I read this article and instantly thought that this belonged in the building snowmobiles category.  Innovation is such an important aspect of a company’s future and welfare, and that includes our industry.  So for those in the companies looking for some inspiration on how to get there, here you go.  Enjoy. -Matt

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In Search of Innovation

JUNE 22, 2009

When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won’t get them anywhere.

By?JOHN BESSANT,?KATHRIN MöSLEIN And?BETTINA VON STAMM

If you want to understand why some companies lack innovative ideas, think about the man who can’t find his car keys.

His friend asks him why he’s looking for the keys under the lamppost when he dropped them over on the lawn. “Because there’s more light over here,” the man explains.

For too many companies, that describes their search for new ideas, and it pretty much guarantees they won’t go anywhere fast. While such a company can marginally improve what it’s already good at, it misses out on the breakthroughs—those eureka moments when a new concept pops up, as if from nowhere, and changes a company’s fortunes forever.

Those ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.

In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.

None of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that’s important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.

For the past several years, we and other researchers have participated in workshops with more than 100 companies discussing and experimenting with new ways of looking for and developing innovations. Here are nine examples of practices with the potential to produce a company’s eureka moment.

BUILD SCENARIOS

Many companies use teams of writers with diverse perspectives to create complex scenarios of what future markets may look like. The writers try to imagine detailed opportunities and threats for their companies, partners and collaborators. An oil company that wants to explore energy opportunities in cities of the future, for example, might want to work on scenarios with writers from construction, water and utility-management companies.

Industry organizations and government agencies use scenarios, too, sometimes in collaboration with companies. Bord Bia, the Irish food agency, works on scenarios with global food companies based in Ireland like Kerry Group PLC and Glanbia PLC. Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk AS has shared scenarios with the Oxford Health Alliance, a British nonprofit. Novo Nordisk thus helps the cause and broadens its own views by gaining the input of alliance members.

SPIN THE WEB

A few companies have created Web sites that act as literal marketplaces of ideas. InnoCentive.com is a site where people and companies look for help in solving scientific and business challenges. Posters of challenges sometimes offer cash rewards for solutions: Amounts have ranged from $5,000 to $1 million. The site began as an in-house tool for research scientists at Eli Lilly & Co. to help one another. Now it is independent, with Indianapolis-based Lilly as a founding shareholder.

Far and Wide

• The Situation: Companies looking for innovative ideas often limit their searches to fields they’re already familiar with.

• The Problem: That can help with incremental progress, but it seldom leads to the kinds of breakthroughs or inspirations that generate new markets and dramatic growth.

• The Solution: Companies need to look at the edge of their radar screens, and sometimes a bit beyond, to experience eureka moments. The authors describe methods that successful companies use to keep innovation strong.

By opening the site up, Lilly gets wider access to individuals and companies with ideas that may be of value. Problem solvers can be professionals, retired scientists, students or anyone who can answer a problem that has stumped a company’s own researchers. InnoCentive, based in Waltham, Mass., says the site gives solutions to about 40% of the problems posed.

Other companies use their own Web sites as open invitations for new ideas. BMW AG, for example, through what it calls its Virtual Innovation Agency, invites ideas from “small and medium-sized innovative companies” on the Web site bmwgroup.com/via.

ENLIST LEAD USERS

Ideas and insights from so-called lead users can be the starting point for new markets, products and services.

Lead users are innovators themselves. They tend to be people working in or using products in a specific market who are frustrated by the tools, goods or services currently available and yearn for something better. Many medical devices, for example, originate from sketches drawn by surgeons, surgical nurses and other medical staff who feel driven to experiment with new ideas because current products aren’t meeting their needs. They are often supportive, and tend to tolerate product failures as part of a process that helps bring about improvements. Software and other online-products companies have shown interest in lead users for perpetual beta testing and other product development.

