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Want A Successful Project? 3 Things You Can Learn from Public/Private Partnerships

The Internet was invented in a government laboratory, but it was the corporate vision that had it commercialized and institutionalized. It’s a great example of how the public and private sectors can work as partners in innovation, and advance a new era of social and technological change.

The best part: Both sides win.

These types of partnerships can fail as spectacularly as they succeed. But to make a partnership successful and work faster, smarter and better, a few things have to happen. These can also be applied outside of the public/private space.

Collaborate
Stakeholders will simplify operations if they share information. Administrative complexity and technological redundancy can be your biggest bugaboos. For example, when government and private stakeholders share information – and risk – the resulting innovation can benefit key areas that include homeland/national security, health and human services, energy, public safety and transportation.

Share Best Practices
Don’t reinvent the wheel. For public/private projects, private sector companies offer a playbook for successful innovation through lessons-learned and best practices. They can balance costs and benefits — a skill learned from the necessity of competitive markets where budgets are connected to solutions. Government agencies can tap this experience to identify products, evaluate gaps in technology or design flexible solutions that promote positive change.

Tap Into Existing R&D Resources
The sequestration and budget constraints have undermined the federal government’s research and development capabilities. Funding for R&D has shifted to rapid prototyping and procurement of “off the shelf” technologies and services. However, R&D spending in the private sector continues to move apace, because corporations must develop new technologies in order to be competitive.

Companies can help make up the government shortfalls by sharing their R&D capabilities. Combining funding and pipelines for research in the public and private sectors can also provide a sustainable, competitive bridge for the next generation of scientists and engineers who will lead and achieve.

Strengthening the public/private partnership through open collaboration, best practices, and shared research and development will help accelerate the innovation we need to meet our challenges. It’s not a nice-to-have: It’s an imperative if you want to be competitive in the U.S. and abroad.

This article originally appeared August 12, 2013 on Forbes.com.


 

Chuck Brooks
Chuck Brookshttps://www.brooksci.com/
Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and evangelist for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn”. He was named by Thompson Reuters as a “Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance,” and by IFSEC as the “#2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer” in 2018. He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, and a Contributor to FORBES. In government, Chuck has received two senior Presidential appointments. Under President George W. Bush Chuck was appointed to The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the first Legislative Director of The Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. He also was appointed as Special Assistant to the Director of Voice of America under President Reagan. He served as a top Advisor to the late Senator Arlen Specter on Capitol Hill covering security and technology issues on Capitol Hill. In local government, he also worked as an Auxiliary Police officer for Arlington, Virginia. In industry, Chuck has served in senior executive roles for General Dynamics as the Principal Market Growth Strategist for Cyber Systems, at Xerox as Vice President & Client Executive for Homeland Security, for Rapiscan and Vice President of R & D, for SRA as Vice President of Government Relations, and for Sutherland as Vice President of Marketing and Government Relations. In academia, Chuck is Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Applied Intelligence Program and graduate Cybersecurity Programs where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity. He was an Adjunct Faculty Member at Johns Hopkins University where he taught a graduate course on homeland security for two years. He has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago, a BA in Political Science from DePauw University, and a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.

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