The question is more, "what capabilities do they have that other companies don't", and I suspect the answer is "extreme proficiency at the federal RFP process".
I interviewed at Booz in 2004. I told them i was interested in going to grad school and that i heard they work their new hires to death. I told them that id rather work myself to death in grad school where i can get a phd rather than at Booz. They said none of the folks in their group work more than 40 hours so I agreed to come to for an interview.
So I arrive at my interview all suited up. I was interviewed in a lunch room by a woman first. She was really nice. I asked her how many hours she works a week and she said around 60 and that everyone does. I was a bit taken back because this is the opposite of what the hiring manager had said.
Interviewer 2 comes in and I ask the same question during the course of the meeting and I get the same answer: he works 60 hours a week and so does everyone else but everyone really loves their work. I'm angry now because I had to drive 4 hours to get to this interview and it essentially wasted a whole day.
I literally got up in the middle of the interview and shook the guys hand and said, sorry, but i dont think this will work for me. The hiring manager must of saw that something was up and came and and asked what was going on. I politely said he lied to me about the position and mentioned the hours thing and he accused me of not being a team player. I told him frankly, you wasted my time and said goodbye. He threatened to not pay my hotel and per diem as i walked out. I never even acknowledged him and just kept going. I walked out past security on the way out and dropped off my badge, I didnt even sign up and no one even bothered to stop me.
They ended up paying for everything and there were no consequences. I ended up getting a well paying job at raytheon the following day. I worked there for 5 years and never worked a day over 8 hours AND they paid for my graduate work (they offered).
A friend mentioned it best, "When you Booz, you lose."
I think it was also Booz who tried to get me to tell them confidential compensation information because, quote, "C'mon, I'm not going to tell anyone."
Wow. Not only is that deeply unprofessional, I can't even imagine what he hoped to gain by that.
Also not checking all the boxes during the RFP process sends a signal about your ability to do so once the work is awarded.
A false signal that people would be wise to ignore. There are a multitude of examples showing that companies that learn how to check all the right RFP boxes pay no mind to checking any of the 'do a good job and product a good product' boxes. It shows they are good at checking only the boxes that make them money, and the current process is that doing a good job is not a box one's pay depends upon.
Is there any similar evidence that people who fail to check all the RFP boxes also fail to check the "do a good job and deliver a good product" boxes?
Terrible bad thing that happened? It was that one individual's actions and they've of course been let go! (see: VW emissions scandal, but this plays out in B2B privately all the time).
Good outcomes due to individual heroics? Our company has an established history of delivery! (ignore the fact that those folks quit years ago). The Ship of Theseus sails ever onwards ;)
Working the contracting system is a completely different competency than doing the work that is contracted for, and the people that get contracts are the ones specialized in getting contracts.
They probably have some competence in the actual work, but they often aren't competing with the best in the field for the work, because the best in the field for the work often have no or less competence in the relevant area ofmgovernment contracting.