Is Your Data Disaster-Proof?

gtsc_preparednessInformation Week, a leading IT industry news source, estimates $26.5 billion in revenue is lost annually due to network and system interruptions. Despite the potential for depleted earnings, angry customers, tarnished reputations, and lost data, over 50% of businesses don’t have an IT disaster recovery plan.

Build a Strong Foundation

Your IT systems support your business, making it is essential to design a solid infrastructure that aligns with your business goals, secures your data, and is resilient. Here are a few simple tips that many organizations neglect.

  • Schedule maintenance for off-hours. Like your car, information systems need maintenance to operate consistently and at peak efficiency.
  • Keep software up-to-date. You don’t need to be on the cutting edge, but falling too far behind can cause you more problems and leave you vulnerable to attacks.
  • Define a password policy and disable old employee accounts. These two best practices are easy to overlook, but the results of negligence can be disastrous, leaving the door open for hostile hackers and disgruntled former employees.

Secure Your Digital Borders

The 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon found 68% of attacks required very little skill on the part of attackers. This means that most networks are vulnerable to simple hacks by opportunistic individuals. With so many boxes to check and settings to configure, it’s easy to overlook minor flaws that create big security holes.

Experts can help you close the back doors that hurried employees or loose security guidelines leave open. In the end, the cost of an attack, measured in lost data or downtime, is much higher than the cost of a secure infrastructure.

Plan for Failure

Developing an IT Disaster Recovery Plan ensures your business can get back to work as quickly as possible after a service interruption, natural disaster, hardware failure, or anything cyberspace can throw at you. Make your IT DRP part of a larger, comprehensive Business Continuity Plan and you’ll be ready for anything. To start developing an IT DRP, follow these steps.

  • Gather stakeholders from various departments to determine which systems, software and data they must have to operate.
  • Assign priority levels to the most critical systems. You may want to consider generators that can provide power during storms or utilizing an off-site, secure data center.
  • Estimate the amount of time it will take to restore offline systems after an outage.
  • Test and reassess your IT DRP yearly or quarterly, depending on your business needs, to account for changes and updates to systems.

Enjoy the Benefits

You may not find your business in the path of a hurricane or tornado tomorrow, but your systems are vulnerable to attacks in ways that your physical structures and employees are not. IT DRP prepares you to deal with data failures, hacking, connectivity outages, theft, and a host of other IT-specific threats and crises.

Avoid the high cost of IT infrastructure failures by investing in a solid plan today.

Lilly Harris CEO MSA, Inc.

Lilly Harris
CEO
MSA, Inc.

Lilly Harris is the President and CEO of Man-Machine Systems Assessment. MSA is an Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business with 23 years of government contracting experience. MSA is passionate about our Warfighters and the preparedness of our nation. MSA works diligently to evaluate defense systems, ensure continuity of operations and support mission critical programs that are aligned with our passion and mission. 

Visit: www.msaincorp.com

Follow: @MSAincorp

When the Floodwaters Recede, Will Your Business Be Afloat?

gtsc_preparednessSeptember 2013 is National Preparedness Month. Over the next month, the GTSC blog will take a look at some emergency tips and resources to keep your business prepared to be ‘afloat’ for the inevitable.

In May, states across the US experienced major flooding and record-breaking tornadoes plowed through cities and towns. In June, wildfires devastated Arizona. In April, newspapers and news channels were consumed with the Boston bombing. In every case, local businesses were impacted – and in some cases destroyed – in the aftermath of the disaster.

With disasters—manmade and natural—on the rise worldwide, and local businesses increasingly impacted by what happens around the globe as much as what happens down the street, business continuity planning is more important than ever.

Some Businesses Won’t Survive

Local businesses are the economic backbone of their communities. When they have no plan to guide recovery efforts after a disaster, the effects of lost wages and services ripple through the entire community, and the impacts keep piling up after the crisis.

Following a major disaster, local businesses that aren’t prepared continue to suffer. According to a study by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, 25% of local businesses never reopen. For those that do, reopening quickly is essential to survival. More than 80% of businesses that take more than 10 days to resume operations will close within one month.

Some Businesses Will Thrive

Nobody would hope for a disaster to boost the local economy, but experience shows that they often do. The effect is so significant that local economies are often overrun by outside businesses seeking to get their hands on valuable contracts. Often, these companies bring in their own outside workers that have no ties to the community. If your business can weather the storm, it will help your bottom line and benefit local workers and families.

