Independence Day 2025: Service Wisdom...

Who among mortal men are you, good friend? Since never before have I seen you in the fighting where men win glory, yet now you have come striding far out in front of all others in your great heart… —Homer, The Iliad

It was December 21, 2009 boarding a Delta flight with a newly published book in hand on a 10 day Christmas vacation in another country.

“Where Men Win Glory” The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer is a tragic story worth remembering as we contemplate our country the USA and all those brave men and women who have defended our freedom and our way of life.

As we approach our next July 4th weekend, this book caught my eye on the shelf as the thoughts of celebrating our United States of America birthday in 2025 came to mind.

Before you were wise, you as an American can’t truly know or understand it all, until you leave it. Until you travel far away across our globe to other countries and cities to see and feel the differences.

Most recently traveling on a Boeing 787 for 14 hours then another 7 hours to another place near the equator, this first gives you the real context of how enormous our Earth really is.

Secondly, spending weeks time in other countries that are foreign to you, provides you the vivid context on our United States in so many ways.

You learn why America included specific language in its “Constitution” as a new country and you can better understand what influence the United States has had on other parts of the world since it’s 1st birthday.

In early June 2002, Pat Tillman and his brother Kevin appeared at the Military Processing Station in downtown Phoenix, AZ. Later in the day, they signed away their freedom and recited the oath of enlistment, and received their orders to appear at Fort Benning Georgia on July, 8 2002.

Two years later Pat Tillman died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan after leaving behind a $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army.

How will you work in your own years ahead in America or OCONUS, to defend our freedoms and to help defeat evil across our small towns, our cities and vast metropolitan areas?

This 4th of July Independence Day weekend, think about how you will contribute to our great nation.

Maybe it begins by leaving it for a week or two, just to reveal what you will miss.

What you will feel. What you will better understand about the “How and “Why” we were founded as the United States of America.

"We as a nation have so much to learn from others across the world, and yet if you never travel outside your state or even your own country, how will you ever say you truly understand."

When you feel the same calling as Pat Tillman and his brother did about serving your country, figure out how you too will contribute.

How might you make a difference in fighting evil and making our country even better?

Get out there! How will you serve…

Memorial Day 2025: Remember Them...

On Memorial Day 2025 what do you think about and remember in memory of our fallen.

Those brave men and women in the USA who have defended our Flag and our Freedom for almost 250 years.

Walking through Arlington Cemetery anytime, or to a Funeral in Section 60 there, provides context on how much we value our country, our way of life and the people who call themselves true “Americans’.

“As we seek to shrink what remains of the Gap over the next several decades, we will rarely find societies adequately prepared—either intellectually or emotionally—for the travails that lie ahead. Instead, the elements most prepared will be the most willing to wage bloody resistance against this process: educated, worldly young men who are familiar with the future we offer and have already decided that it is corrupting beyond all reason. These revolutionaries and terrorists will wage wars of extreme perversity against both us and their own peoples, convinced as they are of their moral superiority in rooting out hypocrisy and heresy.”

The Pentagon’s New Map - BLUEPRINT For ACTION - A Future Worth Creating - Page 281- Thomas P.M. Barnett 2005

Over twenty years after reading this book, we are still at war. Memorial Day each year and many years ahead of us will be about our American citizens, who have served in our U.S. Military and lost their lives.

This Memorial Day weekend as you see the military ceremonies, or hear the fighter jets flying in formation over your city...now think about all those who have served behind the front lines, Visible and Invisible.

The “Quiet Professionals” in the United States who provide a spectrum of services, supplies and continuous information in support of securing our valuable freedom.

As you reread chapters of "BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION" while you watch our Flag waving in the wind, Remember Them…Never Forget, Always Be Ready!

Future Risk: What is True...

On the dawn before the next large public gathering across the world, Operational Risk Management (ORM) professionals are on edge.  Readiness and contingencies are at their highest level in anticipation of any globally televised event.

The same crisis management environment exists four or more times a year within the confines of the Board Room and Executive suite.

Operating at the "Speed of Business" and effectively managing daily, weekly, and quarterly risk management tasks requires an adaptive and resilient culture.  A culture that has been born and evolved from its Genesis to a daily run rate based upon two main components.

• Trust is the first one and to many a given in any high performing environment.  To be able to trust the person to your left and to your right requires many tests.  It builds over time yet it must start with the right elements and be nurtured for it to flourish.

• The second component is far more complex.  It requires you to embark on a continuous discipline with yourself and the people to your left and right, to know "What is True."

"What is True" means one set of reality for you and perhaps something different for those around you.  Your mission is to get to a single version and reality of what is true faster than your competition, your adversary or your partner.  Survival will be a factor of your speed to understanding as a team, "What is True" and then your adaptive nature to the consequences of your actions.

