Innovation: Beyond the Buzz-Word : Why and How a Major Change Is Required to Ensure National Security

Abstract

The world is undergoing a never before seen transition from a hardware-based society to one where software is playing an ever-increasing role. As such, the United States Air Force(USAF), the entire public sector, and a large portion of private industry known as the military industrial base must adopt processes and methods to overcome stagnation and remain relevant during these tumultuous times. At the core, is a cultural shift involving drastic fundamental changes which will invariably prove difficult to implement, especially in long-standing bureaucratic organizations such as the military. The process of innovation can aid not only in developing the solutions required to successfully transition but, more importantly, it will foster a growth mindset required to adopt such wide-sweeping changes. Additionally, organizational changes will be required to implement the ideas that stem from this culture change. To begin, a brief overview of a generic innovation process is presented, followed by the analysis of a current case study. Lastly, a projection of future innovation implementation is used to illustrate how notonly individual units can innovate but also provides a model of how large organizations can benefit from the process. First, a few definitions serve as the starting point and set the stage.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 11, 2020
Accession Number
AD1112349

Entities

People

  • Alexander Hausman

Organizations

  • Air Command and Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Best Practices
  • Case Studies
  • Department Of Defense
  • Disruptive Technology
  • Education
  • Families (Human)
  • Judgment
  • Military Families
  • Military Medicine
  • Military Personnel
  • Models
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personality
  • Phase Separation
  • Product Prototyping
  • Prototypes
  • Students
  • Task Forces
  • Transitions

Readers

  • Economics
  • Systems Analysis and Design