Aerospace eBusiness

New business imperative: Share relentlessly or Perish July 23, 2009

There is an organization that, in the last 6 months, has embraced leading edge technology, open information exchange, collaboration amongst departments and with external partners, focus on customer service, speed of deployment, as well as experimentation with game-changing ideas. Is this organization some kind of Silicon Valley start-up driven by a few highly caffeinated Gen-Y associates full of big ideas? No! It is in fact our US Government!

At this week’s Open Government and Innovation conference  in Washington, DC, over 700 attendees from every branch of the government shared (See Twitter Stats) and discussed the President’s deep commitment to open and transparent government. All of the subjects listed above were covered with enthusiasm and with a “can-do” attitude I have rarely witnessed before. Even more impressively, this conference was sponsored by the Department of Defense with great energy from its Deputy CIO, Dave Wennergren. In his opening remarks on both days, he emphasized the culture of change that is sweeping the government and the fundamental belief that “Relentless Sharing” of information and knowledge is the way of the future for society as a whole.

I could not possibly do justice to the inspiring keynotes that were presented and I encourage you to spend the time to listen to them online. They are available with sound and slides: Aneesh Chopra (US Chief Technology Officer), Vivek Kundra (US Chief Information Officer), Tim O’Reilly (Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media – and father of Web 2.0), and David Weinberger (author of “Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder”).

What does it all mean? Because of the innovation imperative created by the advance of new technology in society, the government is shifting from a “command and control” model to a “communication and collaboration” model. Great ideas exist “out there” and new technology allows us to harvest and develop them. Taking full advantage of concepts such as Social Media, the government is becoming a convener of game-changing collaborative approaches rather than the initiator of rigid and lobby-driven policies. Transparency becomes the default position to establish trust and gain efficiency. In six months, the government has already accomplished huge progress on that front. Just to name two, check out http://www.data.gov for open information sharing, and the IT dashboard at http://www.usaspending.gov for a clear view of the government investment in IT.

So how does this impact the Aerospace & Defense industry? To put it simply, this is the end of “business as usual”. This shift in the government’s approach will create three profound changes for the industry:

1. Major overall of systems procurement: Do you want to see a glimpse of future procurement? Check out http://www.defensesolutions.gov. No longer will system procurement be driven from a set of requirements, it will be driven instead from capability requirements. Open standards, 21^st century infrastructure, and information sharing mandate will throw the doors open to innovative ideas from all corners of the world. “Great ideas will get funding regardless of the rules”, Chopra was quoted as saying. There will now be spiral development focused on collaboration and on quick win systems that will embrace risk management rather than risk avoidance. Accountability will be enforced through transparency, and businesses will be measured based on value and innovation rather than only schedule and budget.
2. Shift to “mission focus” and “customer service”: the government will lead the way in demanding results in terms of service and mission support. They will ask “how can you solve my problem” rather than asking for a specific solution. They will demand collaboration, information sharing, continuous improvement and innovation. A major contractor may think that they can adapt to that change, but this will permeate throughout the rest of the business and consumer world where customers (and employees) will ask the same from any organization. Businesses will have to change the way they operate not just to adapt to the government but for all of their customers.
3. Young talent will not tolerate “old ways” of doing business: The next generation of bright minds and leaders coming out of our colleges and universities will gravitate toward organizations that promote a way of working that includes flexibility, communication, collaboration, and the removal of artificial or corporate boundaries. One of the most enlightening session at the conference was the Young Government Leaders panel that boldly and fearlessly described their eye-opening views of work and life. Social Media and Collaboration is natural for them and they will not function without it. Organizations will have to adapt quickly to be able to attract this new talent.

Critics point out that the number one issue with this transparency approach is the concern over information security. Wennergren describes it as a polarity management issue between opposite goals: information sharing and information security. He suggests that aspiring to secure information sharing is an achievable short term goal. Luckily for us, organizations like the TransGlobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP)  are a long way down the road to solving this issue.

So, since the government is making major changes that will definitely affect Aerospace and Defense, why was Lockheed Martin the only representation from the industry at the event? According to the organizers, the industry does not believe this is happening, not realizing that this change is a result of pressure from the people not an initiative from leadership. “We have no choice”, said Kundra. One small consolation is that Lockheed Martin is set to release their secure collaboration platform as Open Source Software in the next 60 days. Tom Haser says: “We are totally on board, but I am not sure about our industry colleagues”. I for one think that their absence from the dialogue is very telling.