Weekly Roundup: October 5-9, 2020

Michael J. Keegan

Lawsuit upends $4B DHS software buy. A push to buy a modernized DHS financial management system is being held up by another court battle, one that threatens to again upend a project that already suffers from a long history of failure.

Weekly Roundup: September 28 to October 2, 2020

Michael J. Keegan

VA on the fence about homegrown patient portal. The My HealtheVet tool used by more than 3 million veterans to access care at the Department of Veterans Affairs could be retired in favor of a tool from vendor Cerner as part of the agency's $16 billion electronic health record software upgrade.

Leading the Defense Health Agency

The Military Health System (MHS) is integral to the U.S. national security strategy. It provides a diverse offering of healthcare services, logistics, public health and research training, and supports the armed forces and their families. Today, the U.S. Department of Defense is transforming the MHS to improve how it operates and delivers health and care. The reform efforts focus on organizational, infrastructure, and manpower changes and the Defense Health Agency, DHA, plays a critical role in ensuring these reforms are successful.

Leading the Public Buildings Service

As the largest public real estate organization in the United States, the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service owns or leases 8,700 assets and maintains an inventory of 371 million square feet of rentable workspace. Within this inventory, PBS has more than 500 owned and leased historic properties.

Weekly Roundup: August 21-24, 2020

Michael J. Keegan

The risks of supply chain threat sharing. Some of the most valuable data around supply chain threats – identifying suspicious or untrustworthy actors -- can often be legally perilous to share.

Weekly Roundup: August 17-21, 2020

Pentagon advances domestic drone plan. The Defense Department names five U.S. vendors for domestic sourcing of small drone aircraft.

Energy Dept. looks for AI impact. Two recently-announced artificial intelligence collaborations show how the technology can affect real world problems, according to the head of the Energy Department's AI office.

5 Insights on Leading with Gratitude in Uncertain Times: Interview with Chester Elton

For leaders wanting to attract and retain exceptional talent and better engage their people, authors Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick say the solution might be right under their noses. Showing gratitude to employees is the easiest, fastest, and most inexpensive way to boost performance and transform the way organizations operate.

Insights on Federal Government IT

Suzette Kent, former Federal Chief Information joined me on The Business of Government Hour to offer insights on her tenure as federal CIO and what's next in federal IT. Here are highlights of our conversation.  Please listen to the entire interview and subscribe to the show at https://apple.co/31LZPOR.

Weekly Roundup: August 10-14, 2020

Michael J. Keegan

Weekly Roundup: August 3-7, 2020

Michael J. Keegan

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Leadership Fellow & Host
IBM Center for The Business of Government
600 14th Street, NW Second Floor
Washington, DC 20005
United States
202-551-9339

Michael has two decades of experience with both the private and public sectors encompassing strategic planning, business process redesign, strategic communications and marketing, performance management, change management, executive and team coaching, and risk-financing.

Michael leads the IBM Center for The Business of Government's leadership research. As the Center’s Leadership Fellow, his work is at the nexus of the Center’s mission – connecting research to practice. My work at that the Center complements frontline experience of actual government executives with practical insights from thought leaders who produce Center reports – merging real-world experience with practical scholarship. The purpose is not to offer definitive solutions to the many management challenges facing executives, but to provide a resource from which to draw practical, actionable recommendations on how best to confront such issues. Michael also hosts and produces the IBM Center’s The Business of Government Hour. He has interviewed and profiled hundreds of senior government executives from all levels of government as well as recognized thought leaders focusing on a range of public management issues and trends. Over the last four years, Michael has expanded both the show’s format and reach – now broadcasting informational and educational conversations with dedicated public servants on two radio stations five times a week and anywhere at anytime over the web and at iTunes. Michael is also the managing editor of The Business of Government magazine, with a targeted audience of close to 14,000 government and non-government professionals. Additionally, he manages the Center’s bi-annual proposal review process that awards stipends to independent, third party researchers tackling a wide range of public management issues.

Prior to joining the Center, Michael worked as a senior managing consultant with IBM GBS (Global Business Services) and as a principle consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Washington Consulting Practice (WCP). He led projects in the private and federal civilian sectors including the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, FEMA, and the Veterans Health Administration. Before entering consulting, he worked in the private sector as product development manager at a New York City based risk financing firm.

Since 2003, Mr. Keegan has been a reviewer for Association of Government Accountant’s Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR)© program, keeping abreast of the most recent developments in authoritative standards affecting federal accounting, financial reporting and performance measurement. He is also a member of APPAM, the NYU Alumni Association, and the Data Center & Cloud Talent, USA. He holds masters in public administration and management from New York University and was the founder of its DC alumni group as well as previous treasurer of the NYU graduate school’s alumni board.