British Broadcasting Corp. sponsors a Web site for lead users at Backstage.bbc.co.uk. Several times a year the BBC uses the site to host what it calls “hack days,” when it lets subscribers play around with source codes the BBC uses for such online applications as live news feeds, weather and TV listings. BBC staff look at what the Backstage subscribers come up with to see what can be useful. Some of this work is feeding through to applications used on the BBC Web sites and elsewhere. For example, one idea from a hack day led the BBC to link its iPlayer, a tool for watching BBC video on the Web, with Facebook.com , the social-networking site. Facebook users can set up an iPlayer window on their pages to watch BBC programming.

DEEP DIVE

Interest has surged in market research that uses detailed, firsthand observation to learn more about consumers’ needs or wants. Deep diving is one of many terms used to describe the approach, which resembles an anthropological study in the way researchers immerse themselves in the lives of the target consumers.

Such approaches can help uncover underserved or unserved markets and give clues to new directions and new frames in which to search for innovative ideas.

Novo Nordisk, for one, mobilized teams in several developing countries to research how health systems with limited resources were handling diabetes care. Researchers compiled detailed interviews and observations—documenting cases by interviewing patients and recording them on video, and spending time in hospitals, rural clinics and the health ministry. The result: a rich picture of the market, of needs that weren’t being met, and fertile suggestions for alternative products and services that might be delivered.

PROBE AND LEARN

Some companies design probe-and-learn strategies that study opportunities in segments of markets the company isn’t active or strong in. This strategy goes further than deep diving by actively experimenting with new ideas in a new context. The experiments might not always work, but they will give valuable insight about future directions of markets.

Join the Discussion

Join Kathrin Möslein and two of her colleagues for a forum on how and where to look for new ideas

BT Group PLC, the British telecommunications company, for instance, is looking at ways to help the elderly live longer at home. By 2026, about 30% of the U.K. population will be more than 60 years old. As part of its probe-and-learn exercise, BT is conducting a test service in which it places sensors in the homes of elderly customers to monitor their movement; if the sensors detect unusual activity, or none, they trigger an alarm. BT says that the service already is generating revenue, but that its greater significance is as a stepping-stone to help the company learn more about what will be a huge and very different market in the future.

MOBILIZE THE STAFF

By engaging more of its own workers in the search for innovation, a company can broaden its vision. For example, the duties of procurement, sales or finance groups can be expanded to include learning about trends they encounter that ordinarily might be considered not of primary interest to the company.

Reckitt Benckiser PLC, the U.K.-based maker of household-cleaning and personal-hygiene products, has mobilized a large number of its agents in purchasing, marketing and customer relations to be on the lookout for relevant new market trends. A small in-house team attempts to verify reported insights and to build on them. The team reports regularly to senior managers, who decide which concepts to pursue further. A company spokeswoman adds that 40% of revenue in 2007 resulted from innovations launched in the prior three years.

CATER TO ENTREPRENEURS

Innovation can bubble up inside a company as well—when the organization follows practices that favor it.

For Further Reading

See these related articles from MIT Sloan Management Review

• The Era of Open InnovationHenry W. Chesbrough (Spring 2003)Companies are increasingly rethinking the fundamental ways in which they generate ideas and bring them to market—harnessing external ideas while leveraging their in-house R&D outside their current operations.http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/4435

• How Management Innovation­ HappensJulian Birkinshaw and Michael Mol (Summer 2006)Few companies understand how such innovation occurs and how to encourage it. To foster new management ideas and tech­niques, firms first need to understand the four typical stages in the management innovation process.http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/47415

• Institutionalizing Innovation (Winter 2008)­Scott D. Anthony, Mark W. Johnson and Joseph V. SinfieldBuilding an engine that produces a steady stream of innovative growth businesses is difficult, but companies that are able to do it differentiate themselves from competitors.http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/49216

• The Great Leap: Driving Innovation From the Base of the PyramidStuart L. Hart and Clayton M. Christensen (Fall 2002)Billions of poor people aspire to join the world’s economy. Disruptive innovation can pave the way, helping companies combine sustainable corporate growth with social responsibility.http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/4415

