The idea of this post came to me after a meeting with someone working for the French Armament Comission, a few month ago. When he asked me “do you know what our job is ?” I answered, hesitant, “Choose the weapons the army will use”. “It’s a bit of that, but it’s more complex”. “Really ?”
Initially, I believed that the army what what it is (ie navy, airforce etc…) and the only point was to built the needed weapons, planes, ships, in order to provide people with what they need to do their job. In fact things were not that simple.
They don’t provide the existing structure with tools, they respond to identified issues with ad-hoc systems. What does it mean ? They identifie potential issues, threats and build a response in terms of systems. A system is the interaction between people, tools and an operating mode. None of this component has sense by himself regardless of all others and the issue.
This makes a big difference with the way companies behave.
You can find the "original" french version of this blog here