Preparation is Key

Business continuity planning can help your business weather the storm—or anything else that comes along. The basic steps are relatively easy, but many businesses never get around to thinking about them until it’s too late.

  • Identify key stakeholders.
  • Prioritize critical functions.
  • Plan to restore functions following a disaster. Consider the following:
    • Establish orders of succession
    • Develop crisis communication plans
    • Design an IT disaster recovery plan
    • Define organizational roles & responsibilities that will take effect during the disruption

Benefits Beyond Survival

As you develop a business continuity plan, you’ll take a closer look at your organization and its priorities. Often, stakeholders uncover ways to streamline or improve operations as a byproduct of disaster planning.

Disasters may be devastating, but planning is good for business. Get started today!

Lilly Harris CEO MSA, Inc.

Lilly Harris
CEO
Man-Machine Systems Assessment

Lilly Harris is the President and CEO of Man-Machine Systems Assessment. MSA is an Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business with 23 years of government contracting experience. MSA is passionate about our Warfighters and the preparedness of our nation. MSA works diligently to evaluate defense systems, ensure continuity of operations and support mission critical programs that are aligned with our passion and mission. 

Visit: www.msaincorp.com

Follow: @MSAincorp

A Simple Tool For Employee Engagement

Employee SurveyEmployees are the foundation of your organization. You understand that their daily actions and behavior are a key factor in customer satisfaction, and the bottom line is employee action determines if you succeed or fail.

But did you realize that it is their underlying attitudes that are driving their behavior? Attitudes are habits of thought – personal views or opinions about something that are built over time. Habits can be changed, but only if you are actually aware of them and committed to understanding them.

How can you ensure that employee workplace attitudes are positive and continually improving? Start by becoming fully aware of the underlying attitudes of your employees at work. And how do you do that? Just ask!

Before you state all of the reasons why you can’t do an employee survey (it’s too time consuming, I don’t know how, nothing ever happens as a result, employees won’t respond honestly), I’d like you to shift your attitude towards the positive, and consider a few great reasons to conduct that employee survey:

  • It’s a cost-effective and simple tool that can quickly and easily identify what is working well in your organization. Highlighting opportunities for workplace improvements will lead to improved business results.
  • If you understand what motivates or stresses your workforce, you can work on the right things to keep them inspired, begin to alleviate some of the stressors, and better help them retain their best and brightest ideas at work.
  • It’s an opportunity to capture knowledge and great ideas from the line level about where the opportunities are, what the challenges are, and how to best implement your chosen strategies.
  • It’s easier (and cheaper) to show your employees that you are listening and acting on their opinions, needs and concerns, rather than waiting until they are walking out the door due to frustration.

So how do you get started, and how do you make sure the effort pays off? Here are a few tips on launching your own employee survey.

1. Ensure Leadership Commitment. Make sure that senior managers are committed to the survey initiative, and will devote the time and attention to follow up and take action on feedback received. Nothing kills employee morale and creates a negative attitude quicker than a lack of follow-through. This leads us to tip #2:

2. Scope Wisely. Choose topics that you are prepared and able to act upon. Don’t ask for opinions in areas that you have no intention of addressing. Why would you ask for ideas on strategy if it’s already set? Instead, you might ask for ideas on implementing that strategy.

3. Keep it Short and Targeted. The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete and should cover a specific area of focus – do you want to better understand aspects of your culture, or assess how people are working in teams? Do you want feedback about how to implement the new strategy, or understand what motivates your employees? Remember you can’t solve every problem in one initiative.

4. Act Ethically and Fairly. Make it clear that retribution will not be tolerated- you don’t want to create a culture of fear of speaking the truth. To reassure employees and increase the odds of getting honest feedback, keep the responses anonymous (use an online tool that only identifies by IP address or get a neutral party to analyze the data). Let people know how their responses will be used; we recommend that you tell people that their feedback will be anonymous but not confidential (meaning you will not share who said what, but you will share common themes that emerge from the data). It does no good to collect feedback that managers can’t act upon.

5. Show Gratitude. Genuinely thank people for their honest feedback, and let them know when they can expect a response, and what the process will be for dealing with results.

