Building the Base

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Shyam Shankar, Chief Operating Officer of Palantir, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network. 

Shyam’s experience in Palantir and Silicon Valley pushes him to advocate for better use of the US’s strong tech sector in the national security realm. He emphasizes building an understanding between the diverse people across the future industrial network and allies around the world. He thinks that the DoD and private sector can do better to integrate new tech and assist burgeoning startups. He truly advocates for the mission of national security and how fulfilling it can be for those entering the national security workforce.

Hondo, Lauren, and Shyam go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:

1. DoD and Silicon Valley relationship
2. Integrating cutting-edge technology and software in the public sector
3. Utilizing key allies in our future industrial network
4. Engaging and listening between private and public partners

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Steffanie Easter, Senior Vice President

and Chief Sustainability Officer at Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network. 

Steffanie’s vast experience in acquisition across the services leads her to emphasize the need for communication not only among the services, but also among industry partners. She explains that DoD must learn to balance information sharing with strategic competition when working with industry to innovate defense technologies. To that end, the DoD must share its needs and encourage teaming with small businesses, who are flexibly poised to produce disruptive capabilities for the warfighter.

Hondo, Lauren, and Steffanie go on to discuss a variety of topics, including: 

• DoD's risk-averse culture
• Small businesses in the defense industrial base
• Teaming for small business integration
• The services’ language barriers
• Skillset development v. acquisition

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, BENS hosts Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula join Lieutenant General Michael Groen, U.S. Marine Coprs (Ret.), former commander of the DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network. 

General Groen specifies the necessity of consistent collaboration between our nation’s warfighters and those who are developing innovative technologies that can be useful in warfighting. He explains that DoD must balance the capabilities of the functional community and innovative virtualization in order to maximize our warfighting capability. To that end, the DoD must experience a cultural transition by acting collaboratively across not only the public and private sectors, but also the varying branches of service.

Hondo, Lauren, and General Groen go on to discuss a variety of topics, including: 

• Digital transformation
• Competitive advantage
• Tribalism in the DoD
• Mission-derived capabilities
• Patriotism in the private sector

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join The Honorable Ellen M. Lord, former Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.  

Ellen emphasizes the necessity of frequent and rich communications between Congress and the Department of Defense to properly budget programs while also allowing for the program to flex as necessary. She argues that commercial technology is becoming increasingly important to the warfighter. To that end, the DoD must have the capability to immediately grant a contract when they find a technology that fits a critical need. 

Hondo, Lauren, and Ellen go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:  

• Consolidation in the Defense Industry 
• Financial Security 
• COVID as a Flashpoint 
• Partnering with Allies 
• Beneficial Ownership of Contractors 

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Secretary Leon Panetta, founder of the Panetta Institute and former CIA director and Secretary of Defense, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.

Secretary Panetta emphasizes the necessity of a strong defense industrial base to ensure we are the strongest global military power. He argues that the US must recognize the threat that cyberspace, as the battlefield of the present and future, constitutes. To that end, the US must balance the economy using fiscal policy and federal reserve actions to ensure it has the funds to support the future industrial base.

Hondo, Lauren, and Secretary Panetta go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:

• Cyberthreats
• Modern times & dangerous flashpoints
• Balanced economic approach to DIB
• The Panetta Institute
• Global democratic alliance

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren talk with Michael John Gallagher, U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.  

Throughout the podcast, Representative Gallagher touches on the role of increased automation in cutting edge technology, investing in the workforce, and the Pentagon’s procurement efforts. Representative Gallagher highlighted the importance of streamlining how authorities work with the Pentagon and the need for presidential leadership in increasing collaboration between DoD and the Hill. In this regard, such collaborations are important for enhancing our domestic infrastructure and getting out of a dysfunctional budget cycle.  

Hondo, Lauren, and Representative Gallagher go on to discuss a variety of topics, including: 

• The role of higher education in innovation 
• Need for greater oversight in DoD operations 
• Cyber weaknesses and CISA 
• IP Theft 
• Mentorship 

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Ted Schlein, Chairman & General Partner, Ballistic Ventures and General Partner, Kleiner Perkins to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.

Throughout the podcast, Ted touches on inefficiencies within the defense industrial base regarding its acquisition of cybersecurity technology. One of Ted’s most important views highlighted is that the government should not be playing the role of investor, but it should be finding out how to be a better partner and customer to contractors. To that end, faster and more efficient acquisition processes should be at the forefront of the DoD’s concerns.

Hondo, Lauren, and Ted go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:

• Measuring risk in investment
• The relationship between and roles of venture capital and the government
• Having a true public-private ‘partnership’
• Disinformation
• Talent acquisition in cybersecurity

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Katrina McFarland, Former Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology joins our own Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula to discuss supply chain security, maintaining the technological competitive edge, and cultivating talent in the national security workforce. Ms. McFarland explains how national security strategy has fallen behind innovation and technological advancements and how dependence on global supply chains poses a risk to security. She also highlights how the national security and defense ecosystem needs to modernize in order to keep up with the tech industry.

Sue is currently the Director at CACI International which provides the unique expertise and distinctive technology that address customers’ greatest enterprise and mission challenges.

She was the fifth Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from August 2017 to August 2019. As PDDNI, Sue was a key advisor to the President and National Security Council and led the 17-member Intelligence Community. With more than three decades of experience in the IC, Sue has served in a variety of leadership roles spanning numerous intelligence organizations and disciplines. Prior to the DNI, Sue served as the Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from 2015 to 2017, helping the director lead the agency and manage the National System of Geospatial Intelligence.

Before joining the NGA, she served for 27 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rising to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support. In 1998, she designed and drove the formation of In-Q-Tel, a private, non-profit company whose primary purpose is to deliver innovative technology solutions for the agency and the IC. She is the recipient of numerous government and industry awards, including the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award. Sue earned a Bachelor of Science from Duke University. A trusted authority on strategy, innovation and leadership, Sue is currently a consultant on global risk, technology, cyber and space issues and a member of the Board at Pallas Advisors, a Washington D.C.-based consultancy.

Summary:

In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Sue Gordon, Director at CACI International and former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.

In the first part of the podcast, Sue touches on inefficiencies in the defense acquisition system and the procedural and cultural barriers one must overcome when innovating. One of the most promising avenues Sue highlighted was increased collaboration with the private sector, an area which has seen increased activity in part spurred on by the urgency of the Ukraine crisis. 

Hondo, Lauren, and Sue go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:

• Public/private collaboration in the intelligence community
• Leadership
• Work/life balance when in high pressure jobs
• How the national security sector needs to improve its talent acquisition practices
• Mentorship

Check out our latest Business Executives for National Security (BENS) “Building the Base” podcast featuring Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor at Insight Partners, Adjunct & Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Hear him engage with our own Jim “Hondo” Geurts and Lauren Bedula about his new book with co-author Marina Nitze, Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team, which comes out September 13, 2022. The book contains over 50 tactics, each with real-world examples, for making lasting change in bureaucracies from PTAs and HOAs all the way up to the White House and Fortune 500 companies.