Are you accountable for your outcomes?  Have you accepted the consequences of your behavior?  So what does all of this have to do with Operational Risk Management?  It has everything to do with it. The most high consequence event to any risk matrix, is the fact that people do not see themselves or others in a "True" perspective.  They are not operating in reality.

What is your willingness to bring current problems to everyone to dissect, understand and solve?  Those who continue to operate without a proactive problem-solving environment are headed towards disaster.  Surprises.  Being blind-sided.  Never saw it coming.

When you hear people saying these things.  You have someone who has not been proactive in the continuous identification of problems and communicating those problems to the team to be solved.

You see, leadership is about continuously testing, designing and improving the process or the product.  The thinkers and the doers, the blueprint and the construction, the designers and the operators must be in a synchronous harmony together.

Ask yourself; how is this movie unfolding compared to the script that was written?  How has the change and the rate of change had consequences?  What have I and my team done to adapt, by changing the design or the people to achieve the mission? 

The "Speed of Business" is the environment and the successful outcome we all seek and is captured in three words.  "What is True."

operational risk

Veterans Day 2024: Our Father U.S. Marine...

 Growing up as the first son of a U.S. Marine officer, you learn much of what it means to be a Veteran.

Loyalty. Dedication. Perseverance. Discipline. Trust. Integrity. Valor.

On this November 11, 2024 it is Veterans Day in the United States of America. A day in America to pause and to acknowledge those who made the decision to serve, in a branch of our Armed Forces.

As a young man approaching graduation of high school the Vietnam War was in full swing and conscription was a weekly discussion around the dinner table. Will your number be called?

The defense of an entire country requires a tremendous number of people to operate at home and across the entire globe.

Some veterans had the opportunity to travel across continents and were stationed in foreign countries. Our men and women were sailing across oceans on the surface and others deep undersea. They were flying whenever and wherever needed to go head-to-head with the evil people and forces in our world.

Veterans from around the USA put their lives in the hands of our country to protect our loved ones and our way of life here.

Veterans who have served our nation honorably have a real understanding of what it means to sacrifice, to work beyond exhaustion, to feel proud of becoming an expert in skills, knowledge and special activities experience.

In years past, as our colleagues waited for the hospital van to arrive on the shore of the Potomac River inside Ft. Belvoir, we prepared for the weekend warriors who wanted to go fishing.

The 501c3 we volunteered to assist would come each weekend over the summer to teach Ft. Belvoir veterans to fly fish or just try and catch a fish on that day. In the sunshine, outdoors and outside the hospital.

Years later, on one weekend when Dad was in his mid 80’s, we drove down I-95 to Quantico VA to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

He could not believe all of the memories coming back to him. 90 Minutes later, as we pulled out of the parking lot to Fuller Road, we looked to the right and saw the entrance to the base where he had attended Officer Candidate School (OCS).

“Let’s go in there he commanded”. So as we approached the gate and pulled up to the Guard, then we said: “This U.S. Marine would like to enter and to drive through the base where he learned to become a First Lieutenant.

The guard asked, “Let me see your Drivers Licenses”. “OK, go ahead he said as we then drove through the gate.”

This is when it really started to sink in. Where and why our Dad learned all about being a leader of U.S. Marines and soon thereafter a devoted Father.

"On this Veterans Day in America, we say thank you."

For all that you have done to protect the American people and our United States to keep us safe…and to learn to serve with pride...

November 11: Serving the United States by the Other 99%...

The United States Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery.

Standing there with family and as the son of a U.S. Marine in 2015, the ceremony commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater with a parade of colors by veterans' organizations and remarks from dignitaries.

The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces. This represents less than 1% of Americans.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them”  -John F. Kennedy-

How many Soldiers will be on active duty around the globe on November 11 working in their current role, task or assignment, to keep America safe and secure?  So those of us who call the United States their home, may exercise their freedoms and the citizens rights that our nations architects designed for us.

How may Airman will be walking the streets in parades remembering their flights over the Pacific, Vietnam, the Atlantic, Europe, South America, North Africa or the Middle East?  What about all those pilots that have flown at such a high altitude; never to be detected over Russia, North Korea or China?

How many Sailors and Marines will be cruising on, over or under our vast oceans to be present and ready, for our next mission to help others?  How many Submariners will never be detected on their 24 x 7 watch; or with SOF waiting patiently below deck for their next clandestine operation, anywhere in the world?

So on Saturday, November 11, what will you be doing, John or Mary Q. Citizen, in Anytown U.S.A.?

For some Veterans who experience this day of recognition, it is not easy.  It could be a day that is simultaneously bitter sweet.  There is certainly great pride, yet some within the 1% who are Veterans, look around the country and wonder why the other 99% are not serving their nation, in their full capacity as a U.S. citizen.

Service to your nation doesn't begin or end with a job in the military.  Service to your nation begins for everybody who becomes an American.  What does that mean?

