Zachary Huitink is the first ever Syracuse University doctoral student to receive funding from the IBM Center for the Business of Government, and one of the only doctoral students ever to receive this honor.

The IBM Center for the Business of Government issued a report co-written by David Van Slyke, associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Huitink, a doctoral student in public administration and international affairs, titled “Beyond Business as Usual: Improving Defense Acquisition through Better Buying Power” on Nov. 10.

The report focuses on how the United States Department of Defense spends its money, the significance of its expenditures and how this has changed over the past few years, especially with the introduction of Better Buying Power, the department’s latest effort to improve the efficiency of its acquisition and contracting practices, Huitink said.

Huitink added that the initiative focuses on how the military and defense departments do what they need to do in terms of protecting national security, while at the same time making sure that the U.S. is getting the best deal it can get in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. He added that the initiative also strives to ensure that American troops have the most capable tools to be able to carry out their broader missions.

The report found that the DOD’s experience with Better Buying Power has been mixed, Huitink said. After decades of attempts to ‘reform’ defense acquisition, Better Buying Power represents a new and novel approach, he said.

The IBM Center for the Business of Government receives around 200-250 proposals per cycle and only funds a handful of reports every year through its twice-annual grant funding program.

Van Slyke and Huitink’s report closely examines the motivation, experience and challenges involved in certain initiatives of Better Buying Power, according to an SU News release.  These initiatives include achieving affordability and controlling costs, promoting competition, providing incentives, reducing bureaucracy and improving services.

Huitink said the idea for the report stemmed from background research on previous efforts by the Department of Defense to improve its acquisition performance.  Better Buying Power represented a “break from the past” by emphasizing continuous process improvement, he said.

“It is a real testament to the relevance and timeliness of what we were doing that here a PhD student from Syracuse had access to the number three person in the Department of Defense who is the top weapons buyer for the country,” said Van Slyke, the Maxwell associate dean.

Van Slyke and Huitink said they hope the report will be able to assist senior department and agency executives in learning about the acquisition process and are optimistic that the report will be able to give officials a way to benchmark their progress.  They also said they hope that their report can help provide a road map for acquisition officials who want to implement similar initiatives in their own agencies and departments.

Published on November 17, 2015 at 9:26 pm

Contact Nina: nsleeds@syr.edu