6. Follow up! Respond when you say you will, and keep employees updated on outcomes and actions that are being taken as a result. If you can’t take action, let them know why (who knows, they may have a solution that you hadn’t considered!)

View more resources for employee engagement here.
Mary-Claire Burick CEO MC Strategies

Mary-Claire Burick
CEO
MC Strategies

Mary-Claire Burick is a Strategic Advisor to the Government Technology & Services Coalition. She is the President & CEO of MC Strategy. MC Strategy works with the leaders at companies, nonprofits, and government agencies to build healthy and effective organizations to translate your vision into action by connecting employee action, resources, and processes to business strategies. 

Company Introductions & Capability Statements: An SBLO Overview

Capability StatementAs the Small Business Liaison Officer for Alion Science and Technology I receive at least 10 e-mail introductions and capability statements per week. The hope from the vendor is that I will review the e-mail and capability statement and make arrangements for them to meet with the appropriate account team. This article is about improving your chances of getting your e-mail introduction and capability statement to the right account team and for them to follow-up with you.

E-mail introductions provide the opportunity to customize the information in the capability statement to the company you are targeting. In too many cases the e-mail introduction makes reference to the attached capability statement with a request to meet to discuss the capabilities of the company. Good email introductions link the product or service offerings to the targeted company’s core service areas or to a specific customer.

For example, I received an email that stated that Alion was the Prime on a specific contract that will soon be expiring and that he wanted to be part of our team for the re-compete. He outlined the services he provides to that customer in another area and the knowledge he had for that specific customer.  He was in discussions with our program manager for that contract the next day.  He was specific in his request, showed that he researched Alion, provided  value-add information with regards to additional service offerings he could bring to Alion as well as his knowledge of the customer.

The SBLO helps to navigate your information to the appropriate team, so be specific. What account team do you want to meet with and why? What is unique about your product or service that warrants a meeting with the account team?  This question is particularly important for IT companies. Many of your capability statements contain the same information as your competitors. What is your unique value add? Don’t be afraid to try new approaches.  Build your capability statement around a couple of your key customers, then use that information to show breadth and depth of service offerings to the company you are targeting.

In summary, corporations look for teaming partners that can provide complimentary products or services to their core competencies, innovation and additional customer knowledge. Does your capability statement or e-mail introduction provide the necessary information to determine whether your company can provide value to us?

Clairesse Jackson
Clairesse Jackson  Small Business Liaison OfficerAlion Science and Technology

Clairesse Jackson is the Small Business Liaison Officer for Alion Science and Technology, a Lion’s Den member of the Government Technology & Services Coalition.

Alion Science and Technology delivers advanced engineering, IT and operational solutions to strengthen national security and drive business results. For customers in defense, civilian government and commercial industries, Alion’s engineered solutions support smarter decision-making and enhanced readiness in rapidly-changing environments.

 

5 Things You Need to Know when Moving to Agile

agileAgile is the big word being thrown around these days, especially in the federal government; agile, adaptive, efficient, and effective are all words used to describe the development processes and outcomes that Agile espouses. We see a groundswell of movement away from the traditional waterfall methods of developing software that have proven to be time consuming, linear, process-centric versus customer-centric, and on top of it all, expensive. As we move towards Agile we are sold on the promise of delivering value through a focus on reducing overhead, faster time to functionality, and at a lower cost.

However, the reality is organizations are experiencing resistance and running up against barriers that have been built and reinforced over many years. We continue to underestimate the array of impacts that Agile has and the changes it creates within IT and beyond. VersionOne’s annual survey ‘The State of Agile’ has for the past three years sited, “Ability to change organizational culture” and “General resistance to change” as the top barriers to agile adoption. This underscores the importance of cultural awareness, culture change, and change management competence when implementing agile.

Whether you’re thinking about moving to Agile or have already started your journey, here are 5 tips for helping you succeed:

1. Agile produces a culture shift – At whatever stage of adoption, know your culture and how it compares to one that supports agility. Organizational cultures take years to change (sorry to say it!), however a cultural assessment will provide you with the insight and ability to align aspects of your culture that support agility and pinpoint attributes that do not.

2. Agile requires new management approaches – Traditional, top-down, command and control management approaches are not well suited for Agile. Agile software development has emerged as a shining example of knowledge work – where the information you have and new ideas you develop and share, equates to the business value you create. New approaches for managing knowledge workers include breaking down information silos, creating an environment where new ideas can flow and flourish, building trust, and improving the link between individual effort and organizational success.