It means that we stand up and believe in the U.S. Constitution.  We defend and negotiate all that it says and what it enables for us to accomplish for ourselves, our families and our fellow believers.  You see, the freedoms and the opportunity to prosper in the United States is there for anybody to grasp.  For anybody to achieve.

To honor and thank those who have served in the Military on Veterans Day, requires so much more:

• Will you "sleep in" on your day off or volunteer with the local church or non-profit to teach Veterans how to be more effective in the transition to a civilian private sector job?
• Will you design and code the next iPhone App to locate other Vets in your local town or city to assist each other and your community?
• Will you meet with local business owners to plan, raise funds and deploy vital programs for families of Veterans?
• Will you vote to fund and allocate adequate resources for the operations necessary and requested, by those forward deployed on the front lines, in uniform and also in the shadows?

The opportunities to serve our country and all of our Veterans November 11, requires a continuous cycle of thinking beyond just the Soldier, Airman, Sailor or Marine.

It also requires more proof, that a majority of the other 99%, are also serving their country and all that the United States stands for in the world.

So this November 11, listen to John F. Kennedy...

Memorial Day: A Prosperous Journey…

On this Memorial Day 2022 in the United States, we mourn all those brave and patriotic American men and women who have served our country and are now on watch in heaven.

Raising our Red, White and Blue American flag today brings tears to our eyes. It reminds us of all that have raised their hand to volunteer and all those who we have lost, to insure our flag is a beacon to the rest of the world.

If you have ever attended a funeral in Arlington National Cemetery...you know what feeling comes over you.

Standing there, when you read the birth dates in Section 60 and you realize how young they were and all those before them. 

Defending our own country and all those others who are unable to defend themselves, from perpetual evil forces.

You see, only people who have served and perhaps even their own close family members, truly understand.

Standing there, on a glorious sunny afternoon in Virginia, watching a tearful Mother as she is handed the U.S. Flag carefully folded into a triangle, is an image one shall never forget.

You see, until you have been there, how could you understand what our Memorial Day is truly about.

The Dedication. The Service. The Sweat and Tears. The Courage. The Pride. The Ultimate Sacrifice.

Godspeed…

Noun: a prosperous journey

Fortitude: Presidents to U.S. First Responders...

On the 3rd Monday of February in the United States, our country takes a day to reflect. To remember, and acknowledge and to honor our American Presidents.

It is a federal holiday specifically honoring George Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first president of the United States.

Teachers in schools may focus on student projects around our US Presidents and the dawn of our Republic. A form of government in which “supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives”.

This day of pause, celebration or study of history shall also include a tribute to all of our “First Responders” across our great nation. Those men and women on the front lines of our democracy that are always on watch. Those who are in action each day, to defend our freedom and our Republic from disasters and evil.

As the pace of the economy across the globe includes new inventions, new technology and new laws; our governments must work in synchronized step with all of our First Responders.

Those individuals who are consistently scanning the horizon, analyzing dashboards of continuous streams of new sensor data, researching the changes in our respective environments and Areas of Responsibility (AOR) to better understand.

Yet these individuals require more. The First Responders who 24 hours x 365 days are continuously Understanding, Making Decisions and Acting in order to address the continuous integrity and constant peace of our great nation, require more.

"Our U.S. First Responders require a continuous set of resources, innovative new tools and training to apply the leading solutions for the United States security, response and resilience. From Liberty Crossing to NORAD. From Pennsylvania Ave to Pacific Coast Highway.

How might a small group of First Responders gather in a particular geographic area of our country to research, develop and deliver new valuable innovations to protect our Republic?"

How might we include industry and academia in an acceleration of information exchange and testing of new prototypes?

One good example is the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) that is again taking place primarily in Southern California over the next six months. Activities will focus on the examination of capabilities by public and private sector stakeholders in the following areas:

• 
Critical infrastructure security, threat mitigation, and incident response
• 
In-service engineering, maintenance, and sustainment of surface fleet and expeditionary combat systems
• Port and maritime domain awareness, data fusion, and decision support
• 
Augmented and virtual reality modeling, simulation, and digital engineering
• 
Unmanned systems applications, implementation, and countermeasures

Yet whether we are creating new learning environments for our First Responders on Land, Sea, Space and Cyber domains, we shall always remember.

On this Presidents Day 2022, Americans who are true First Responders will continuously seek out new opportunities to learn more.

They will collaborate to test and innovate their own new ideas and inventions to preserve our Republic. To make their own neighborhood even more safe and secure.

They will act with bravery and their own fortitude, just as George Washington did and all those who have followed him…

Madison Ave to Llewellyne Ave: Digital Warfare on our Doorsteps…

Complex Irregular Warfare, whether "Asymmetric or Hybrid" will be exponential into the next decade and shall consume our Earth and beyond.

John Q. Citizen who is walking down the street in Syria or Europe, Africa, Asia, South America or Kyiv already is more aware of this fact.

