Michael J. Keegan

Leadership Stories: Avi Bender and Entrepreneurial Leadership in Public Service

The Wright Brothers pursuit of flight is chock-full of leadership lessons – the dos and don'ts perhaps – that are as useful for today’s leaders as ever.  Many of these lessons and insights can be gleaned from historian David McCullough’s book on the Wright Brothers. Typical leadership books prescribe sets of actions or admonish readers to follow specific effective qualities.

Regarding technology modernization, U.S. federal agencies have fallen behind that they will have to work aggressively just to catch up with basic private sector practice. On many levels, inertia has long plagued government IT, slowing modernization, and preventing the federal government from achieving IT advances and efficiencies commonplace in the private sector. However, things are beginning to change.  New legislation, funding opportunities, and technologies are here to turn the tide.

Today there’s much focus and discussion on the importance of data-driven decision making from using predictive analytics to leveraging the promise of AI. We see this in both private and public sectors.  In the private sector, it tends to focus on making the “numbers” for stockholders and Wall Street. In the public sector, and in particular, government the key focus is on meeting mission outcomes and using evidence to do just that. 

Michael J. Keegan

DOD's Section 809 panel proposes a revolution in contracting. An unlikely band of revolutionaries has proposed major changes in how the Department of Defense chooses what contractors to do business with. These change agents are members of the Section 809 panel on streamlining and codifying acquisition regulations, set up by Congress in 2016.

Michal J. Keegan

Defense CDO: Why market share matters in cloud.  There are only three general purpose clouds, DOD data chief Michael Conlin says. DOD is currently conducting two large-scale cloud procurements. The $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program aims to serve warfighters, and the $8 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions focuses on business applications.

Michael J. Keegan

DARPA probes tech to solve supply chain uncertainty. DARPA and private companies are looking to improve supply chain security through the use of tiny chips and diamonds that can authenticate IT parts used by the government.

In the IBM Center’s new book, Government For The Future: Reflection and Vision for Tomorrow’ Leaders,  part two of the book looks twenty years ahead offering perspectives on the future. This contribution is the next in a multi-part series, The Future of Work, authored by Darrell West.

Michael J. Keegan

In the IBM Center’s new book, Government For The Future: Reflection and Vision for Tomorrow’ Leaders,  part two of the book looks twenty years ahead offering perspectives on the future. This contribution is the next in a multi-part series, Leading the Cities of the Future, authored by Marc Ott, Lee Feldman, and Tad McGalliard.