Cost-Conscious Culture
United States national security professionals must balance the ability to counter strategic threats with the appropriate force structure and capabilities. By FY 2018, according to OMB projections, “the federal government will be spending more on net interest payments than on national defense for the first time in modern history.” The current trends indicate a more fiscally constrained future, forcing the balance be achieved through a cost-conscious culture. It will be a necessity to accomplish more with less and do it more efficiently than before. The threat is not going to proportionally decrease with the United States defense budget. The Global Trends 2030 publication predicts that no country, to include the United …show more content…
Dr. Leonard Wong highlights this mindset in his Op-Ed regarding the Army’s approach to culture change. He identifies a pattern that includes establishing a “Center of Excellence”, using comprehensive surveys, focus groups and panels to target the change topic at hand. (pg 2 of article) This approach is both time-consuming and resource intensive, which ironically would not be aligned with inculcating a cost-conscious culture. The low-cost approach is to focus on doing the basics rights. Existing processes, regulations, policies, doctrines and other organizational frameworks were established with a purpose in mind. It’s plausible that those purposes are still valid and time should be spent evaluating whether the organization is even doing the basic things correctly. Since this premise is somewhat ambiguous and non-specific as stated, the following three examples will serve to illuminate the …show more content…
The major swing from a resource rich culture to a cost-conscious culture is a change from one extreme to another added to the already difficult task of changing culture in a mature organization. The two recommended changes already start embracing that cost-consciousness by being low to no cost to implement. Being innovative in thought by evaluating time per transaction versus cost per transaction is an easily accomplished and understandable change. The value of a transaction expressed in hours can lead to cost-conscious decision making and implementations that can lead to change in underlying assumptions. Challenging the assumption that data dissemination must be accomplished via a meeting is a simple and low cost change at every level of an organization and achievable by every leader without additional training or
United States national security professionals must balance the ability to counter strategic threats with the appropriate force structure and capabilities. By FY 2018, according to OMB projections, “the federal government will be spending more on net interest payments than on national defense for the first time in modern history.” The current trends indicate a more fiscally constrained future, forcing the balance be achieved through a cost-conscious culture. It will be a necessity to accomplish more with less and do it more efficiently than before. The threat is not going to proportionally decrease with the United States defense budget. The Global Trends 2030 publication predicts that no country, to include the United …show more content…
Dr. Leonard Wong highlights this mindset in his Op-Ed regarding the Army’s approach to culture change. He identifies a pattern that includes establishing a “Center of Excellence”, using comprehensive surveys, focus groups and panels to target the change topic at hand. (pg 2 of article) This approach is both time-consuming and resource intensive, which ironically would not be aligned with inculcating a cost-conscious culture. The low-cost approach is to focus on doing the basics rights. Existing processes, regulations, policies, doctrines and other organizational frameworks were established with a purpose in mind. It’s plausible that those purposes are still valid and time should be spent evaluating whether the organization is even doing the basic things correctly. Since this premise is somewhat ambiguous and non-specific as stated, the following three examples will serve to illuminate the …show more content…
The major swing from a resource rich culture to a cost-conscious culture is a change from one extreme to another added to the already difficult task of changing culture in a mature organization. The two recommended changes already start embracing that cost-consciousness by being low to no cost to implement. Being innovative in thought by evaluating time per transaction versus cost per transaction is an easily accomplished and understandable change. The value of a transaction expressed in hours can lead to cost-conscious decision making and implementations that can lead to change in underlying assumptions. Challenging the assumption that data dissemination must be accomplished via a meeting is a simple and low cost change at every level of an organization and achievable by every leader without additional training or