“Hybridity ... is characterized by the interpenetration of a wide range of non-state actors including any combination of insurgent or terrorist networks; organized crime groups; social groups such as clans, tribes or ethnic groups; and ideologically or religiously motivated organizations; all of which may be backed covertly or overtly by states and/or legitimate businesses.” 

Schroefl and Kaufman,

“Hybrid Actors,” pp. 862, 867.

This is still about our digital modern warfare, not focused or about the next variant of a biological weapon.

Asymmetric and hybrid warfare is not new and it has been operating on Main Street USA for a decade or more, yet most people are apathetic or complacent as they walk down the sidewalk starring at their latest digital communicator.

Who knows more about you as a person? The people on Madison Avenue or on Amphitheatre Parkway. These forces working together to better understand you as a behavioral thinking machine and to Win, are beyond your typical John Q. Citizens comprehension.

Now take this Asymmetric or Hybrid foundation and apply this to our next 24 hours and to the next 12 months. What you read and what you hear and what you see on an LCD screen, is the modern digital battlefield. In the USA. In Ukraine. In China. In North Korea. In Iran. In the UK.

The corporate and business battlefield has now spread across our other 16+ Critical Infrastructures, such as energy pipelines and beyond to hospitals, schools and universities, water and electric utilities, local government municipalities and vital federal government agencies.

The attack surface has now spread to our homes, apartments and where ever you may connect your little LCD screen to the Internet, for your Work From Home (WFH) strategy.

You see, that little black or white or blue communications box sitting there on your desk, credenza or table in the storage room, with little blinking lights is actually part of this digital global battlefield. You as a citizen soldier now need to do your part.

The Router/modem/Cable box sitting inside your own domicile or business, is the entry point for our modern global adversaries. It is your Duty of Care and your mission to defend your Family, your Community and your Country.

You can realize your own vulnerabilities in order to respond. To increase your resiliency. To upgrade or update your own digital hardware and software, in order to Deter, Detect and Defend, all those we care for in our daily lives.

The so called “Critical Infrastructure” is in your hand, in your business, in your home, and you and your own family are part of this hybrid warfare. Wake up!

From Madison Avenue, New York City NY to Llewellyn Avenue, Fort Meade MD, to the deepest, darkest parts of the World Wide Internet, a continuous Digital Global War is being waged 86,400 seconds per day…

USA: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…

As the United States celebrates our July 4th weekend, 245 years of what it means to be a true American is ever more present.

Our nation’s Flag, which shows 50 White stars on a Blue background and 13 Red & White stripes, is a symbolic reminder of what America stands for and where our journey began almost two and a half centuries ago.

How might we continuously improve and defend our Nation, as new global opportunities emerge and new challenges are understood?

What is certain, are the words written in our Declaration of Independence in 1776. As the world views and listens to the “United States of America”, what does it see and hear?

If you asked ten people at a 4th of July parade in “Anytown, USA” on Sunday:

What is Independence Day and what does it mean? How many people asked would know the correct answer?

When the author of the Declaration of Independence became our third President, he knew the country was in for tremendous challenges ahead. What was his name?

Did you get the question correct?

Thomas Jefferson, was a Lawyer and a Christian. He was just 33 year old and our Revolutionary War had just started, when his famous words were written for a formal declaration of independence.

Our U.S. Constitution was not signed until 11 years later in 1787.

As you celebrate this unique American Holiday, think deeply about our history…

Think about all those Americans who have died, in their allegiance to our Flag and the Constitution of the United States.

Americans who have died so you too, could truly experience freedom…

Memorial Day 2021: We the People...

On this Memorial Day weekend 2021, we remember those who have given us their Military service, their dedication and their time, and their own life. To help ensure our U.S. citizens, with a lifetime of “Liberty”.

Definition of liberty

1 : the quality or state of being free:

The men and women of the United States, who are buried in Arlington Memorial Cemetery or some other place in America, today we thank you again.

“From Sea to Shining Sea, this land we fight to preserve and the actions we take to “Protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States” is in our hearts, and in our minds every day.”

So it is the true dedication, discipline and the real work of these great Americans, that we recognize, on holidays such as this annual Memorial Day.

Who will you remember today? What is their name? How did you know them? When did they serve? Where did they serve? Why were they so dedicated to their mission?

You see, beneath every headstone there is a person, who has their own personal reasons and their particular story.

On this day we shall also recognize all those “First Responders” with courage, who uphold and defend our chosen way of life in America.

Never forget those “Quiet Professionals” who run towards danger, or who devote their time to truly Understand, Decide and Act.

Yet what shall you “Do” today to make a difference in America?

How about if we all start with a prayer in our our own place of worship, the day before Memorial Day?

A prayer for our fellow “American Citizens” to be kind. To pray that Mothers and Fathers here, will teach our children about our history and why so many have died.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Asymmetric Warfare: Computer Jihad...

A person does not have to spend years analyzing and witnessing the phenomenon of the Internet to understand why the pornography industry has flourished.

