The secret to federal business ingenuity and greater acquisition success for R&D and delivering new capability lies in educating people, whereas the secret for maintaining the status quo is in keeping them ignorant.
The federal government has been “gifted” with highly flexible contracting instruments, meant to encourage desperately needed business ingenuity for the acquisition of knowledge and delivering new capabilities efficiently and effectively. Despite 30+ years of information to draw from and a 2018 Congressional mandate, leadership has not supported meaningful education and training for innovative acquisition authorities. There is much talk of acquisition innovation, but actions continually prove to the contrary.
In this episode Strategic Institute explores the known, and maybe not so known consequences of shunning education and the development of new ideas and concepts, for business-as-usual and old think. Decades of unsuccessful acquisition reform teach us that dressing something up and calling it innovative does not make it so. However, by supporting learning, new opportunities arise.
Supporting education for the use of mandated flexible contracting authorities should not be viewed as controversial, not doing so should be.