4 ms·

The organization of the US military really should be mission-based rather than some weird afoot-afloat-aloft separation. There's no particular reason why air s

The organization of the US military really should be mission-based rather than some weird afoot-afloat-aloft separation. There's no particular reason why air superiority fighters, long range bombers, aerial refueling tankers, and airdrop cargo haulers should all be under the same command just because they all fly. Clearly, two of those are for logistics, and two are for force projection. I suspect that the existence of the military academies don't help in that respect.

nostrademons 9y ago
Interesting how this mirrors the debate in many corporations between functional organization (eng/sales/UX/marketing/accounting/HR) vs. product organization (Search/Ads/Chrome/Android/GMail/etc.) The military is organized functionally. Recently, basically every major company other than Apple has found that product organization yields better results, because each individual product can better respond to competitive threats in their market. Makes me wonder if the U.S. military is the next big institution to be "disrupted" by thousands of tiny startups, we just don't realize it because fortunately, everyone would rather have peace.
- patrickyeon 9y ago
  > Recently, basically every major company other than Apple has found that product organization yields better results, because each individual product can better respond to competitive threats in their market. Do you have a source for that? Not because I'm challenging you, but because I'd like to read more on it.
  - relevant_thing 9y ago
    https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/ https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroad...
  - nostrademons 9y ago
    Initially inspired by this Stratechery post (which also has a bunch of historical references): https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/ https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroad... Also by personal experience at Google, which reorganized from functional lines to product lines when Larry took over as CEO in 2011. There've also been a bunch of other articles about this. Selected reading material: https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/functional-versus-unit-organizations-6b82bfbaa57 https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/functional-versus-unit... http://thetechnalyzer.com/apples-functional-organization/ http://thetechnalyzer.com/apples-functional-organization/ https://hbr.org/1968/11/organizational-choice-product-vs-function https://hbr.org/1968/11/organizational-choice-product-vs-fun... https://a16z.com/2010/08/02/taking-the-mystery-out-of-scaling-a-company/ https://a16z.com/2010/08/02/taking-the-mystery-out-of-scalin... I'm perhaps overselling product organization as having "won" - the choice remains controversial, and the a16z article even explicitly says that it's basically a "pick your poison" situation where whichever choice you make will have drawbacks. But the general principle remains that product organization leads to more nimble products, while functional organization leads to more efficient functions. Perhaps the military's functional organization is a function (no pun intended) of it being peacetime, and the primary goal of Congress being to control costs.
- ankushnarula 9y ago
  Regina Dugan ran DARPA like a startup - or at least like an innovation incubator: https://www.fastcompany.com/1784731/regina-dugans-innovative-strategy-darpa https://www.fastcompany.com/1784731/regina-dugans-innovative... JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) is a cross-functional mission-driven organization: https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/deloitte-review/issue-19/general-stanley-mcchrystal-interview-innovation-in-leadership.html https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/deloitte-review/issue...

nostrademons 9y ago

Interesting how this mirrors the debate in many corporations between functional organization (eng/sales/UX/marketing/accounting/HR) vs. product organization (Search/Ads/Chrome/Android/GMail/etc.) The military is organized functionally. Recently, basically every major company other than Apple has found that product organization yields better results, because each individual product can better respond to competitive threats in their market. Makes me wonder if the U.S. military is the next big institution to be "disrupted" by thousands of tiny startups, we just don't realize it because fortunately, everyone would rather have peace.

patrickyeon 9y ago
> Recently, basically every major company other than Apple has found that product organization yields better results, because each individual product can better respond to competitive threats in their market. Do you have a source for that? Not because I'm challenging you, but because I'd like to read more on it.
- relevant_thing 9y ago
  https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/ https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroad...
- nostrademons 9y ago
  Initially inspired by this Stratechery post (which also has a bunch of historical references): https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/ https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroad... Also by personal experience at Google, which reorganized from functional lines to product lines when Larry took over as CEO in 2011. There've also been a bunch of other articles about this. Selected reading material: https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/functional-versus-unit-organizations-6b82bfbaa57 https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/functional-versus-unit... http://thetechnalyzer.com/apples-functional-organization/ http://thetechnalyzer.com/apples-functional-organization/ https://hbr.org/1968/11/organizational-choice-product-vs-function https://hbr.org/1968/11/organizational-choice-product-vs-fun... https://a16z.com/2010/08/02/taking-the-mystery-out-of-scaling-a-company/ https://a16z.com/2010/08/02/taking-the-mystery-out-of-scalin... I'm perhaps overselling product organization as having "won" - the choice remains controversial, and the a16z article even explicitly says that it's basically a "pick your poison" situation where whichever choice you make will have drawbacks. But the general principle remains that product organization leads to more nimble products, while functional organization leads to more efficient functions. Perhaps the military's functional organization is a function (no pun intended) of it being peacetime, and the primary goal of Congress being to control costs.
ankushnarula 9y ago
Regina Dugan ran DARPA like a startup - or at least like an innovation incubator: https://www.fastcompany.com/1784731/regina-dugans-innovative-strategy-darpa https://www.fastcompany.com/1784731/regina-dugans-innovative... JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) is a cross-functional mission-driven organization: https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/deloitte-review/issue-19/general-stanley-mcchrystal-interview-innovation-in-leadership.html https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/deloitte-review/issue...