 

Like other social and religious facets of our global culture, connected by hyper links, web sites and chat rooms, human beings are able to quickly and efficiently discover what they are looking for. Good and bad.

 

If the Internet is just a mirror of society itself, then of course it will have both the positive and humanitarian aspects along with the negative, criminal and evil elements.

Learning new skills and spreading new ideas via the Internet is nothing new. However, one could predict that the acceleration of threats to our youth, families and nations states has been influenced by the proliferation of Apples, Dells, and Androids across the globe.

 

Whether it's in the kitchen, the library, university dorm room or the corner cyber cafe the ubiquitous ICT 5G access now available has increased our operational risks at home, at work and to our economic well being.

When subjects such as this are discussed at length in the Board Room, NOC or War Room the arguments always come back to the same thing. How many people have been killed as a result of cyber-warfare?

 

Justification of spending dollars and allocating resources is in many cases a factor of the risk management exercise, likelihood vs. impact.

 

After all, the Internet seems to be self-healing and resilient to any long term outage. But those who are well versed in 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) sitting around the table know, that computerized jihad is a tactic of a far more encompassing strategy:

"Reflecting Sun Tzu’s philosophy, many recent Chinese writings have focused on asymmetric warfare as a means of defeating a militarily superior enemy. Asymmetric warfare uses political, economic, informational and military power. Military power is the least emphasized."

The silent war being waged each second of each minute of every hour every day, over every week and month of the year is taking place on a vast digital battlefield. Who will be the victor?

4th of July: Celebrate the Feeling...

As the wind caught the United States Flag in the early evening light, the Pacific Ocean was in the air.  Stepping back and looking up, a prayer was repeated, for our great Nation.

On this eve of the 4th of July birth of our American Republic, we stand proud.  As an American, you really never understand what that really means, until you leave it; for weeks, months or years for travel somewhere else in this world.

You see, it is a feeling that comes over you.  It is real.  And you can only feel it, if you leave our great country and travel to other places.  Many Americans have no idea what this feeling really is.  Yet, for those of us who have been to Africa, or Australia or Europe or the Middle East, or Asia or South America, or the Moon, you understand.

What is this feeling?  You start to feel it when you touch down on the tarmac and your plane pulls up to the terminal at IAD, LAX, DEN, DFW, ORD, or JFK.  As you walk into Border Control and Customs and you pull out that beautiful Dark Blue Passport, with the Golden Eagle on the cover, it starts to grow inside you.

You say to yourself.  It is good to be home...

For the millions of Americans who have served in our Armed Forces, or other government service overseas this feeling is overwhelming.

The millions of Americans that travel abroad for business or vacations will also feel it.  If they are gone long enough, or depending on where their geographic destinations happened to be, while they were gone.

Yet the feeling goes even a step further.  Especially, if you are an "American Patriot".

When you truly understand American history and what it truly means, in our vast world of Nations, looking at our "Stars & Stripes" alone, makes you shed a tear.

This Independence Day, celebrate the feeling...

National Security: LC-39A and Beyond...

As SpaceX launched two U.S. NASA Astronauts into orbit on Saturday from LC-39A, many of us were joyful.  We are experiencing the outcomes from a long journey back to true collaboration, between government agencies and the private sector industrial complex.

The new problem-sets ahead of us and the continuous ability for dual-use technologies to span both the government sector and the commerial markets will be challenging.  One thing is certain.

We will persevere in this "Infinite Game" and the U.S. will utilize the best and the brightest methods of innovation to achieve our ambitions for space travel ahead.  Our imagination will carry us far beyond any horizon we can visualize, especially in creating more effective public-private partnerships.

How might a "Moonshot and Beyond" way of thinking across America, accelerate us towards a new future state?  What will we do to utilize the way our brightest minds think and do almost everything different today?

The combination of decades of experience with "Baby Boomers" integrating with the ingenuity and "Will Do" aspirations of our new Generations that are just getting their wings, is our real opportunity.

The opportunity to forge substantial break throughs in engineering, software development and a variety of autonomous vehicles.  The opportunity to develop expendable sensors and low cost tools, to continuously protect our nation.  The chance to put a man on Mars and beyond.

Legacy platforms of the past, that have kept us from a true technological revolution, must finally go to the grave.  Our National Security and livelihood now depends on it.

Open minds and investment capital in the hands of the right organizations, will propel us into a future we all know is possible.  Academia fusion with venture mind-sets builds the stage for innovation.  Yet what real-world problems from government and industry can be solved?

The emerging use-cases are vast and requires only our continuous imagination...

Operationalizing Defend Forward: A Paradigm Shift...

In light of the recent and overwhelming global state-of-affairs, it is now timely to enter into a dialogue on operationalizing "Defend Forward".

