How do you wrestle an unwieldy, 700 billion dollar behemoth into submission?
That was the challenge facing Ash Carter as Secretary of Defense. The five-time recipient of the DOD Distinguished Public Service Medal, and CJCS Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award was familiar with the intelligence and defense establishments. He brought a practical approach honed through decades of service at the Pentagon (Carter has worked with every U.S. President from Reagan to Obama).
He is author of 11 books on military strategy, most recently, Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon.
His unique background in Theoretical Physics + Medieval History helped him understand how to maneuver through the labyrinth system of the Pentagon bureaucracy. He created processes to improve the purchasing-system efficiency, including incentives and penalties for major weapons manufacturers. He also brought in talent from Silicon Valley into the Pentagon to beef up its technological capabilities.
Carter describes what he was doing on 9/11, and his subsequent role in coordinating US Intelligence and why he opposed creating a separate bureaucracy of Homeland Security, and preferred instead a coordinated Intelligence, Defense and Law Enforcement standing joint operation.
His books can be seen here; A transcript of our conversation will be available here.
You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on Apple iTunes, Overcast, Spotify, Google, Bloomberg, and Stitcher. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. (ATIKA?)
Next week, we speak with Ilana Weinstein, founder and CEO of The IDW Group, a leading consulting & hiring boutique for hedge funds, private equity and family offices in search of top investment talent.