3. Agile moves your seat – the design of your office space most likely will need to change. Agile teams work collaboratively in open settings, where information is radiated for all to consume.  And how the team works – even the hours they work – are designed and decided by the team members. When you have some agile teams, though not all agile teams, other people in the same division or department will see their colleagues working in drastically different ways. Make sure communication is flowing and management is supportive because this is an area where you will start to visibly see the changes agile requires.

4. Agile hinges on open communications – Most, if not all, organizations struggle with effective communication. Left over control mechanisms from traditional hierarchical, command and control style cultures encouraged gated oversight in order to decide what information would be released and to whom, or it is withheld all together. Agile requires proactive communications, open dialogue and information sharing with a wide range of individuals; colleagues, leadership, stakeholders, customers must be in the know in order to realize success.

5. Moving to Agile requires change management – Going from waterfall to agile is not necessarily an easy change to make.  But it’s not just about process change. In fact Agile impacts the whole organizational system.  To be successful in agile transformation, organizations must build and deploy change management competencies and practices and frameworks to guide their efforts. Effective change management is iterative, adaptive, and measurable and relies heavily on leadership, sponsorship and ongoing communications.

To recap – agile is more than just a process replacement; it represents a new and different way of thinking, or mindset, that counters many of the organizational norms of the 20th century. It takes time, some monetary resources, a learning curve, and some pain. But with the right insights, flexibility and focus on managing the shift to agile as a change, agile can become a key differentiator within IT departments and across the enterprise.

Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes
Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes
Vice President TeamCatapult
Sara Kindsfater-Yerkes is a change management and transformation consultant and a certified ScrumMaster®. She is known for designing creative, problem-solving solutions with the bottom-line resulting in more engaged, productive and happy individuals, teams and organizations. Sara is the Vice President and co-founder of TeamCatapult; a niche-consulting firm focused on helping clients achieve competitive advantage through their people.
 
TeamCatapult is a member of GTSC, and Sara is the co-chair of the GTSC DHS Engagement Workgroup. 

