Featured Analysis
OODAcast: Blake Bartlett, CEO of Janes, On Leadership and Decision Making In The Modern Age
Blake Bartlett is the CEO of Janes, the well known and trusted provider of open source defense intelligence. In this OODAcast we examine lessons learned from Blake’s career and path from a young student with a desire for a career in sports to success in the domain of sales. Blakes walks us through some key moments in his leadership at Janes including the point that kicked off a transformation to ensure their data and information is not only trusted and relevant but is more available, accessible and consumable by customers and is delivered the way organizations need it to fuel their decision-making.
The OODA Almanac – 2021 Edition
As a logger and holstein farmer, my grandfather was heavily dependent on the weather for his livelihood. Each year, he purchased a copy of the Old Farmer’s Almanac and it was kept in an easily accessible reading spot for reference. Taken on a day by day basis, the Farmer’s Almanac was not the greatest of guides, but if you took it on a month-by-month basis it claims about an 80% accuracy, which was more than enough to guide generalized decisions about logging and farming environments in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
The OODA Almanac proposes to identify those topics and patterns we see having significance in 2021 to guide your short and long-term decision making. Over the course of 2021, we will continue to inject additional observations on these topics into our analysis or as stand-alone tidbits of observed intelligence (OODINT).
OODAcast: Michele Wucker on Identifying and Confronting the Obvious Risks of Gray Rhinos
Michele Wucker is specialist in risk management and crisis anticipation and is author of the book “The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore”. While we’ve all become familiar with Taleb’s concept of Black Swans, we must equally become intimately aquatinted with Wucker’s Gray Rhinos as they provide more obvious opportunities for actually anticipating and managing risk.
During this interview, Michele takes us through the concept of Gray Rhinos with real-world historical examples, discussion of future Gray Rhinos, and strategies for engaging in real actions to identify, respond to, and mitigate future Gray Rhinos in business, society, and global affairs. The concept of a Gray Rhino is hugely important and has become embedded in how we evaluate risks at OODA with our customers.
Blueprint for a Blue Ocean
In January 2021, the Department of Navy released their Strategic Blueprint for a Blue Arctic. The document outlines their plan to prepare for an increasingly available and navigable Arctic Region. Signed by the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretary of the Navy and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, it looks forward twenty years and envisions the requirements to protect American interests in the Arctic.
Maritime Reconnaissance – Manned and Unmanned Teaming
The Navy is keenly interested in what is over the horizon or under the surface of the ocean. Maritime Patrol Reconnaissance Aircraft (MPRA) have filled a critical role since the 1960’s. Through sonobouys and onboard sensors, these aircraft sweep the ocean (above and below) to find the enemy. To do this well, the Navy uses aircraft that have long endurance, and stuff them full of sensors and sonobouys that can collect information. The intelligence that is gleaned is directly fed into the National Intelligence Community. It’s a critical piece of the operational picture and situational awareness the warfighter depends on.
