Strategic Command use evidence-based research from MBA students to improve military capability in just 10-weeks
How do you deliver Unmanned Vehicles (UAV’s) to the frontline with relative ease? This was the clear problem delivered to Kingston Business School MBA students by Lt Cdr David Houghton-Barnes aspart of our Hacking for Ministry of Defence course (H4MoD). In his role at Strategic Command working for the Air Mobility Special Projects Capability branch, David was tasked with answering the tough questions around procurement and implementation of UAV’s - but was lost in a logistical quagmire. As part of our H4MoD programme here at CMP, David’s problem was matched with a student team at Kingston University Business School who took the brief and ran with it to create a compelling solution.
The MBA students immediately set about interviewing stakeholders from industry, academia and government to delve further into the problem. This process of investigation and validation of the problem itself is a key part of the lean start-up methodology - we ask students to participate in their own learning in a ‘flipped classroom’ approach far from the traditional lecture theatre. They do this through interviews and ‘getting out of the building’. For our problem sponsors, this aids in generating deeper insight into their problem and connecting them with an innovation ecosystem that can help now and in the future.
After 10-weeks of solid research and development the student team came up with eight actionable recommendations that cut through the complexities of delivering military capability.
The expected impact of implementing these solution ideas will be a huge savings on time with less duplication of effort and competition for finite resources.
“I gave the team such a massive problem but they did well to keep a top-level view and not get stuck into a niche area that would have less impact” says David. “They knew exactly how to speak to people in interviews to gain the most useful information and never lost sight of the problem’s significance - namely enabling change in procurement.”
David was able to implement the team’s suggestions as soon as they delivered their final presentations, immediately informing the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff to help structure the conversation around scaling UAVs in Defence. Lt Cdr Houghton-Barnes’ successor will work on continuing to implement the recommendations and embed them into Strategic Command’s Air Mobility Special Projects Capability.
If you have a problem you would like solving within your MoD organisation, please contact us to get involved.