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Defense Must Adopt Commercial Practices, Attitudes

And companies serving the military community should think like industry.

Adopting commercial practices in military acquisition would help both the Defense Department and the companies that serve it. Both entities have slipped into risk-averse behavior that benefits neither and hurts the warfighting customer, said industry and former government experts.

Speaking at a luncheon panel during West 2015, being held in San Diego, February 10-12, Ellen Lord, president and CEO of Textron Systems Corporation, said that companies serving the Defense Department should use commercial practices for providing systems to the military. They should look at the defense market and make smart bets on what the military would need, just as they do when bringing a product to the commercial marketplace.

Jerry DeMuro, president and CEO of BAE Systems, noted that the military marketplace is a very highly regulated industry. Google does not have that restriction when it introduces innovative products and services, for example.

And that restrictive environment may be driving young innovators to firms such as Google and away from the defense community. Gordon R. England, former secretary of the Navy and former deputy secretary of defense, charged that top students are looking at commercial firms for employment, because these companies are the place for cutting edge technology. The Defense Department once was, but is no longer, he said.