• Integrating Innovation Style and Knowledge Into StrategyEdward F. McDonough III, Michael H. Zack, Hsing-Er Lin and Iris BerdrowIf you devise strategy by thinking only about the positioning of your company’s product or service, you are missing a huge opportunity.http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/50114

Clear policies that reserve blocks of time for scientists or engineers to explore their own ideas have worked well at some companies. At 3M Co., based in St. Paul, Minn., scientists can spend 15% of their time on projects they dream up themselves, and the company has set procedures to take bright ideas forward, including grants and venture funding. Google Inc. takes a similar approach, allowing researchers to devote 20% of their schedules to play time, pursuing their own ideas and projects. The company credits this policy with fostering many of its important product innovations, including Gmail, its popular Web-based email service.

It helps to have an established pathway to make sure the best new ideas get taken forward. In some cases, informal networking has pushed innovations to the forefront—below the radar screen of formal corporate systems. BMW, for example, has experience with what it calls “U-boat” projects, which run along below the surface of formal management approval. The Series 3 Touring car came into being not because of a formal product plan but as a consequence of efforts below the radar screen. The team responsible often worked at night, and welded together a prototype made from whatever bits they could scavenge.

START A CONVERSATION

Sometimes innovations arise when different departments talk to each other. But what’s the best way to start the conversation?

Many companies set up so-called communities of practice, which are typically internal Web sites where employees are encouraged to share knowledge and skills important to the company.

A British company, meanwhile, has taken the idea a step further. To encourage more interactions and exchanges of ideas, the U.K.-based engineering-services company Arup Group has developed something it calls a “knowledge map” depicting the company’s areas of expertise and how workers and departments are connected to one another in terms of information flows.

BREED DIVERSITY

Close, long-term relationships—depending too much on the same customers, partners or suppliers for innovation ideas—can reinforce old ways of doing things and make changing a frame of reference difficult.

Some companies seek innovation partners with whom they wouldn’t normally work, and who might bring a fresh perspective. Doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, for example, consulted with members of a pit-stop crew from Italy’s Ferrari Formula One motor-racing team to explore ways of improving how children were being moved out of heart surgery and into intensive care.

Some companies are also recruiting staff with very different perspectives to spice up their knowledge mix. The Danish enzyme maker Novozymes actively recruits experienced entrepreneurs. Such characters aren’t afraid to challenge corporate perspectives and to make waves. As one manager put it, they create a little grit to stimulate the oyster to produce pearls.

–Dr. Bessant is a professor at the Imperial College Business School in London. Dr. Möslein is a professor at the School of Business and Economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Nuremberg, Germany. Dr. von Stamm is director and catalyst at the Innovation Leadership Forum in North Wootton, England. They can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

Story here.

   We’ll see how it goes.  I think it is important to note our continuing work, which continues to be ignored by the main stream media, and that we will be impacted by the drawdown as well.  Supplies will still need to be brought in to the camps, and even more security contractors will be needed to haul equipment out along with those standard logistics runs.  And as U.S. troops are shuffled around, the civilian camp security elements will become more important to ‘buffer’ these movements. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that all the facility maintenance is highly dependent on civilian contractors, and without these folks.  These guys are really important when AC units or generators breakdown, or god forbid, any internet networks break down.

   Another area I see as an uptick in work for contractors will be the oil industry in Iraq once it gets going.  All of those employees and engineers will need protection, along with security for the major facilities.  The Iraqis will be doing most of it, but there will still be a requirement of highly professionalized teams to protect key assets and people.

   So that is my take on the whole thing, and Iraq will be a very active time for contractors during this wind down.  Not to mention if the various bad guys elements in Iraq turn up the volume in attacks on the roads and camps. It is still significant that we are handing over stuff, but I think it is prudent to apply some cautious optimism to this and realize that contractors will be working hard and dying all the way to the end. -Matt

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‘Long, Hot Summer’ Ahead For U.S. Troops In Iraq

Nabil al-Jurani

July 2, 2009

Iraqis are celebrating the exit of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities. Journalist Tom Ricks says he doesn’t think life in Iraq will be that different for the American military. AP

Iraqis celebrated this week’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities as a national holiday. Still, roughly 130,000 U.S. troops remain in the country.

