Jane Edwards
Mac Thornberry, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a senior adviser to the Silicon Valley Defense Group, said the Department of Defense should adopt a collaborative culture that allows it to leverage the technological innovation of the private sector.
Thornberry, a member of the Defense Innovation Board and a CAE USA board member, wrote in a commentary published Thursday on Defense News, that DOD should be open to working with traditional and non-traditional contractors.
“We need a culture of collaboration that opens new pathways to work with the private sector, relooks at our approach to interactions with outside organizations and reframes the department as open to sharing research and information rather than one that is uncooperative both internally and externally,” he noted.
“Viewing failure and the learning that comes from it as a good thing is crucial in an organization that rapidly innovates,” Thornberry stressed.
The former congressman from Texas cited the need for funds to advance a culture of innovation and called on the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution process reform commission to offer actionable recommendations to promote a culture that would enable the workforce to develop and adopt new practices and technologies.
“In the meantime, Congress can play a crucial role in providing more flexible funding that encourages moving quickly to adapt and to get capability into the hands of the warfighters,” Thornberry added.
