LOCKHEED MARTIN'S CHANGE OF COURSE PAYS OFF:
Last week's legislative deal allowing Lockheed Martin Corp. to move forward in acquiring Comsat Corp. may signal more than just the resolution of a nagging issue. It also hints at the extent to which America's biggest defense contractor has begun repairing its tattered reputation on Capitol Hill. Beginning in early 1998 when federal regulators refused to let Lockheed Martin buy Northrop Grumman Corp., the Bethesda-based company seemed to have lost its political bearings. It didn't help that gregarious chairman Norman R. Augustine retired and was replaced by a taciturn engineer, Vance D. Coffman, who had no enthusiasm for glad-handing. Then the company suffered failures on space launches and a series of financial downturns, damaging its once-proud public image. Early last year, sources said, the decay had spread to the Senate, where Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) upbraided Coffman about blunders on the company's THAAD Army missile program. The lowest point came last summer when Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) nearly gutted the company's top military program, the F-22 fighter plane. Again, Coffman found himself at odds with a key legislator, getting into a heated exchange in Lewis's office. Lockheed Martin "was so preoccupied with its own internal issues and bureaucratic concerns that it seemed to lose touch with its customers and its business environment," said Loren Thompson, a defense consultant and director of the Lexington Institute think tank. According to several who saw the company's campaign to win support for the Comsat deal on Capitol Hill, Lockheed Martin made a bad first impression. "They were like, 'We're big. We want. We get,' " said one congressional staffer. But Lockheed Martin had to have a victory, and went all out to get one. Brian Dailey began 1999 as chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, the venture formed to absorb Comsat. After the F-22 debacle, Coffman put Dailey in charge of the company's Washington operations. He was key in both roles. In 1999, Lockheed Martin hired more than three dozen outside lobbyists to work on the Comsat issue in Congress, according to registration forms. The majority leader was a particular target. The company hired one former Lott staffer and listed his task on a registration form as "Identify business relationships for (Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications) in Mississippi that will benefit the state." It donated $9,000 to Lott's 2000-campaign fund, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Thompson, the defense consultant, said the company seems to have learned from its nadir last summer. "I think Coffman in particular has put a lot of emphasis on improving congressional relations, and the outcome of this very difficult Comsat case suggests that all his efforts are beginning to pay off," he said. (Washington Post -- 2/21)
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Regards - Dale |