Tom Ricks, who has written two books on the war, told NPR’s David Greene that he doesn’t think that life in Iraq will be that different for the American military.

“American troops are going to continue to fight in Iraq,” he said. “They’re going to continue to die in Iraq.”

In fact, he thinks there will be “some real fighting” this summer in the belts outside the cities where the troops will be based.

“This is not the first time the Americans have tried to transfer security responsibility to Iraqi forces. They’ve tried it several times. It has not worked several times,” Ricks reminded Greene.

“The question now is, are Iraqi forces up to the job? And the answer is: Nobody knows.”

And, Ricks says, President Obama “has broken more campaign promises on Iraq than in any other area.” He’s keeping troop levels the same and is looking at getting the troops out rather slowly.

Ricks also calls Obama’s promise to get the combat troops out “a meaningless phrase. … There are no noncombat troops in the U.S. military. There is no pacifist wing of the military.”

He says troop levels will need to remain the same through Iraqi elections next January, then the administration plans to draw them down by about 10,000 troops a month starting in March.

“That means next summer is going to be a point of maximum vulnerability,” he says. “Because you take the troops out in the beginning from the easy places, but the deeper you get, the more you have to take them out of the riskier places — or the places where the Iraqi troops are less reliable.

“So actually I think this summer will be a long, hot summer in Iraq, but 2010 will be even more difficult.”

Listen to Podcast here.

   You know, I give Doug and the IPOA a lot of credit for the hard work they have done to get this industry on the right foot.  I certainly hope congress is listening, because if they can provide the teeth to a set of standards, then things like the Code of Conduct that the IPOA has been promoting all these years could be something that could be respected.

   I have also noticed all the companies that have signed on with the ISO 9000 stuff in recent years.  That is great that they are getting that kind of certification, but I always look to the results of such things.  What really matters in all of this, is customer satisfaction and service.  That and taking care of your people–which I think is vital if you want your customers satisfied. (pissed off employees and contractors tend to pay it forward on to the customer in lots of poisonous ways) Together with happy employees and happy customers, and an application of Kaizen to your company, and the contracts will continue to come in.

   And going back to standards, the more we can level the playing field and insure all the companies are operating out of the same rule book, the more professionalized and honorable this industry will become.  Just as long as there is an agreement to those standards, and there is adequate enforcement of those standards.  It can happen, and we will get there. -Matt

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Security Firms Lobby for Tougher Rules

July 1, 2009

August Cole reports on the Defense Department.

Officials at U.S. private security firms are hoping lawmakers can help tighten rules governing their industry, which boomed during the Bush administration and is now under intense scrutiny in Washington.

The industry association representing companies such as Triple Canopy Inc., which took over from Blackwater Worldwide protecting diplomats in Baghdad, has just helped introduce legislation in Congress to set up a third-party certification system. Industry proponents say the bill would help the U.S. government weed out problem firms while keeping too-tight rules at bay.

The House Armed Services Committee in its version of the 2010 Defense Department budget wants the Office of the Secretary of Defense to report on the feasibility, potential effectiveness and cost of such measures.

“Such a certification could attest that a contractor possesses and utilizes approved hiring, screening, training, and reporting practices, in addition to compliance with tax law, ethics, and auditing programs,” the committee wrote.

This legislation comes at a critical time for the industry’s growth and its political profile. As Iraq work tapers off, Afghanistan contracting is expected to grow as U.S. troops stream in. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is shaking up Pentagon contracting and a congressionally backed Commission on Wartime Contracting is on the hunt.

“Congress would put a lot of impetus into hammering out effective standards,” said Doug Brooks, the president and founder of the Washington-based International Peace Operations Association, whose more than 60 members are supposed to adhere to the organization’s own code of conduct. In the past, the IPOA was not focused on lobbying Congress, but now the group is making a concerted push.

