{"id":1035,"date":"2026-02-13T08:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2026-03-21T09:28:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:28:37","slug":"addressing-the-innovation-adoption-problem-in-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=1035","title":{"rendered":"Addressing the Innovation Adoption Problem in Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
Q&A by Adrian Holt – former RAF officer, founding member of Strategic Command’s jHub Innovation Unit and now currently at Capita consulting – to talk all things UK defence innovation and how we might address the ‘adoption problem’.<\/em><\/h5>\n

The next SDSR is scheduled to be published this year. What would you like to see prioritized? What have been the biggest changes in UK Defence since the last 2015 publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Priority must go to accelerating the rate of adoption of new tech from traditional and non-traditional suppliers, mil-tech and dual-use tech. \u00a0Defence and Security needs to be able to access the whole panoply of opportunity that is open to it quickly.<\/p>\n

Over the last five years Defence has proved that it can find and access new technology, but it has had less success in adopting it at scale and pace.\u00a0 Therefore, SDSR should not prioritise any particular tech over any other; things are moving too fast and the chance of backing the right horse is slim. Instead, it must invest in capability agility i.e. the ability to rapidly identify, adopt and exploit new technologies before our opponents.\u00a0 That will require institutional change before we buy any shiny kit.\u00a0 Enabling coherence, collaboration and efficiency will be key to achieving it.<\/p>\n

I ask everyone the same question in discussions about innovation in Defence, and I\u2019m going to do the same now. What are the biggest challenges to innovation, and how do we get over them? I\u2019m going to ask that you avoid the most common response \u2013 culture \u2013 and give me a different answer!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly, set the incentives you need to get the behaviours that you want.<\/p>\n

To elaborate, I\u2019m not sure \u2018culture\u2019 is really the problem.\u00a0 In my experience, most people are up for change and innovation and many try hard to drive it. What your respondents may be referring to is actually \u2018observed behaviours\u2019 which are wrongly assumed to be culturally driven. It\u2019s what drives and incentivizes these behaviours that we need to get to the bottom of, and that takes us to law, policy, concepts and doctrine, contractual obligations (although you could argue that these are all driven by an underlying culture).<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t change most of that overnight, but what you can change overnight are the incentives that gave us this system with a new set of incentives that drive these things to change over time. Sir Richard Barons asked me, at the first Defence iQ Disruptive Tech for Defence Conference that I spoke at, \u201cSo what should we do to enable innovation at scale in Defence?\u201d I had about 30s seconds to answer, and what sprang to mind was the disparity between the Amazon and Defence incentives.<\/p>\n

In Defence we are taught that policy and process are roughly correct and that you will be rewarded for adhering to them, perhaps improving them slowly over time, as long as you follow the correct procedure i.e. the assumption is that \u201cwe are roughly correct.\u201d\u00a0 Amazon start from a very different assumption: \u201cWe are not good enough and you will be rewarded for helping us do better.\u201d\u00a0 These mind-sets drive very different behaviours; the former, stagnation, and the latter, growth.\u00a0 Safi Bachall writes very well on the topic of setting incentives for innovation in Loonshots where he makes the case for C Suite level Incentive Officers for this very reason.<\/p>\n

Another aspect is psychological safety, but that\u2019s a cultural issue for sure so I\u2019m not allowed to mention it, but if I was I\u2019d recommend that Amy Edmondson\u2019s \u2018The Fearless Organisation\u2019, be made compulsory reading for anyone given a leadership position in Defence.<\/p>\n

Now you\u2019ve transitioned out of the military and work as a consultant for Capita. What\u2019s surprised or pleased you the most, in terms of the way that business approaches innovation and strategy, versus Defence?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly it\u2019d like to say that there are ink spots of world class innovation brilliance in Defence. However, what has been really great to find is the way the presence of a bottom line drives evidence-driven decision making and incentivises validation of assumptions and opportunities. That rigour and discipline has enabled us to adopt new technology capabilities at an incredible pace. Patrick Gormley, head of Capita Consulting says, \u201cdisrupt or die; standing still is not an option\u201d and the company is living by that mantra. Again, its\u2019s about incentives.\u00a0 We have an imperative to do things differently and it\u2019s driving rapid, positive change.<\/p>\n

