“Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.”
Shakespeare most likely did not appreciate the timeless relevance when he wrote that line for his play Henry IV, Part 2.
When applied to business, the clairvoyance cannot be overstated.
Successful companies achieved their standing by being competitive in their respective markets. A recognized measure of business success is having the company become a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2021, there are no original companies left on the index, and many of these original companies haven’t been part of it for many years now.
There are several reasons for that. Some unfortunately failed to adopt disruptive technologies that would have maintained, and perhaps strengthened, their leadership position. One of the lessons to be learned here is that companies can get left behind if they fail to innovate, leaving themselves vulnerable to more agile competitors who keep a pulse on disruptive technologies. This is an everyday reality in the tech industry. Companies must innovate or succumb to the competition.
The defense industry is now facing a disruptive technology moment and looking directly at Silicon Valley for inspiration. Within the Defense Department, the digital revolution is in full swing, with multiple new programs signifying a push for widespread adoption of commercial processes by defense contractors. The department is signaling that it is ready to push the envelope with commercial best practices and will no longer tolerate the “never enough time and money to do it right, but enough time and money to do it over” acquisition process.
Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/2/24/the-price-of-success-vs-the-cost-of-failure
Neither the agency contracting officers nor program managers, and not the vendors who sometimes wait three to six months after the contract is complete to get a mostly meaningless “satisfactory” rating.
His three-person company in McKinney, Texas, distributes medical supplies but didn’t have much experience with face shields. Still, he landed two government contracts worth up to $20 million to deliver the personal protective equipment. He couldn’t meet the first deadline, so he found subcontractors to do the job.