By creating a set of certifiable standards with input from the Defense Department, as well as outside groups, the IPOA hopes the industry can stake out an enduring place in the U.S. government’s military and diplomatic operations abroad.

“You can take away a lot of the myths and misperceptions because you can point to standards and say a company has been audited, and they to adhere to them,” said Mark DeWitt, senior director of government affairs at Triple Canopy.

Story here.

   Lots of positions and it will be interesting to hear any other details on this.  The funny part about this, like most UN security job offerings, is the total lack of any specifics when it comes to weapon stuff.  Maybe they plan on giving each officer a revolver and three bullets? lol  All kidding aside, I would love to hear any UN folks talk a little more about these job offerings. -Matt

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Vacancy Details

Vacancy Code  UNOPS/IQOC/09/027

Post Title  Protection Officer – Personal Security Detail

Post Level  P3 (ICS 10)*

Duty Station  Baghdad, Iraq (2 positions)

Basrah, Iraq (1 position)

Kirkuk , Iraq (1 position)

Mosul , Iraq (1 position)

Najaf   , Iraq (1 position)

Duration  12 months  with possibility of extension subject to fund availability

Closing Date  2  July 2009

Link to Brochure Here.

Mr. French, the reconstruction team leader, said, “Everyone’s feeling squirrelly now because we’re in a transition phase, where the perception was that the release of the Bucca detainees and the withdrawal of the Marines would make things worse.”

“My inclination is to say, yes, the security is worse,” he said. “Are there really any more incidents? I don’t think so.” Although the American team has not reduced its activities in the Falluja area, he said, “we keep a low profile.”

     There are three things in this story to focus on.  The troop withdrawals, the release of prisoners, and the threat towards contractors that are involved with reconstruction.   All of those  planets are in alignment for Iraq to be an active place.  The insurgency will definitely try and test the Iraqi government and it’s forces with all sorts of attacks.  And given the latest suicide and IED attacks, this is already starting.

   There is one more factor to keep in mind, and that is the stuff going on in Iran right now.  I could see Iran upping the tempo of operations in Iraq, to try and take the attention off of what’s going on in their country.  That, and attacks might be used as leverage to somehow influence US actions.  The rhetoric might go like this–stay out of our business in Iran, and we won’t turn on the switch in Iraq for violence.  It’s just a guess, but you never know the geopolitical underpinnings of what could be going on right now over there.  Either way, it is just one more factor that could contribute to possible instability in Iraq.

   So with that said, the remaining security forces, meaning security contractors and military, will definitely be working hard in a rapidly evolving environment.  Keep your head on a swivel guys and gals. -Matt

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June 24, 2009

Rumblings in Falluja Threaten to Disrupt Script for U.S. Withdrawal

By ROD NORDLAND

FALLUJA, Iraq — Falluja was supposed to be a success story, not a cautionary tale.

After all, by last year the city, a former insurgent stronghold, was considered one of the safest places in the country. Local Sunni sheiks had driven out the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and held successful elections, and American engineers were hard at work on a showcase reconstruction project: a $100 million wastewater treatment plant meant to be a model for civilian advances in Iraq.

Read the rest of this entry »

BA-K-47

April 12, 2009(from the creator of the BA-K-47)

We had our first annual Bacon Day this past Saturday. As a huge fan of bacon, and all the great bacon blogs out there, I decided it was time for me to make my own bacon creation. I came up with the BA-K-47, a 1:1 scale AK-47 made out of bacon. It took a total of eight hours to create, a lot of bacon, and a blowtorch… oh yeah, and our good friend beer helped too.

Blog Here. 

Hyponatremia (British: hyponatraemia) is an electrolyte disturbance (disturbance of the salts in the blood) in which the sodium (Natrium in Latin) concentration in the plasma is lower than normal (hypo in Greek; in this case, below 135 mmol/L).

