MAKING INNOVATION HAPPEN


FIGURE 2


50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0


1971 1975 1979 Total Fortune 500 firms Universities Small Business Innovation Research programs


1982


1984


1988


1991


1995 FORGING NEW PATHS FROM SMALL STARTS


Fortune 500 companies, once the drivers of key innovations, are now taking a back seat to small businesses. (SOURCE: “Where Do Innovations Come From? Transformations in the U.S. National Innovation System, 1970-2006,” by Fred Block and Matthew R. Keller; July 2008, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation)


1997


2002


2004


2006


“We have had a remarkable advantage, from a historical perspec- tive, over the last 40 years,” Welby said, “but that asymmetry … is over.” Te pipeline of cutting-edge capabilities has slowed, he noted, which concerns defense and industry leaders alike.


“I feel uncomfortable when our senior leadership in the depart- ment, [in] the Army, on the Hill, [have] told us we’re behind, told us we’re challenged. And I think that should make you uncomfortable,” said Welby, who is DOD’s chief technol- ogy officer and the principal adviser to Defense Secretary Ash Carter on matters relating to science, technology, research and engineering.


As the ASD(R&E), he looks at global intelligence reports every morning. “I have looked up my counterparts around the world. I wonder what the technology leaders in those [countries] that do not wish us well are doing at their desks every morning, and quite frankly, I think they’ve got an easier job than we do. I see


62 Army AL&T Magazine July-September 2016


significant challenges that we face in terms of preparing for the future.”


During the past 15 years of intense conflict in Southwest Asia, with a focus on counterinsurgency and anti-terrorism, “we have not spent as much time as we should have living in the future, thinking longer term and thinking about the threat, thinking about how the threat pictures us, thinking about how the threat thinks about our vulnerabilities,” Welby told the audience.


Given the unrelenting pace of change over the last two decades— in technology, in business, in organizations, in the globalization of talent and technology, in shifting global supply chains, in the nature of the future threat—“it’s critical … that we are thinking about our response to that kind of threat. And as I look across the department, quite frankly, the place where I see the great- est challenge is in the United States Army. It’s an institution that I deeply love, but I’m very concerned that we need to be


Number of innovations out of top 100


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