs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some have been well done, others plagued by the usual cost-overruns typically driven by unexpected security costs (estimate for year one in Iraq was under $1 million, it ended up being $37 million).
Tough work, definitely, with some real risks to personnel, but BearingPoint establishes a record for taking on difficult work under difficult conditions. And that rep will continue to get it more and more jobs.
Let the Chinese and Indians man the check-points and build the roads, but keep the Americans troops for the high-end security and the American consultants for the high-end rule sets work.