By Kris Osborn, President – Center for Military Modernization
Partial Transcript Below:
Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven President
Hello, and welcome to the Center for Military Modernization, Warrior Maven. I’m Kris Osborn, very significant opportunity today to talk to a leader and a combat veteran. We are joined by Mr. Mike Mears. He is the former director of HR for the CIA, very senior member of the intelligence community, as well as a combat veteran.
He served in Vietnam, and he’s very familiar with Army and combat tactics as well. We’re here to talk about innovation. So first, I want to thank you for your time and welcome you, sir.
Mike Mears, former Director of Human Capital, CIA
Well, thank you, Kris. It’s a delight to be here.
Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven President
Thank you so much. One of the things we hear about a lot is, is China is threatening Taiwan, Russia is of course invading Ukraine. Both Russia and China have demonstrated hypersonic weapons, in some cases, anti satellite weapons. There’s naturally a lot of concern and a long standing effort to increase innovation, increased s&t, basic research science and technology. What is your quick assessment, given your expertise with leadership and innovation, about the importance of innovating to keep pace with or ideally stay in front of near peer threats?
Mike Mears, former Director of Human Capital, CIA
Well, Kris, I lived in the old Soviet Union for three years back in the Gorbachev era and saw the shortfalls of what I lead a centralized thinking, planning and innovation does. It’s just it’s a catastrophe. So So where I come out on this is I think that the just like in corporate America, the the company or the country that that harnesses the most brainpower, and I’m not talking about the 10 people at the top, I’m talking about the the employee base is going to be the one that comes out ahead. The Russians have a lot of trouble with that. The Chinese do it better. But I think I think we really got to push and look at new ways to lead and manage people to get a leg up against these guys.
Be sure to watch the full video for insights
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and the Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
