Being relevant in an increasingly competitive international environment
Midjourney prompt: Growth in chaos
The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy changes everything. Now the Armed Forces must change and achieve the whole mission to seize the opportunities ahead.
Today, the Defence Command Paper and Defence Industrial Strategies are published. In response, Defence needs to do more than just purchase exquisite equipment. Now is the time to change mindset and culture across every part of the organisation to make us relevant for the future.
Deloitte proposes three shifts to amplify the changes required:
Learning, not failing
Collaborate to compete
Curate cultural transformation
Last week's Integrated Review described a clear future vision within an increasingly competitive international environment. Global Britain will need to sustain advantages through science and technology, shape the international order, strengthen security, and build resilience.
For the first time in decades, UK military forces have a sharp purpose in a broader strategy.
Our purpose is more than defeat our enemies in total war, although as many retired officers will state this week, winning battles is still a core component of any global power. No longer is it the only component and, possibly, it is the least relevant within the Integrated Review's vision.
Conflict and Instability was one sub-section in the Integrated Review, and it is only one page of the total 112 pages. Yet, we will spend more time this week considering our ability and capabilities to complete that page than any other part of the review.
Any officer, serving or retired, will state that completing the mission is the key to military success. Mission Command shapes our Armed forces, and the whole body adopts a unifying purpose to deliver missions. We need to amplify that unifying mindset to now change our people and all enabling organisations within the MOD.
Our Armed Forces need to consider, describe, and deliver how they will be relevant across every part of the review, from championing technology power, defending human rights as a force for good, deter and disrupt threats, and supporting UK national resilience. CGS has published his views on how the Army will deliver against these goals: Future Soldier | The British Army (mod.uk)
Three immediate shifts for relevance
Deloitte has three immediate shifts to make our Armed Forces more relevant across the Integrated Review vision.
Learning, not failing. Organisations that learn-fast and adapt quickly perform better than those that fail-fast or fear failure. Deloitte encourages teams to build their deliveries around a desire to learn and demonstrate progress quickly. We adopt a shift in the scale of thinking. Rather than waiting until the entire programme fails before attempting to learn, we encourage rapid learning cycles with quick response times. Troops employ this mindset on operations, and we want to deliver its wider adoption across Defence.
Collaborate to Compete. Global Britain needs a united presence to export technologies in an increasingly competitive international environment and shape the open international order. The UK success in developing and adopting COVID-19 vaccines, which Deloitte supported, shows a path to follow. UK Government demonstrated how it could create markets, enable alternatives, and rapidly exploit success within existing regulations.
MOD competitions often reduce total contribution, with single tenders awarded after prolonged and gruelling selections, leaving the MOD entirely reliant upon the sole survivor. We need to change the approach that increases our international competitiveness and exploits innovation as new technologies from different suppliers appear down-stream. Deloitte sees technology shifts happening in 18-month cycles, and we need to adopt a similar pace within our procurement and equipment processes.
Curate cultural transformation. Leaders curate cultures and pass that culture on to the next generation. Today's leaders must use the Integrated Review to consider the culture and values that will make Defence relevant in the future for its people, its suppliers, and the international environment. Deloitte has helped organisations preserve cultural strengths that create uniqueness and competitive advantage and adopt new mindsets to become relevant. We also assist in embracing that culture across the entire organisation. The vision from the Integrated Review is bold, challenging, and disruptive. Defence needs to prepare, support, and encourage its people to embrace rather than fear that future.
Together, these three shifts increase our ability to adapt, adopt the capabilities to compete, and be relevant in a competitive future.
We support Global Britain's bold vision
We support Global Britain's bold vision and exciting future shown in the Integrated Review and assist MOD across its enterprise as it adjusts and changes as we have done for the 175 years of our existence. Like the Prime Minister and CGS, we are incredibly optimistic about the UK's place in the world and our ability to seize the opportunities ahead.