Is it possible to increase your organizational, personal or nation state resiliency to the active threats you can't yet see, hear, or feel?  You understand that it depends on what the adversary actually is and what medium or environment it is operating in.  So here are just two examples that are difficult to see and detect with only the naked eye:

1. Ransomware
2. Coronavirus

Number One is a threat operating in a virtual environment of vast Information Technology infrastructure propagated across the Internet by adversaries who seek to infest a host and produce a potential outcome as the threat infects vulnerable computing assets.

Number Two is a threat operating in a physical environment of vast geographical and human-based populations propagated across our planet Earth by biological adversaries who seek to infest a host and produce a potential outcome as the threat infects vulnerable human assets.

Fortunately Number One does not have a "Zoonotic" origin.

"Defend Forward", entails the proactive observing, pursuing, and countering of adversary operations and imposing costs in day-to-day competition to disrupt and defeat ongoing malicious adversary infectious campaigns, deter future campaigns, and reinforce favorable international norms of behavior, using all the instruments of national power." --Dr. Erica Borghard

Think about your particular 1) organizational, 2) technological and 3) human-based ecosystems.

How much have you invested in operationalizing a "Defend Forward" strategy for all three?

You see, in the year 2020 and beyond you will need to be thinking differently.  You will need to be investing in a cohesive and strategically balanced Operational Risk Management (ORM) paradigm.

Yes, paradigm.  For those of you reading this, who do not understand the true definition, look it up.

What is currently going on in "Cyberspace" is not that much different than what is going on in our current "Healthcarespace".

Yet one is commanded by human behavior and the other one is commanded by human behavior.

Godspeed Mother Earth!

Travel Risk: Adaptive Survival Instruction...

Travel risk to corporate executives is on the rise. Even if you are not an executive who can afford the services of personal body guards and armored cars, there are some prudent ways to mitigate the risk of traveling to the global hot spots.

The Mission

Travel safety is becoming more of a main stream issue with savvy Operational Risk Managment (ORM) leaders. The fact is, most of these so called travel safety courses are being taught from only one side of the equation.

"In a world of global commerce, CSOs are often tasked with building their company's corporate travel safety programs. The job calls for a proactive approach to educate employees about precautions they can take to stay safe, whether they're the CEOs of multibillion-dollar conglomerates who fly on company jets that land on secured tarmacs or rank-and-file staff riding in commercial airline coach."

The Take-Away

Business has to be done in some of the most dangerous places on the planet, even when it comes to being exposed to kidnapping, terrorism and corrupt governments. Our advice is to make sure your instructor transfers skills to people on "how" to detect, deter and defend against the attackers. Not just the "What to do".

The how is not easy to teach unless you have been there and experienced it. One of the reasons why most CEO's are "Age Experienced" is that it takes time to acquire enough valid leadership lessons.

It does not happen in a week or a month or even a few years. Learning the skills to survive in strange cities, cultures and countries requires instruction by age experienced and "Quiet Professionals". Much of this instruction is about training people to be "Adaptive."

Personnel threat management is a prudent risk mitigation solution. This combination is one key strategy to reduce the operational risks associated with key personnel in your organization.

Individuals whose occupations place them at risk may include people with access to valuable proprietary information or holders of high level security clearances, the wealthy and those responsible for their safety.

Comprehensive "Adaptive Survival Instruction" for international business executives, is a primary mission for OPS Risk leadership, because it saves lives.

Old to New: Accelerating the Velocity of Decision Advantage...

Trust Decisions in the innovation environment requires entrepreneurs, who are willing to risk their reputation and to build new cognitive bridges.

The vulnerability of solving new found problem-sets outside of your organizational safe zone, with a new set of people, is just the beginning.

As your new TEAM works side-by-side, through hours, weeks and months of tame dialogue, heated arguments and little sleep, the level of cultural trust quickly rises.

It does not matter if this occurs in a new business unit within the private sector, or out on the frontier in an austere world at the Forward Operating Base (FOB).

This place on the edge was created to be a strategic unit with tactical objectives.  Call it a "Skunkworks", an "Outpost" or some other clever xxWERX name.  It really does not matter.  Yet everyone knows that the core mission is still relatively unknown.

The reward becomes, that someone of significant rank, or a vital customer, who recognizes that the new idea, new prototype or new invention is truely a game changer.  An outlier.  A true "Decision Advantage".

Walking across that virtual bridge from the "Old" to the "New," from the normal to the abnormal or from the design of a market copy cat to a disruption market leader, is what this initiative is really all about.

So how do you do it?  In order to set the stage, you might start here:

Col. John Cogbill, chief of staff of the Joint Special Operations Command, discusses how to leverage Silicon Valley's "secret sauce" to encourage the MacGyvers in your ranks.

The methods and the process are constantly evolving.  Yet the core thinking and the integration of the various cultures that synchronize together, in a proven innovation journey is the real mission.

A few months before Col. Cogbill's podcast, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published the 120+ page Independent Task Force Report #77, "Innovation and National Security - Keeping Our Edge.