There are concerns that the defence innovation ecosystem is itself becoming too complex, with too many organisations or \u2018hubs\u2019 and disparate strategies emerging from the MOD, Army, Air Force, and Joint Staff. From your perspective, do you think there\u2019s enough collaboration and alignment of common goals in UK Defence today? How can we ensure that we\u2019re not overcomplicating the process for SMEs and start-ups moving forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It could be argued that it is too complex and incoherent and the problem is likely expanding but these issues need to be addressed sensitively and without stifling any of the great work that is being done or the enthusiasm that drives it. Central control is not the answer. Initially, my assumption is that the application of standards and best practice would help and that the DIU could step into that policy role.<\/p>\n

Secondly, there needs to be visibility\/coordination of funding and priorities of some sort. This isn\u2019t just bean counting, this is also to enable efficiency, collaboration on common projects and the avoidance of overlap, which remains a problem. This is a role probably best suited to Strategic Command.<\/p>\n

Starting small, I\u2019d like to see them begin by producing nothing more complex or expensive than a comprehensive innovation portfolio.\u00a0 The assumption, to be tested, is that pan Service\/TLB visibility of what is going on would illuminate the situation and enable people to focus on emerging priorities and proactively select next steps. (For clarity, I\u2019m talking about priorities for improving and enabling the innovation ecosystem here, not specific innovation project priorities which a portfolio would, of course, provide.)<\/p>\n

Defence and Government need a better, end to end process to enable start-ups to navigate MOD procurement without being overburdened by them. Start-ups simply don\u2019t have the resources to cope with the traditional system or navigate its current complexity. I believe that big business has a part to play here. Commercial rules mean there is only so much that can be done from within a government entity, and as such we need a comprehensive, collaborative approach that works to the benefit of all stakeholders if we are really going to bring the massive talent that is available in start-up-land to bear for Defence and Security.<\/p>\n

Looking outside of the UK, what opportunities for collaboration in digital technology development are taking place, or should take place, with our partners and allies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defence and the industrial base works pretty well with the U.S. on many fronts, most recently in the establishment of the UK Defence Digital Services, a smaller version of the legendary outfit set up by Chris Lynch in the U.S. However, I\u2019m not sure we exploit our European relationships as well as we should beyond the capital project, e.g. Eurofighter, A400M etc. The relationship Israel has created between start-ups, accelerators, the primes and government is inspirational; the UK has much to learn from them.<\/p>\n

But, the simple response is that the answer is almost never in the room; the more you collaborate, the more you learn and the better you get.\u00a0 We also need to think broader than the Defence and Security industries too. Covid-19 has shown that Defence, National Security and public safety must be considered together and the blurring of the lines between mil-tech and civ-tech is increasing.\u00a0 We have to build relationships across traditional industry boundaries to exploit that.<\/p>\n

Finally, could you share some insight into Capita\u2019s innovation strategy? What are your priorities and how are you looking to support Defence innovation in your new role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Priorities are focussed on helping clients recover from the current crisis and build a new, better normal by deriving benefits from existing and emerging technology trends.\u00a0 In this context, Capita seeks to deliver innovative solutions to simplify the connections between businesses and customers, governments and users and to institutionalise innovation as a means for better business and social good.<\/p>\n

As for what I want to achieve at Capita, it\u2019s essentially the same as what I wanted to achieve when I was a serving RAF officer.\u00a0 I want to add value and help the UK keep\/stay\/get ahead of our adversaries by ensuring that the Defence and Security services can access and adopt world-class technology at pace and scale.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to build new relationships between all stakeholders in the Defence, security and national safety community – relationships that play to individual strengths and mitigate their risks i.e. a symbiotic relationship that works to the benefit of all.\u00a0 Early days but, there is a Chinese proverb that says\u00a0\u2018The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q&A by Adrian Holt – former RAF officer, founding member of Strategic Command’s jHub Innovation Unit and now currently at Capita consulting – to talk all things UK defence innovation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[94,312],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinions","tag-defense","tag-innovation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DEFENSE-INNOVATION-.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}