Army Secretary John McHugh yesterday announced the creation of the Institutional Army Transformation Commission–to find new ways to make the service a more agile, cost-effective organization.
“We’re not just asking people to change the way they budget,” McHugh said in a statement. “We’re asking them to change the way they think.”
“The Commission will be limited to 15 members from across the Army,” said George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. The Director of the Army Staff will ensure that only the most qualified personnel are selected for assignment to the Commission and that all possess the skill sets and expertise required. It is also possible that the commission could have some limited number of additional private sector personnel.
The commission will be led by Leonard Braverman, and should have open access to and work closely with the Office of Business Transformation, Wright said.
McHugh said this focus comes from the many adaptations made by the operational Army as terrain, adversaries and missions changed, while the institutional Army, also called the generating force, the part that mans, trains and equips the operational force, is not so structurally different from the 1970s.
Earlier this year, McHugh created a short-term task force to examine the Army’s organizations and business practices to identify short-term improvements and long-term structural changes within the institutional Army, the service statement said. To date, that task force has launched efforts to root out overlap and redundancies in research and development, review temporary organizations and task forces to see if they are still needed, consolidate and streamline the requirements process, reform installations management, optimize Army acquisitions, and make changes in human capital management.
While encouraged, McHugh said large-scale institutional transformation takes years to mature before agile, cost-effective organizations emerge with a culture of continuous improvement incorporated in all activities, McHugh said. “This commission will implement changes already identified through the short-term task force, assess and identify new opportunities, and continue to function for the next three years. This longer term, more enduring approach is historically and practically necessary and will help make continuous transformation a part of Army culture.”
McHugh first discussed the new panel during a morning town hall forum with members of the Army Senior Executive Service.