What happens when you put a Task Force together with a combination of Special Operations Commanders, Venture Capitalists, Private Sector Leaders and Management Consultants?

"A new U.S. innovation strategy should be based on four pillars: funding, talent, technology adoption, and technology alliances and ecosystems. Action is required over the next five years." (TFR Innovation Strategy P. 17).

You will have to read the report in it's entirety to form your own thoughts and conclusions on what needs to happen in your own local ecosystem of innovation.

Yet, suffice it to say, the people on the "Task Force" understand the real challenges.  They know first hand the National Security threats.  They realize we all have to accelerate and simultaneously collaborate.

So how might you build some bridges this month from the "Old" to the "New"?

Why will your mission create a foundation to increase the velocity of your TrustDecisions to gain Decision Advantage...

ORM: Pervasive Risk Across Disciplines...

What is the origin of the "Operational Risk Management" (ORM) discipline? Was it derived from the work within the financial services industry from the Basel II initiatives?

The definitions and the actual work towards creating standards of conduct and rule-based design has been evolving for the past few decades.

Operational Risk and the approach to risk that is not otherwise considered to be market or credit risk, is one mind set. The other mind set considers the hazards associated with the threat to our valuable assets.

Either point of view depends on the environment that you operate in and the risks associated with that environment.

To give a quick example, here are a few views into Operational Risk in the United States:

"It didn’t take long—the first attack on a U.S. government website hit on Saturday, a day after the killing of Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad. The fact there was an attack is not a surprise—speculation has been rife. And the style of the attack is consistent with the nature of the primary cyber threat we now face. Hackers claiming to be linked to Iran targeted a low-level domain—the website of the Federal Depository Library Program—defacing its home page, echoing Teheran’s threats of vengeance alongside imagery of President Trump, Ayatollah Khamenei and the Iranian flag" Forbes

"Boeing will still burn more than $1 billion a month even after halting 737 Max production, according to J.P. Morgan.  Boeing’s decision to stop suspend production of the troubled aircraft was made in light of months of cash-draining groundings worldwide, but the company’s internal overhead and labor expenses will remain and will increase cash burn, analyst Seth Seifman wrote to clients."  CNBC

These examples encompass a U.S. government agency and a private sector U.S.-based global aerospace company.  Both are operational risk scenarios that could contribute to losses that will also impact the reputation of the entity involved.

That aspect alone, could be the major factor in why Operational Risk Management is such a growing discipline in our 2020 global landscape.

Some of the earliest origins of the Operational Risk concerns come from the military. The U.S. Navy is one of the branches who has embraced it fully:

• Purpose. To establish policy, guidelines, procedures, and responsibilities per reference (a), standardize the operational risk management (ORM) process across the Navy, and establish the ORM training continuum.
• Scope. This instruction applies to all Navy activities, commands, personnel, and contractors under the direct supervision of government personnel.
• Discussion. Risk is inherent in all tasks, training, missions, operations, and in personal activities no matter how routine. The most common cause of task degradation or mission failure is human error, specifically the inability to consistently manage risk. ORM reduces or offsets risks by systematically identifying hazards and assessing and controlling the associated risks allowing decisions to be made that weigh risks against mission or task benefits. As professionals, Navy personnel are responsible for managing risk in all tasks while leaders at all levels are responsible for ensuring proper procedures are in place and that appropriate resources are available for their personnel to perform assigned tasks. The Navy vision is to develop an environment in which every officer, enlisted, or civilian person is trained and motivated to personally manage risk in everything they do.

If only our major business entities would would fully encompass the following steps with all employees and processes then more lives would be saved, corporate assets would be protected and the enterprise would be ever more resilient:

(1) Identify the hazards;

(2) Assess the hazards;

(3) Make risk decisions;

(4) Implement controls; and

(5) Supervise.

Yet the losses and the potential for loss continues across the organizations who are well equipped to make Operational Risk Management a part of every person and operating divisions daily mind set:

The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.

The number of U.S. mass shootings depends on how you count

Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country’s gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying because they occur without warning in the most mundane places. Most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but simply for where they happen to be.

There is no universally accepted definition of a public mass shooting, and this piece defines it narrowly. It looks at the 172 shootings in which four or more people were killed by a lone shooter (two shooters in a few cases). It does not include shootings tied to robberies that went awry, and it does not include domestic shootings that took place exclusively in private homes. A broader definition would yield much higher numbers.

Whether it is on the deck of an aircraft carrier or within any organizations business facility, operational risk is pervasive. It is up to you and your organization to begin to make a difference...

The Risk of A Blueprint For Action: Hero's Yet Undiscovered...

Thomas P.M. Barnett's book was sitting there on the bookcase shelf last night gathering dust from 2006 and this is the next step in the "The Pentagon's New Map."

What an inspiring exercise in "Strategic Foresight" and a journey it was, well over a decade ago.  And yet now the journey begins again, to find our "heroes yet undiscovered".

