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Experimentation and Rapid Prototyping in Support of Counterterrorism (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix E: Disruptive Threats and Department of Defense Acquisition
Pages 87-92

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From page 87...
... One of the main reasons to put these lessons to work elsewhere is that terrorism poses a disruptive threat to the DOD, in a sense made precise below. A substantial body of work on disruptive innovation and its effects on organizations has produced evidence of the danger that such innovation poses, a conceptual structure for understanding why that danger exists, and insight into how an organization can effectively respond -- as well as examples of catastrophic failure when an effective response is lacking.
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From page 88...
... Factors affecting those decisions typically include profitability criteria for project selection, the need to retain existing customers, and the kinds of personal career attributes that lead to promotion within the organization. A disruptive innovation, being less  Clayton M
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From page 89...
... Its entire history up to the beginning of the 1990s fostered the creation of decision methods, performance criteria, and contractor relationships adapted to that war: that is, a value network. Some of the attributes of that network were slow changes in required technology, long development cycles, and dominance of the acquisition process by existing programs of record.
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From page 90...
... Developing simple, cheap methods to defeat IEDs does not pay off in the current acquisition value network: it is unlikely to lead to high-profile programs of record that will build reputations and get people promoted; there is not time enough to design a near-perfect product; and the relatively simple, low-margin products that are best suited to quick deployment are unlikely to be very attractive to the major defense contractors that play important roles in the acquisition world. This is certainly not the first suggestion that the DOD is endangered by disruptive innovation developed by the nation's enemies.
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From page 91...
... The DOD has recently found by hard experience that this principle holds for government just as it does in industry, as Secretary Gates acknowledged when he asked: Why was it necessary to go outside the normal bureaucratic process to develop technologies to counter improvised explosive devices, to build MRAPs [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected] , and to quickly expand the United States' ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance]
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Key Terms

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  • normal bureaucratic
  • acquisition process
  • organizational response

  • explosive devices
  • own business
  • profitability criteria
  • disk drives
  • existing customers

  • bureaucratic process
  • work elsewhere
  • disk drive
  • improvised explosive
  • stark example

  • produced evidence
  • retain existing
  • ously priced
  • management processes
  • competitive behavior

  • developing simple
  • provides examples
  • hard experience
  • project selection
  • profit margins


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