Defense Acquisition Superheroes: Rise to the Challenge and Bring Home the Win Artwork

Innovation in Government Business

Hosted by: Strategic Institute for Innovation in Government Contracting - Few subjects have been studied more than federal acquisition for the development and delivering of new capability and innovation. Since the 1980's the system has empirically and anecdotally demonstrated abysmal performance. The best and brightest have proffered solutions and Congress has followed with polices and mandates to encourage these. Leadership, specifically within the DoD has chosen to ignore these mandates. This is a rare case, where polices are far more advanced than practice, yet the stagnation continues and even gets worse. This podcast is for those interested in solving our Nation's critical technological challenges, by offering solutions, lessons learned, and highlighting the incredible potential of Other Transactions Agreements for fielding new advanced capability. If you are a federal acquisition professional or industry partner we invite you to explore the art of the possible.

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Innovation in Government Business

Defense Acquisition Superheroes: Rise to the Challenge and Bring Home the Win

April 21, 2025 • Strategic Institute for Innovation in Government Contracting • Season 3 • Episode 5

In this podcast, Strategic Institute highlights the opportunities, mandated by Congress (2018 & 2023) and now the President (2025), to use flexible acquisition authorities and create teams (Special Acquisition Forces) to explore, experiment with new and different business approaches and collaborative arrangements to improve speed and deliver better solutions and value for the warfighter, taxpayer, natsec and posterity.

The flexibility Other Transactions Agreements (OTA) allow is just that FLEXIBILITY, it is up to leadership and the workforce to discover how to best apply this freedom to accomplish mission (project) goals.

It has been said, that “Freedom is the Special Sauce” behind America’s success in business and more broadly. Operating in 'Freedom of Contract' mode is very different, antithetical even, to the current regime overly focused on compliance with a highly-regulated purchasing system (even for R&D). However, the defense industry has the talent to make the best of these freedoms. Leaders need to reorient thinking and recognize, assemble, and equip program teams for success. In this case, doing the next right thing is simple, unlearning old habits and misinformation is the hard part.