What the author means is this.  Along the path through an uncertain and new worldview, we are going to encounter people who are hero's in the implementation of the bold concepts described in this insightful book.

Mr. Barnett gives us a few descriptions of who to look out for back then, and evermore so today:

• The four-star military police general:
• Japan's first combat casualty since World war II:
• The "Martin Luther King" of Islamic Europe:
• The "Serpico" who blows the lid off human rights abuses in the global war on terrorism:
• China's "JFK"
• India's "Bill Gates":
• The first female leader of an Arab state:

His unreasonable ideas that sound at first to be far fetched are by design, to make us think deeper about the impact of globalization and the future.  In fact, they are upon us today.

"All things being equal, no one chooses the informal economy over the formal economy. Because the efficiency and security of the latter are undeniably a better deal." Page 262

"In the end, the Gap (non-core countries outside the G-20) is plagued not so much by bad governments as by simply the lack of good ones. Our goal in shrinking the Gap must entail, therefore, increasing the number of good governments there, governments that extend the rule of law, develop the human capital of all citizens (and especially that of young females), and ---most specifically---foster entrepreneurial opportunities by recognizing property rights and expanding contract case law." Page 262

The real risk of "A Blueprint For Action" is that our world leaders in 2020 still have not converged on this remarkable book and discussed it over their next dinner together.

If they do, then we will be on our way to a trusted future worth creating...

DEF2019: Far Beyond Innovation in U.S. National Security...

"The creativity and talent of the American warfighter is our greatest enduring strength, and one we do not take for granted."  --Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy

Walking away from the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum #DEF2019 Annual National Conference today in Washington, DC, produces so many simultaneous thoughts and emotions.  Being together with other colleagues and "Quiet Professionals" for an entire weekend in a small yet beautiful space, reminds us why we exist and where we are continuously navigating.

The people.  Organizations don't innovate.  Your people do the thinking and have the "Neurodiverstiy" to produce outcomes from their own TrustDecisions.  Most organizations think culture is a set of values, that you have spelled out as bullets on your web site, or the wall in your lobby.

A Decision to Act.  A Decision to Pause.  A Decision to Stop.  A Decision to Deliver.  They are all decisions, that are based upon your ability to process information and utilize your unique talents as a human being.

Culture is a management system, with passion for the mission.  Most organizations run on norms.  It's time to "Break the expletive Filter".

What kind of rebel are you?

Do you complain or do you create?

Are you "Me Focused" or are you "Mission Focused"?

What about the rules.  Do you break them or do you change them?

Do you "Alienate" or do you "Attract"?

Do you "Doubt" or do you "Believe"?

Are you "Energy Sapping" or "Energy Generating"?

Do you exemplify Anger or Passion?

From James "Hondo" Geurts - Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquistions- DEF2019 Presentation

Priority is a singular noun and your structure is your culture.  The truth is, the culture of your particular business enterprise, government agency, startup or team, is a direct manifestation of your own peoples creative spirit and their abilities to adapt and deliver outcomes, with a dynamic set of decisions in your environment.

Signing off now.  It is time to go "Deliver"...

Memorial Day 2019: The Courage of Risk Decisions...

Walking through Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day weekend is a stark reminder of the Operational Risk Management challenges we have faced these past 18+ years.  One example can be found in the budget at the Pentagon, on how to defeat the IED.

Billions of dollars are devoted to the strategies and tactics to keep U.S. "boots on the ground" on foreign lands from becoming KIA, an amputee or another invisible wound such as Traumatic Brain Injury or Post Traumatic Stress.

Regardless of the dollars devoted, many grave markers in Section 60 have birth dates in the 1980's and 1990's.  Standing there remembering Neil, a tear rolled down a cheek and the wind quickly blew it away...

"Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday which occurs every year on the final Monday of May.^[1] Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.^[2] Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service^[3]."

If you are currently in the military we will thank you for your courage of service on Veterans Day, as we have before.  This day however, is for those in the U.S. forces who have died while serving.

Simultaneously, we must thank all of the other "Operational Risk Management" subject matter experts.  The "Quiet Professionals" who operate everyday in the shadows.  We hope that their decisions will continue to be the right ones.  They live each day with the burden of managing risk decisions, that could send another U.S. patriot on their way to Section 60 or a remembrance "Star" on the wall at Langley.

This Memorial Day and each day after, an average of 22 veterans will take their own lives.  Here in their own home town, in their own country.

The risks that each of us take in our chosen careers and life decisions, is a mosaic of future events that can be managed.  The likelihood and impact of those risks can be assessed and decisions can be made.  What risks will be mitigated, accepted or avoided all together?

It is up to you.  These courageous decisions will determine your risk appetite and your willingness for the consequences of your choice.

On our July 4th birthday, we will all remember why we celebrate Memorial Day in the United States.

It is worth the sacrifice, the loss and the tears.  God bless our heroes and our great nation...