Turning only one resource into a winning formula…making the most of Money, People, or Contracts
Many times in the process of military innovation, we find ourselves in organizations with only one significant resource. Often thoughts immediately run to how do we build up the trifecta of resources to then start doing things ourselves, versus trying to partner with others to start things today. There’s always an opportunity for creative partnerships between organizations that only requires creative planning and open minded participants. Let’s look at some examples of each situation.
A single high ranking officer with just a pile of money and a mission statement. You need people and contracts. You can build your own team in many ways, but the easy button are the innovation hubs like DIU and DEFENSEWERX organizations. You want a partner with people and contracts in place purpose built for your situation of just writing checks and letting them do them do all the rest of the work for you.
A single organization with plenty of people, but no money or contracts. You are in luck because the one thing all innovation organizations are short on is personnel. The smart move is loaning out your personnel remotely for any number of tasks in exchange for work on, products from, or involvement in testing of innovation projects that are applicable to you. Volunteering as AFWERX SBIR evaluators is a great way to start to just see what projects are out there, and find units to partner with on their projects. Ultimately, the more interest and support in a project from multiple units the more likely it will receive funding from on high for execution.
A single office with an existing contract with broad scope and available ceiling. You are the easy button when speed and priority are the highest for acquiring a widget or service asap. The fastest way to get anything is to just find an existing contract with applicable scope and ceiling, MIPR the money, and have the prime buy or provide that thing. The issue is those can be hard to find in the moment when you need them, so marketing your willingness to support work outside your organization is key, along with expressing those intents with your prime so they know the importance/how to prioritize that work if/when it happens within the regular contract execution. Being the easy button for critical work accomplishment is always a great path to success for any office.