New SBA Regulations Focus on Penalties & Liabilities of Size Misrepresentation

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) much anticipated new regulations on small business size and status integrity implement key provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (Jobs Act).  Most notably (and as anticipated), the regulations implement the strict liability provisions of the Jobs Act by imposing penalties on businesses that willfully misrepresent their small business size or status in order to obtain contracts, subcontracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or research and development cooperative agreements.  The regulations also require signed size and status certifications from company officials as well as annual size and status certifications in the System for Award Management (SAM).  As a result of these new regulations, small businesses must be vigilant in accurately calculating and representing their size and status.  Otherwise such companies risk ruinous contractual, civil, and criminal penalties that can far exceed even the value of the contract, regardless of whether the government receives the actual product or service sought under the contract.
Penalties for “Willful” Misrepresentation of Small Business Size and Status
The SBA’s new regulations impose penalties on any business that “willfully” seeks and receives a contract award by misrepresentation of its small business size and status.  Three actions are generally deemed to be willful certifications under the regulations:
  1. Submitting a response to a solicitation (for a contract, subcontract, grant, or cooperative agreement) specifically intended for award to a small business;
  2. Submitting a response to a solicitation (for a contract, subcontract, grant, or cooperative agreement) that, if successful in obtaining an award, would encourage the government to classify the award as being made to a small business; and
  3. Registering on a government contracting database, such as SAM, as a small business concern.
Thus, if a concern holds itself out to be a small business in any of these three ways and is later found not to satisfy the applicable small business requirements, it is deemed to have willfully misrepresented its small business size and status, and is subject to penalties unless certain exceptions apply.
The new regulations create a presumption that the government’s loss caused by a small business status misrepresentation is equal to the amount expended by the government – be it on a contract, subcontract, grant, or cooperative agreement – thereby potentially requiring a contractor to return all money paid under the contract.  The new regulations also explicitly discuss civil penalties under the False Claims Act and the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, as well as criminal penalties under the Small Business Act.  This suggests that agencies may not limit their damages to contract expenditures.  Furthermore, a contractor misrepresenting its small business status is subject to suspension and debarment under these regulations.
Annual Small Business Certification on SAM
From a practical standpoint, the new regulations’ most noteworthy requirement is that small businesses must certify their status in SAM at least annually.  If a business fails to make an annual certification, it will not be listed as a small business in SAM until it recertifies its status.  Such a loss of status obviously impacts a contractor’s ability to obtain contract awards.  In the comments accompanying the regulations, SBA clarified that annual recertification on SAM is meant only for purposes of future awards, not continuing eligibility for previously awarded long-term contracts.
Given the myriad problems SAM has faced since it went online last year, only time will tell whether this process will be a simple administrative function for small businesses.
Requirement for Signed Certification of Size Status
The new regulations contain a similar requirement that a small business responding to a solicitation must include in its response a certification of its small business size and status, signed by an authorized official of the business on the same page as the claimed size status.
The regulations also make slight changes to the timing of a small business size determination for participants in the 8(a) Business Development program.  Where such a determination previously was made as of the date of the business’s application and the date of certification by the SBA, under the new regulations, a determination is made as of the application date and, where applicable, the date the SBA program office requests a formal size determination.
Exceptions and Safe Harbors
The new regulations are intended to impose penalties only on those contractors that willfully misrepresent their small business size and status.  The regulations therefore include limitations of liability in the event of:
  • “Unintentional errors;”
  • Technical malfunctions; and
  • “Other similar situations” showing that any misrepresentation was not affirmative, intentional, willful, or actionable under the False Claims Act. The regulations further state that a prime contractor relying in good faith on a subcontractor’s representation regarding small business status will not be held liable for any misrepresentation by the subcontractor about its size.  The new regulations also exempt contractors from liability in cases where government personnel have erroneously identified a contractor as a small business if the contractor has made no such representation and had no knowledge of the erroneous identification.
How Small Businesses Can Avoid Liability
When these new regulations go into effect on August 27, 2013, the burden will be on small businesses to certify their small business size and status in SAM annually, as well as in every response to a government procurement solicitation.  To avoid the heavy penalties called for in the regulations, it is paramount that small business contractors be careful and thorough in assessing their size and status.
Some steps small businesses can take to limit potential liability include the following:
  • Assign one primary, and a secondary, individual for ensuring the representations in SAM are always accurate and are updated once annually;
  • Clarify who will be the authorized official responsible for signing the small business size and status certification;
  • Establish and maintain internal management procedures governing size representation or certifications;
  • Ensure all representations and certifications are clear and unambiguous; and
  • Make efforts to correct an incorrect or invalid representation or certification in a timely manner.
Rob Burton

Robert A. Burton Partner, Venable

Robert Burton of Venable is a GTSC Strategic Advisor and a thirty-year veteran of procurement law and policy development. He served in the Executive Office of the President as Deputy Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP).  This piece was written by Dismas Locaria, Keir Bancroft and Nathaniel Canfield of Venable.
 
For more information on how these regulations might impact your business, or to better understand the requirements regarding small business, click here.

5 Tips for Considering the International Market

Brandon Torres Declet  CEO, SouthernCrux International & GTSC Strategic Advisor

Brandon Torres Declet
CEO, SouthernCrux International
& GTSC Strategic Advisor

In an era of constrained budgets at the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, it makes sense for some small and mid-sized businesses to think about expanding internationally. How?

1. Think about your domestic government customers. Is the product or service you’re selling easily understood and universal in nature?  Who do you want to sell to in a foreign country?

2. Learn regulations. Understand any regulations on the export of your product or service such as ITAR. Also, understand what foreign laws or regulations are pertinent. This will vary by country.

3. Test the waters. Before you spend a lot of money and time traveling overseas, work to develop relationships with foreign governments here in D.C. They can be your guide to appropriate contacts in the country.

4. Do your research. Reach out to the Department of Commerce and seek assistance in determining the size of the potential market.

5. Conduct vetting. Consider using brokers or in country re-sellers but always vet these contacts carefully. Small and mid-sized businesses that make mistakes and work with disreputable partners take significant risk.

6. Designate someone to international BD. Lastly, every country is different and the time to develop relationships and a sales pipeline will vary. Consider designating a person responsible for international business development.

Brandon Torres Declet is a GTSC Strategic Advisor and brings more than a decade of experience working among senior government officials at the Federal, state and local level.

Learn more about international business opportunities at the Mapping the International Sales Landscape in the Defense & Homeland Security Markets program on September 24.

