Innovation in Government Business

Aug 09 2023 12

Innovation in Government Business Podcast artwork

Hosted by: Strategic Institute for Innovation in Government Contracting - Few subjects have been studied more than federal acquisition for the development and delivering of new capability and innovation. Since the 1980's the system has empirically and anecdotally demonstrated abysmal performance. The best and brightest have proffered solutions and Congress has followed with polices and mandates to encourage these. Leadership, specifically within the DoD has chosen to ignore these mandates. This is a rare case, where polices are far more advanced than practice, yet the stagnation continues and even gets worse. This podcast is for those interested in solving our Nation's critical technological challenges, by offering solutions, lessons learned, and highlighting the incredible potential of Other Transactions Agreements for fielding new advanced capability. If you are a federal acquisition professional or industry partner we invite you to explore the art of the possible.

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

New Other Transactions Guide: A Retreat from Innovation

Aug 09 2023 34 mins

The new (2023) Other Transactions Guide was waylaid by the DoD acquisition bureaucracy for a few years. Now out, the new guide, as expected, reflects business-as-usual thinking and a desire to limit the potential of these flexible authorities before folks even bother to understand them. The new guide contains misinformation, eradicates emphasis on smart interdisciplinary teaming an

DoD: You have License to Think

Jul 26 2023 34 mins

A June 2023 Government Accountability Office report shows that DoD has a plethora of flexible authorities to use for more effectively pursuing and advancing knowledge and capability that are going unused or little used. Why? In this episode try to answer that. What these authorities have in common, when it comes to R&D, is they give the government a lot of flexibility and the w

The Narrow Mindedness of Defense Acquisition

Jun 21 2023 31 mins

Given the pitiful state of defense acquisition for R&D and delivering new capability defers risk to the warfighter, wastes taxpayer funding, shrinks the industrial base, steals from the future, and is an obvious threat to national security, one would think that there would be serious and concerted efforts to change it. You would be wrong! In order for something like that to hap

DoD's S&T Strategy 2023 is a "wish list" not strategy

May 24 2023 30 mins

OUSD R/E recently published "National Defense Science and Technology Strategy 2023" that contains ZERO consequential strategy and parrots what others have said ad nauseam. The document correctly identifies that there is a very serious problem with the government system for delivering the fruits of taxpayer funded R&D efforts. It identifies point A and points to B, but offers ab

Unsticking DoD's Acquisition Process - easier done than talking about it FOREVER!

May 17 2023 30 mins

In this episode Rick Dunn, former DARPA General Counsel, talks with TC Hoot, a long time DoD Acquisition Program Manager, currently Senior Program Manager at MISI, a Partnership Intermediary serving U.S. Cyber Command, about how to move out on acquisition and business process innovation to more efficiently and effectively deliver knowledge and solutions resulting from defense R&

Is DoD's Acquisition System for R&D Institutionally Corrupt?

May 10 2023 30 mins

Most people have a good idea of what fraud, waste, and abuse looks like, but few recognize institutional corruption, because it's "normal". From Harvard's, Safra Center of Ethics: "Institutional corruption is manifest when there is a systemic and strategic influence which is legal, or even currently ethical, that undermines the institution’s effectiveness by diverting it from its

Effectively Utilizing Other Transactions: A Program Manager's Perspective

May 02 2023 40 mins

In this episode Rick Dunn with the Strategic Institute, talks with Maj. Ben Leaf currently assigned to USSOCOM about his experiences utilizing Other Transactions Agreements to deliver excellent results. Ben discusses his experience that highlights the importance of the team, open mindedness, and lawyers who enable business process innovation. This is story of how goal oriented acti

WWII Pacific Air War and Modern Defense Acquisition

Apr 05 2023 48 mins

In this episode, Strategic Institute's Founder, Rick Dunn hosts Professional WWII Historian, Justin Taylan, to discuss how major events are effected by numerous small events and decisions behind the scenes, as is the a case for acquisition and R&D. For those who like to nerd-out to the WWII Pacific Air War and present day defense acquisition, this is your podcast.

Accelerating Acquisition Innovation with Bill Greenwalt

Mar 15 2023 29 mins

In this episode Rick Dunn, former DARPA General Counsel and pioneer of DoD's Other Transactions (OTs) authority, talks with Bill Greenwalt, a long time Senate Staffer and former Deputy Undersecretary, who was instrumental in the creation of Middle Tier Acquisition, and bolstering the power and potential of OTs, about the intent to create an alternative acquisition system to better

What are Other Transactions authorities for?

Feb 28 2023 28 mins

In the episode Strategic Institute cuts through DoD's myth and lore to highlight the reason why Other Transactions were created and what problems they are intended to solve. Other Transactions authorities (OTs) have realized increased use, but so too has misunderstanding. A dearth of education and misinformation from the top-down are obvious culprits, as is leadership's lack of vis