Harnessing American Innovation for Our Defense – The Washington Post

With the vast majority of technological innovation happening outside the federal government, a critical question for U.S. security is: How does the Pentagon keep up? And how do we ensure that our service members are fully benefiting from innovations being pioneered by the people they’re protecting?

We all have an interest in seeing to it that they have the best possible tools at their disposal, especially as the world grows both more chaotic and connected. We have an obligation to ensure that the Pentagon has the benefit of the most cutting-edge innovations in data, information sharing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and many other areas critical to protecting our nation.

To help the military harness private-sector insights on technology and organizational innovation, and build integrated deterrence across the agency, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently invited me to chair the Defense Innovation Board, and to work with him to recruit new members from across U.S. businesses and academia. The board was created to help the U.S. military maintain its technological edge in the tools our service members use every day, including the data- and intelligence-gathering systems that can mean the difference between a mission’s success and failure, and between life and death.

I was elected mayor of New York two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. In my first year in office, I visited U.S. troops in Afghanistan, bringing with me FDNY and NYPD gear and the gratitude of our city. Over lunch in an outdoor mess hall, I had the chance to tell the troops how deeply their service was appreciated and admired by all of us back home.

I had spent years trying to convince my employer on Wall Street, Salomon Brothers, to build a computer system to digitize data, but no one was interested, because pen and paper and ticker tape had worked just fine for a century. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Wrong. The minute a business or government stops looking ahead is the minute it starts falling behind.

I was fortunate enough to be fired and have the chance to start a data and information company that transformed the financial services industry. Today, 40 years later, we continue to grow because we have never stopped anticipating what customers will need before they know they need it — and then building it. Not all new products and ideas will work; that’s the nature of innovation. But when they do, we win a first-mover advantage over competitors that can be hard for them to overcome.

Our military must relentlessly capitalize on its own first-mover advantages, as Secretary Austin has made clear. Rest assured, our rivals are racing to catch up with us — and overtake us. Extending our lead will require not only ideas, but also new partnerships, and I’m glad to help Secretary Austin as he pursues this critical mission.

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, in which technology is advancing at an unprecedented speed, collaboration between the public and private sectors has grown ever more important. Organizations, especially those that depend on cutting-edge technology, must continually look beyond their own walls to evolve and improve.