INNOBLOG

All those who care about innovation should mourn the passing on November 12th of Vice Admiral (retired) Arthur Cebrowski. After a long naval career, Cebrowski later headed the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation. In that capacity and in his earlier position as the head of the Naval War College, Cebrowski advocated major changes in the way America's defense community operates. Some of these ideas represent a direct application of Clay Christensen's concepts to defense problems.

For instance, Cebrowski supported the building of many smaller ships that could help the US provide presence in a probematic world. These ships, called "Streetfighters" would be cheaper and less sophisticated than many of the ships in the Navy's current inventory, but could be linked together through information networks to make them more effective. Although the Navy did not adopt all of Cebrowski's Streetfighter ideas, the new Littoral Combat Ship program shows his influence.

Another area of Cebrowski's influence is the idea of smaller, cheaper, "good enough" satellites that address the needs of regional commanders instead of centralized nodes in Washington. This program, in which Cebrowski and his colleagues explicitly applied disruption innovation theory, is already developing its fourth satellite, called TacSat 4.

Finally, Cebrowski was a leading advocate for the concept of "network centric warfare", which is one of the leading concepts in the ongoing Pentagon transformation process.

All of these ideas have their proponents and detractors. However, Cebrowski was a bold visionary and a leading defense innovator who will have a lasting influence on the way that the massive US defense establishment operates.

We wish him fair winds and following seas.