Severe or rapidly progressing hyponatremia can result in swelling of the brain (cerebral edema), and the symptoms of hyponatremia are mainly neurological. Hyponatremia is most often a complication of other medical illnesses in which either fluids rich in sodium are lost (for example because of diarrhea or vomiting), or excess water accumulates in the body at a higher rate than it can be excreted (for example in polydipsia or syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone, SIADH). There may also be spurious hyponatremia (pseudohyponatremia or factitious hyponatremia) if other substances expand the serum and dilute the sodium (for example, high blood levels of fats in hypertriglyceridemia or high blood sugar in hyperglycemia).

The diagnosis of hyponatremia relies mainly on the medical history, clinical examination and blood and urine tests. Treatment can be directed at the cause (for example, corticosteroids in Addison’s disease) or involve restriction of water intake, intravenous saline or drugs like diuretics, demeclocycline, urea or vaptans (antidiuretic hormone receptor antagonists). Correcting the salt and fluid balance needs to occur in a controlled fashion, as too rapid correction can lead to severe complications such as heart failure or central pontine myelinolysis. 

*****

     For the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of research on Hyponatremia and the various products which are sold to put electrolytes back in the body. (Gatoraid, CeraSport, Ceralite, Meta-Lite, etc.)  They all have their ups and downs, and for simplicity, Cera Sport/Ceralite seems to be the best. The problem is they taste horrible.  You can choke them down, but then you want to lick the carpet to get the taste off your tounge.

     The benefits of this stuff is that it puts water back in your system along with some essential minerals. Plus it is hard to overdose on it.

     Gatoraid is still good, but not as good as Cera Sport products–but it taste a lot better.

     Now for the disciplined individual who is experienced at reading ones own body (like professional athletes) then this product from SaltStick seems to be the heat. The down side is if you take too much salt you can get salt poisoning. that is why you need to have been an athlete for many years so that you will know what your body needs before injesting a pill. However for those that do, these pills are a godsend. Plus it comes with a dispensing tube which is water resistant and rattle noise free.

Cera Sport Products Website here.

SaltStick Website here.

Review of SaltStick at Zombierunner.

     For personal experience, I used to be an ultramarathoner running mainly in hot humid tropical environments. I have used everything under the sun to stay fueled, hydrated & salted up.  The best I ever got was to use a bag of crushed chips (Lays brand..lots of  salt) & pizza worked pretty good. Though I wish I had access to these pills back in the day, because I could have done a hell of a lot more.

     Salt is the media your body uses to transfer water into the body. If you are short salt, you can drink all the water in the world and still be dehydrated. This is because your body can not absorb water without salt.

     Here are some other reviews, and I really like how the first guy explains things. The first three links are general anatomy and physiology reports. The last is a recent discussion on the Lightfighter medical board about hydration. I frequently find good medical stuff there. This one is definitely a good read.

Thread on Lightfighter.

     Here are a few more links on hydration. The lightfighter medical guys are squared away. have lots of good things to say. I think the information is good for posting, however I also feel that certain things must be concentrated on. The salt pills are great..but only if you know your body.  This comes from experience of listening to your body that only pro athletes get.

Video Lecture on physiology.

Medical Geek video lecture.

More video lectures here.

     If one has doubts then Cera Sport is the way to go. Since it is summertime again, I thought your readers might find this information to be useful. -Doug

Disclaimer: Please consult your doctor or medic about a personal hydration plan, and do your own research in regards to any kind of salt intake or electrolyte intake program.

“If they had a rule book and they followed it, you’d think they’d be very happy to tell you about it,” Harris said.

The Defence Department directed questions to the Foreign Affairs Department, which answered with an email late Tuesday afternoon.

The accord “is fully consistent with current Canadian policy and practice related to the use of private military and security companies,” said the note from Alain Cacchione. 

   Finally, some talk about the Montreaux Document. The big one here goes back to regulation and quality control.  You can sign all the documents in the world, but unless there is enforcement of those rules, companies are going to do whatever they want.  If Canada was to take a hint at the US lackluster performance, they would hire enough government or military contracting officers (CORs) to actually manage these contracts.  Give the CORs a strong leader and some teeth to deal with the delinquent companies, and get to work.