 

GTSC’s Social Media Cents: Top 6 Reasons to Tweet

gtsc_social_media2Part of GTSC’s mission is to make you more savvy and succesful as a business. In this issue of the Weekly Insider, we are launching a new column called “Social Media Cents” that will discuss the latest social media trends, advice on how to leverage social media to your benefit, and tips on what NOT to do as you enter Twitterdom. Just our two “cents.”
So, Tweets. Twitter. What’s all this chirping about? While some see social media as annoying chirping, others are using these new tools to increase their reach with customers, understand customer priorities and build their “following.” Read on for the top 6 reasons you should join the chirping.
1. Insight into your clients. Gain insight into what’s important to your current or potential government customers and teaming partners by following them on Twitter. You’ll learn what they consider important, what is trending (in their opinion), and what’s on their minds. You’ll also be on top of new programs, issues, industry days, news and more by following your government customers.

2. Raises your visibility. Linking your Twitter account to your company website, Facebook, and LinkedIn only takes a minute. If you engage to build a two-way dialogue forum about your research and ideas you will increase your visibility and reach. Beware, though, “Build it, and they will come” does not apply here. Make sure you or someone in your company is shooting out little bits of news and info on a regular basis. Get your company out there!

3. Maintains your presence. Contracts have been far and few between these days. Twitter accounts help you maintain your presence and energy, not look dormant. Give life to your company by adding fresh content to your company Twitter. Make sure the content is always relevant and important. Think: would you click on it? 

4. Helps you find great people. Now more than ever, potential employees are researching across all spectrums to see if they want to work for a specific company. Don’t miss the opportunity to share with potential employees. Many companies elect to make a special Twitter handle for HR like @CompanyHR or @CompanyJobs to share job announcements and the good work of their employees.

5. Positions you as a thought leader. As your business grows, you must find new avenues for branding and cultivating thought leadership. Twitter is a great vehicle to promote your company’s ideas, research, news, blog and partnerships.That being said, be careful with content marketing – its primary purpose is to become a trusted resource so don’t be overly “salesy.” If you are sharing helpful and insightful content, others will begin to think of you as a thought leader. Allow them to arrive at that conclusion on their own without telling them you are a thought leader.

6. Own your domain. While you may not be interested in using a Twitter account today, once the username is taken: it’s gone. Create a log-in and username for all social media accounts so you leave your company the option to use them in the future. And then actually use them.

Don’t know where to start? Make a Twitter account and start follow @GTSCoalition for information about upcoming programs, news and announcements. Together, we make the homeland and national security community stronger – even on social media. >>Visit Twitter

So You Want to be a Protege Company? Top 4 Things to Know

Peggy Butler Mason

Peggy Butler-Mason
Subcontracting and Mentor-Protégé Program Manager, Army Office of Small Business Programs, U.S. Department of Defense

As the subcontracting and mentor-protégé program manager for the Army Office of Small Business Programs, I participate on the Army’s Services Strategy Panel (ASSP) and Strategic Sourcing Panel to facilitate more small business opportunities. I’ve been working with small businesses for over 15 years and manage 15 active mentor-protégé relationships valued at over $11 million.
At the recent GTSC mentor-protégé session, I was asked what qualities define a successful protégé firm. After some thought, it really boils down to the following:
1. The protégé (and the mentor for that matter) must be truly committed to the program. Protégé companies must be willing to invest time, people and resources to make a relationship successful. There are no guarantees of revenue or success.
2. The protégé and their employees must have a vision for success. A company’s culture is very important to its success – when working with a mentor, all of the employees in the protégé firm need to understand clearly the goals, the benefit of the relationship, roles and responsibilities and a clear definition of “success.”
3. Communication. Nearly everyone I speak to touts the importance of communication for the success of a mentor protégé relationship. This goes many ways: mentor to protégé, protégé to mentor, mentor/protégé to client, protégé company to employees. Where there is no communication or explanation there is room for misunderstanding and even mischief. Communicate early, often and constantly.
4. Grow a thick skin. Part of the reason for the mentor-protégé relationship is for the protégé to learn. No company can do that if they are unwilling to accept criticism, reassess their own performance and learn new lessons. Sometimes these lessons come easily, often times they do not. Accepting criticism is a critical part of not only being a successful protégé but more importantly getting the most out of the program.