Killing it with data.

The US Defence Department is finally going all in on digital transformation. With a budget of 738 billion USD supporting 3.2 million people and as the largest employer in the world, the US army is now calling itself a “data-centric organization.”
 

Just weeks before this overarching strategy was announced, the US army and Airforce tested their joint ability to link their sensors and coordinate shooters both in the air and on the ground to take down a simulated cruise missile attack. Officers in charge will have command-and-control with a feel similar to a video game -- capabilities an older generation could only have dreamed of. 

What are the US military’s operating principles around data? 

“The DoD Data Strategy supports the National Defense Strategy and Digital Modernization by providing the overarching vision, focus areas, guiding principles, essential capabilities, and goals necessary to transform the Department into a data-centric enterprise. Success cannot be taken for granted...it is the responsibility of all DoD leaders to treat data as a weapon system and manage, secure, and use data for operational effect.”

There are few points in the document which caught my attention:

Data is a Strategic Asset – “DoD data is a high-interest commodity and must be leveraged in a way that brings both immediate and lasting military advantage.”

I think this statement on its own should drive the importance of data for your organization. Replace the word military with business and it fits your company perfectly.

Architecture – “DoD architecture, enabled by enterprise cloud and other technologies, must allow pivoting on data more rapidly than adversaries are able to adapt.”

DoD understands very well what its core business is. They are not building their own data centers. You might recall the excitement about the army contract to modernize its IT capabilities.

And I'll leave you to ponder the DoD take of equal importance to any data transformation - data ethics:

“DoD must put ethics at the forefront of all thought and actions as it relates to how data is collected, used, and stored.”

Anybody planning digital transformation in their respective company, should review the document. It is well thought out and if you replace the DoD with your company name and military with business, you can just copy and paste into your own strategic plan.