On October 18, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security held a private, roundtable discussion for its Corporate Strategy Forum on the topic of “The Outlook for Government Services.” Speaking to the issues of the place of services businesses in the scheme of the defense industry were Stan Soloway, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, and Jeff Roncka, managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors. Moderating the session was Atlantic Council M.A. and George Lund Fellow Steven Grundman.

The place of services businesses in the scheme of the defense industry has turned out to be one of the first-order strategic dilemmasplaying out across the inflection marked by the confluence of fiscal crises and wars’ end. Amidst a scarcity of notable corporate development initiatives over the past three years, there are several–at Lockheed Martin (EIG, PAE), Northrop Grumman (TASC), L-3 Communications (Engility), and SAIC (Leidos)–that put services businesses in motion. They may also reflect the unsentimental discipline of Wall Street, where Wells Fargo Securities currently rates as “underperform” the entire government services grouping he covers.

The Corporate Strategy Forum convenes chief strategists of transatlantic companies in aerospace, defense, security, and government services for a private roundtable discussion about issues confronting the long-term health of these industries.