    As for managing these local companies, you tell them if they cannot abide by the contract, then it is a default on contract and the thing is null and void.  Then put the word out that because company X could not perform to the standards of the contract, they were dropped or massively fined.  Companies will catch on real quick about what contract compliance means. Where companies get away with murder, is when no one is watching or even cares.  That is why it is so important to have enough people to watch these companies and actually keep these groups honest.

   The other one that kills me is when governments make excuses on why they cannot manage these companies.  There is no viable excuse.  You write a comprehensive contract that both the company and yourself understands and agrees too, and then you provide the necessary resources to manage that contract. Make it a priority, and hire the necessary folks to manage this stuff.

    And management does not mean quality control from the comforts of your office in Kabul or Washington DC.  Management means actually getting out in the field, and checking up on these guys.  If the companies know your watching and care, they will comply.  And in the tradition of Sun Tzu, if you make an example of the first company that decides to mock the contract…. drop those fools.

     Better yet, if you can write into the contract some kind of fines system, that would be better. I am not talking about a few thousand dollars, I am talking about tens of thousands of dollars or even millions–make it painful.  Money is what drives these companies, and money should be the first tool of choice used to punish or even reward the company.  If the company refuses to pay the fine, drop them and take them to court if you want.  There are plenty of options of controlling and disciplining these companies, and it all starts with a well written contract along with enforcement of these contracts. All of this should be commonsense, yet every story I read about this stuff tells me that no one has any sense at all in the upper ranks of this machine.  Wake up.

   The other point I want to stress for the Canadians is that if you are serious about COIN, then it behooves you to get your hired guns under control.  That your regional strategy could be hindered or even destroyed, because you failed to properly manage your contractors in that region.  You have to remember, these companies are your asset, and essentially a representative of you.  If they kill some civilians in a village, and the the village knows the company was working for you, who do you think the villagers are going to blame?  Who do you think the Taliban are going to blame in that scenario? Wake up.

     Man this pisses me off.  Both the US and Canada, along with the rest of the Coalition in this war, have done Jack Squat about managing the close to a quarter million contractors in their AO’s.  If you want your COIN strategy to succeed, you are going to have to actually first acknowledge our existence, and second, tell us what your plan is so we don’t mess things up.  It’s ok to tell us what to do…. you’re the one paying for our service….really, it’s ok.  To me, this is like playing a football game, and half the team is not included in the huddle. -Matt

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Canada agrees to stricter controls on Afghan hired guns

Jun 16, 2009

By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Canada quietly signed an international agreement on regulating private security companies in war-zones just weeks after a Canadian soldier was allegedly shot by a contractor during a confused firefight in Afghanistan last summer.

But it’s unclear what the government is doing to keep the hired guns on its payroll in check.

Canada was one of 17 countries to agree last fall to the Montreaux Document, which lays out responsibilities for the use of hired guns under international law.

Read the rest of this entry »

   Cool program and glad to see it having an impact.  I have never heard of such a thing, and this is certainly some out of the box thinking on the part of the Marines. Maybe the companies out there should work to hire a few female security contractors in order to have this kind of capability out there?  Especially if you could get a few of these Lioness veterans. Semper Fi. -Matt

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Lionesses work to improve community in local Iraq city

6/12/2009

By Byline Lance Cpl. Melissa A. Latty  ,

Unit 2nd Marine Logistics Group

CAMP KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq  —

Female Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 7, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), have been participating in civil affairs missions with the Civil Affairs Group 10, 2nd Marine Division for approximately three months in various cities surrounding Camp Korean Village, Iraq.

The women are part of an all-female team called Lioness that was first formed several years ago to implement culturally-sensitive methods of searching Iraqi women to deter the enemy’s use of females to conduct terrorist attacks.

However, Lionesses aren’t just female searchers. In fact, they now do little to no searching at all.

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