Managing Radical Change in Acquisition

Abstract

The acquisition process is critical to the survival of commercial and defense enterprises alike. Despite this critical role, however, the acquisition process is far from being healthy and robust. Notwithstanding considerable progress through legislation, acquisition reform and some process innovation, acquisition continues to plague the Defense System and constrain battlefield mobility, information, and speed. Following the lead of industry in which many progressive firms have radically changed their acquisition process and elevated acquisition to a strategic level of importance and Secretary Cohen's call for new approaches to leading change in a new era radical change of unprecedented scope, pace, and importance is now required for the DoD, change that requires a quantum increase in new acquisition knowledge. The purpose of this Special Issue is to catalyze the quality and quantity of new acquisition knowledge produced through scholarly research. In preparing for the articles published in this issue, we targeted scholars in universities and other research institutions, both within and outside the federal government, to engage their interest in defense acquisition as a primary area of research. These researchers represent a tremendous potential resource for realizing improvements in acquisition and can effect considerable leverage in terms of high-quality research through minimal direct funding. And unlike much past acquisition research, we have insisted on the same, high-quality standards maintained by the best scholarly journals, in which top researchers from leading universities normally publish their work. This approach leads to a program for producing new acquisition knowledge that is efficient as well as effective important considerations in these times of lean Defense budgets.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA487917

Entities

People

  • David V. Lamm
  • Keith F. Snider
  • Mark E. Nissen

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Business Administration
  • California
  • Commerce
  • Contracts
  • Corporations
  • Defense Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Logistics
  • Military Acquisition
  • Procurement
  • Program Management
  • Public Administration
  • Systems Management
  • Training

Readers

  • Economics
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Research Science/Academic Research

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing