Behind the Top 100

We're still in the recovery mode from the Top 100. It's a tough, intense time here as we put the print issue together and build out the Web site.The continues as I type this.But I wanted to share a few thoughts.First, I'm happy with how the stories turned out. Our reporters and freelancers did a great job. Each year, I worry about the stories maybe sounding the same as previous years. It is eery sometimes to look back at issues from 10 years ago and see headlines and stories about many similar themes ? tight budgets, doing more with less, IT as an enabler, etc.I didn't have to worry about that this year. A common thread through a couple of the stories is the atmosphere of uncertainty this year because of the Bush administration winding down coupled with the economy being in a tough spot. Political shifts of this magnitude haven't happened in eight years, and won't happen again for at least four more.That gave us plenty to write about because it is very much on the minds of the executives we talked to.FedSources continues to do a great job for us in crunching the data. We made some changes this year so the list continues to evolve with the market. We look at the product service codes we use each year and make adjustments. With IT being so critical to nearly everything the government does, we try to reflect that in the codes we use.One theme that we didn't explore in our stories was one that we didn't notice until we were well into the editing phase: There seems to be a new generation of leadership emerging.Several companies, starting with No. 3 Northrop Grumman and Linda Mills, have brought on new leaders in the past year or so. Dell, EDS, Perot and SRA are among the others. Look for us to explore what this means as we move forward.One of the things I like about the Top 100 is that it really belongs to you, the readers, so I invite you to write to me [nwakeman@1105govinfo.com] or comment on this blog about what the rankings say about the market.I'm open to criticism too, so if there is something you don't like, I want to know about that as well.