Defense: Roles of Corporate America and Academia
Weaving Into Military
Just 2 1/2 years ago, Under Secretary of the Navy Jerry Hultin , the second-highest-ranking civilian in the U.S. Navy , had a vision of drastic business reform for the Navy.
Since then, several initiatives have been put in place under Hultin’s “Revolution in Business Affairs,” from regionalization in San Diego to retention efforts to greater partnerships with industry and academia.
During a visit to San Diego last week, Hultin , who was in town to speak at a San Diego Small Business Association event , discussed the Navy’s business accomplishments and future business goals with the San Diego Business Journal.
He first pointed to the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet, a multibillion-dollar information technology project to provide secure voice, video and data services to all service members and employees of the Navy and Marine Corps. The Navy is expected to award a contract for the project this summer.
Hultin said the use of the latest state-of-the-art technology will allow the Navy to operate more efficiently. Take, for example, the USS Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier homeported in San Diego, which is using commercial off-the-shelf software to organize its battle groups via the Web.
Funding ideas and innovation is also crucial to the Navy’s future, said Hultin, who steps down from his post as the Navy’s chief operating officer in November. The Navy already has a Cost Reduction and Effectiveness Initiatives/Total Ownership Costs program, which basically funds creative ideas that help cut costs.
“The next step would be to create a venture bank to fund innovations,” he said.
The U.S. Defense Department currently funds technology innovation through the Small Business Innovation Research program.
“It’s a great way for us to tap into academia and the private sector,” said Hultin, adding one-third of the Navy’s R & D; funding goes to American universities.
Hultin, who will become the dean of the New Jersey-based Stevens Institute of Technology’s Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management later this year, said the Navy’s ties with academia will continue to strengthen.
“My proposition to all universities is there is great opportunity to help solve (the Navy’s) problems and to train the men and women and to create ideas to help us both win wars and sustain the peace in this post-Cold War world,” Hultin said.
This week, the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey and MIT will announce a master’s degree program called “Product Development 21” for young Navy and Marine Corps officers, as well as for civilians.
basiThe Naval Post Graduate School also has a new program that allows young officers to offer their strategies for a strong 21st-century Navy.
The “30-Something” course requires young officers to redesign the Navy and to give a detailed description of what the Navy will look like in 2020. The results so far , the officers decided not to focus on ships, planes and weapons, but instead decided to focus on the culture of the Navy. They want more speed in decision making and they want to better define the Navy’s identity in the nation and the world.
Hultin said such programs are vital to keeping people in the Navy.
“We’re seeing an enormous amount of young men and women leaving,” he said. “So we need to find the right answers to keep them. We need to let them know, ‘You as a young officer have room to mold and grow.’ We can offer some things Corporate America can’t offer, such as serving a country that has shown that democracy and an open economy are the best ways to succeed.”
Hultin said the nation’s community colleges will also play a role in molding future Navy employees. He said more and more of the Navy’s enlisted personnel are coming from community colleges.
“I think what you’ll see next is specialty skills such as machinery will be done more and more at community colleges and through distance learning.”
Also on Hultin’s agenda is creating some healthy competition for agencies such as the Defense Finance and Accounting Office.
“The office has become the single source to suppliers,” he said. “The best solution would be to create a competitive marketplace where we could either buy from the Defense Department or from the private sector.”
Although there is still much to be done, there are a lot of things that are right in the Navy, Hultin said.
One of those things has been building stronger ties with industry. Hultin said the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, the Navy’s multibillion-dollar telecommunications arm, is an example. Spawar relocated from Washington, D.C., to San Diego about three years ago under the Base Realignment and Closure Act.
“To have Spawar close to the San Diego and the whole West Coast electronics and computer industries means the commander, (Rear Adm. John A. Gauss) sees opportunities that may never cross the desk of someone in the Pentagon,” Hultin said.
Those opportunities have meant millions of dollars worth of business for local companies.
As for Hultin, a trained lawyer, business consultant and entrepreneur, the opportunity to help lead business reform in the Navy has been the most exciting thing he has ever done. While Hultin’s work is almost done, he is confident the Navy will continue to enhance its business practices.
“As (the late actor) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. once said, ‘Better to be asked why you’re leaving so soon than why you’re staying so long,'” he said.
