FROM THE ARMY
ACQUISITION EXECUTIVE DR. BRUCE D. JETTE
BUILDING THE ARMY ACQUISITION TEAM
Materiel isn’t the only thing in need of modernizing. The acquisition enterprise is taking a new approach, too.
D
uring this critical time of sweeping change in the Army, as modernizing Army materiel gains trac- tion and speed, the acquisition enterprise must also take the opportunity to modernize itself.
Tis historic moment requires us to effect the changes that will ensure not only that we build the best acquisition team to meet the needs of future warfighters, but also meet the challenges of the marketplace.
In the same way that the decisions we make today with our mili- tary will shape the fighting force of tomorrow, so, too, will the decisions we make with respect to the acquisition workforce shape the materiel that the future force will have at its disposal.
One thing is clear: With either civilian or military Army Acquisi- tion Workforce members, we cannot build the Army acquisition team the way that industry does. Tat does not mean we cannot emulate industry methods in the best way we can.
Tink about it: Today, when a contractor comes to the table to negotiate the contract they’ve just won a bid on, they bring their A-team. Let’s say it’s a major contract, and they’ve already spent as much as or more than $1 million on their capture effort. Tere is nothing wrong with that—it’s a matter of them surviving and prospering. But right now, when the Army is negotiating that contract, we most likely would have a Defense Acquisition Work- force Improvement Act (DAWIA) Level III certified contracting officer with about six months of formal training and at least four years of contracting experience, potentially sitting across the table from a team of Wharton-educated MBAs and Harvard-educated lawyers. Tat’s not a level playing field.
We are not going to level that playing field overnight. Te new talent management strategy that the Army is developing, along with our own corresponding acquisition talent management plan—the Human Capital Strategic Plan—is the beginning of a long march to build the right team. We will accomplish this by wisely using all of the people, data and technology available to us to help us speed acquisition, improve the quality of our prod- ucts, help make our efforts vastly more cost-effective and meet our solemn commitment to our Soldiers.
Tat commitment is represented in the Army’s six moderniza- tion priorities: We will execute requirements as rapidly as feasibly possible, as efficiently as possible and at the best price possible to bring the Army’s future equipment and weapon systems from design to delivery. Our challenge is that we have an industrial- age acquisition system with an industrial-age culture and mindset. We cannot fully achieve our modernization goals and regain our historic overmatch capabilities without dragging this system, along with how we organize talent, into the digital age.
A TALENT STRATEGY Last year, Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark T. Esper launched the Army Talent Management Task Force. Tat task force is at the vanguard of a new Army view on talent and provides the basis for a new, Armywide talent management strategy that, in the near term, is focused primarily on the military side of the workforce.
To be sure, Army talent management writ large is different from acquisition workforce talent management. Te new Army Talent Management Strategy is designed to acquire, develop, employ and retain the best officers—including future acquisition officers— and will act as the blueprint for the total Army.
https://asc.ar my.mil 7
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