In a memorandum published last Friday, February 17, Secretary of Defense James Mattis formally launched his initiative to “field a larger, more capable, and more lethal Joint force. . . . in the most cost-effective, efficient manner possible.” According to the memorandum, that means making Defense “business operations more efficient and freeing up funds for higher priority programs.” Here are 5 big takeaways for defense industry reformers.
consolidation of business functions
“To achieve greater Department efficiency and savings,” writes Mattis, “[DoD] must now pursue cross-enterprise consolidation of business activities.” Military services jealously guard their own processes supporting their forces. There’s the Army way, the Navy, the Air Force way, and so forth. And whether we’re talking about ground vehicles or business processes, programs developed in silos serve one silo, even though silos 2, 3, and 4 are working to achieve the same ends. For Secretary Mattis, that kind of redundancy is a waste. Right off the bat, Secretary Mattis sees six lines of business that can be consolidated to achieve efficiencies: human resource management, financial management, real property management, acquisition and contract management, base services, and cyber and IT management.”
inter-service Solutions
The six lines of business that Secretary Mattis cites are just a start. He’s looking for other areas to which the consolidation approach might be applied, without adversely affecting operational effectiveness, any “business and service tasks that no longer merit individual military department approaches,” anywhere there is “duplication of effort” across services and the Department. For instance, how inter-operative are medical records across the services? With the Department of Veterans Affairs? With the private-sector? There are many more places to look.
Build Cross-functional capacity
If you’re making a proposal, make sure you can demonstrate the diversity of thought and expertise invested in the problem. Secretary Mattis appreciates diverse perspectives. Indeed, fundamental to his approach are cross-functional teams. It’s not enough to have the best contracting experts re-thinking contracting business processes. That’s like asking a fish to re-think swimming. Secretary Mattis wants “accountable, cross-functional teams to address these lines of business.” The IT expert may see efficiencies the contracting expert just can’t see. The human resources expert may see efficiencies the MWR technician just can’t see. The MWR technician may know how IT can streamline MWR support. And so on.
multi-discipline, multi-generational joint effort
Naturally, solutions cant’ be conceived in the same silos that produced the inefficient redundancies to start with. So Secretary Mattis expects not only cross-functional expertise, but cross-department expertise, as well. “[R]eviews,” he directs, “should be conducted in coordination with heads of relevant Office of the Secretary of Defense and DoD components.” So, it may not be enough to just bring together on a cross-functional teams IT experts, contracting experts, human resource experts. Successful teams will include IT experts from the different services working with contracting experts from the different services, and so on. Further, it would be wise to include expertise from up and down the discipline. The new kid in town brings a perspective vastly different than the 30-year career civil servant.
Get beyond preserving performance outcomes
Acceptable solutions streamlining redundant business processes are models that continue to meet or enhance service delivery. Indeed, it’s implicit here that an ideal solution is not the one that just consolidates functions, but the model proposes more innovative functions that can more effectively and efficiently achieve outcomes.
Secretary Mattis is moving quickly. While the memorandum was published on February 17, he expects the Deputy Secretary of Defense to return to him by the end of the month with his mission analysis of the proposal. And we should all understand that the smart business principles he’s expounding are a good lead for every federal department and agency.
Think big. Think differently. Good luck.
