Finally, they have come to their senses. Or am I jumping the gun, as we are only talking about a think-tank report "Fixing Military Strategy (and as it has not been done, there is the necessary postfix) post-Brexit
But the central ideas are supported by the DefSec and (as serving officers can't speak out) Lord Richards... still does not make it MoD HO policy (or even such initiative).
- adding cherries on top of the cake (the latter only to be published tomorrow) Con Coughlin chraracterises the NSC as an FO-run talking shop... and having read some of the outputs, it is hard not to agree
The report' is to posit' that in identifying and assessing threats (and then kicking preparations as for force mix, kit, training etc into gear) we are running about half a decade late. Not as a fluke, but systematically.
The answer? (The Telegraph of today, p.19)
"creating a small, elite and civilian-led office of a dozen or less staff to regularly update threats and as how to best feed such information into defence spending as for efficient and cost-effective choices" AKA framework budgets not tinkered with, but constant checks on priorities
That's called strategic management. Once upon a time (in the 70's) it emerged as a distinct topic in business management (the academic side of it, I hasten to add). Established disciplines (Finance and Marketing) both claimed ownership. We have the MoD HQ which definitely is following the Finance streak... steering by looking into the reverse mirror
. AKA the unwieldy Conglomerates... most of which have long since disappeared (but they were not tax-payer funded).
The streak that won was spearheaded by names like Igor Ansoff, who (in simplistic terms) said:
- follow demand
- formalise "it" in a matrix format
- map your capabilities (& capacity) to each
- be open&honest about the shortcomings (three, or four, Commands, you see, with overlapping capabilities, and hence differing views, before "someone" aggregates them) and communicate them (internally)
- make sure you know who that someone is... and common sense says that it can't be the DefSec as one person (and watching the Thick of It, it can't be the PressSec either
)
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)