Major General Cameron Holt: Transform the US Acquisition Process to Win the Silent War

Speed to Contract. Speed to Market.

Host Tim Templeton talks with Major General Cameron Holt (retired) about the single largest threat to our nation: the ‘Silent War’ with China. It’s not a war that’s entirely about military-on-military force. However, the need to quickly move the U.S. acquisition system into a consistent wartime mentality is greater now than ever before.
See live discussions of Speed to Contract & Speed to Market topics at the Government Contract Pricing Summit in June. For information & registration, visit gcpsummit.com.

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1. Major General Cameron Holt: Transform the US Acquisition Process to Win the Silent War (00:00:00)

2. Single Largest Threat to Our Nation? The 'Silent War' with China (00:02:00)

3. China Knows How to Pull Together the 4 Instruments of National Power (00:06:05)

4. There Doesn't Have to be Explosions for China to Win the Silent War (00:06:41)

5. War is Not All About Military-on-Military Force (00:07:19)

6. We Are Glossing Over China's Plan to Manipulate Governments (Belt and Road Initiative) (00:08:03)

7. The Need to Put Our Acquisition System on a Wartime Footing (00:08:45)

8. A Wartime Pace is the Best Deterrent (00:09:38)

9. An Enormous Bureaucracy Fuels Itself (00:11:21)

10. Our Acquisition System is Arcane — Created by Robert McNamara in 1961 (00:13:29)

11. An Acquisition System That Disallows Management to Make Good Choices (00:14:47)

12. Accountability with No Measure of Effectiveness (00:17:06)

13. Continuing Resolution Fuels Fraud, Waste, & Abuse (00:17:36)

14. Authority Delegation—Instead of Micromanagement—Will Produce Results (00:19:02)

15. We Have Proven in the Past We Can Move Faster (00:20:21)

16. A Business Model with Barriers to Entry That Are Enormously High (00:22:42)

17. Business Model Incentive: Lose Money on the Front-End, to Earn on the Backend (00:25:53)

18. Government-Sponsored IT Vendor Lock Prohibits Competition (00:27:04)

19. IP Vendor Lock Business Model Should Change to a Speed-to-Market Model (00:27:56)

20. A System That Continues to Support IP Vendor Lock vs. Speed to Market (00:28:58)

21. Change the Model So Everyone is on a Level Playing Field (00:30:44)

22. Put Profit in the Right Place to Incentivize the Right Behaviors (00:32:53)

23. 2 Initiatives that Produced Results in the Past (00:35:49)

24. Leaders Who Eliminate the Recrimination Culture Succeed (00:36:40)

25. Our 'Why' is Not Compliance, It's to Get the Mission Done (00:37:34)

26. Eliminated 700 Pages of Bureaucracy (00:38:26)

27. Micromanaging Leaders Waste Enormous Resources by Not Delegating (00:40:43)

28. Changing the Culture—Changes Everything (00:42:41)

29. Knowing the System Well Will Greatly Help Speed to Contract and Market (00:43:39)

30. Offer Bold Ideas that Change Everything in the System (00:48:18)