GovLoop Insights

DoD Cuts, Leadership Challenges and More - DorobekINISIDER, episode 1 by GovLoop Insights

This week we take a look at the DorobekINSIDER Book Club discussion about the book "Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries." We talk about the book and how government can capitalize on it's ideas with the author, Peter Sims, and GSA's Dave McClure.

In past weeks we've talked about the challenges of big data. This week we’re going to tell you about a company that's solving those problems. Washingtonian magazine published a story about what they bill as the killer app -- and it is about a Silicon Valley company called Palantir that has technology that helps make sense of all those hay stacks. Shane Harris a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine sits down with the podcast to talk big data solutions.

Undoubtedly the biggest event in government this week was the State of the Union address. it give the president a chance to outline his policies and programs and how they'll affect the country for the next year and basically kick off his campaign for the next election. Steve Ryan, Partner for McDermott, Will and Emory and he heads up their government strategies practice group, joins the podcast to talk about the important parts of this year's address.

Change it's something that most every person will agree needs to happen in the government but at the same time it's so hard to come by. Former HHS CIO Alan Balutis drops by the podcast to talk about how to manage the government towards change. We focus in on Alan's new book "Transforming American Governments, Rebooting the Public Square" and what a transformed 21st Century government would look like. We also grab Alan's thoughts on the reorganization efforts in the government.

It wasn't long ago that governments IT needs took up enough of the technology market share to dictate industry standards but that's not the case anymore. To put it in lamen terms the government isn't going to buy enough iphones to fund Apple so Apple has to focus elsewhere. Government is not just another consumer in the electronic market, which made for an interesting CES (Consumer Electronics Show) this passed week in Las Vegas. Here remarks on where government technology is heading from the federal government CIO, Steven Van Roekekel as we highlight his Vegas speech on the podcast.

The age of austerity, everyone in government knows were in a spot of tight budgets but that doesn't mean things can't get accomplished and careers can't continue to rise. Paul Brubaker President and Chief Operating Officer of Silver Lining joins the podcast to talk about the opportunities in government during the budget crunch. Deals are smaller these days but that doesn't mean they aren't being made.

At the beginning of the year you might not have known what the cloud is and now you see commercial after commercial for it. Cloud this and cloud that people talk about it like it's the second coming but in this weeks podcast we examine why the cloud might not be all it's advertised in government. Joining the podcast is John Rucker, the lead for the Department of Veterans Affairs Data Consolidation Initiative. John talks about how the cloud will change federal IT forever but not in the way we all expect.

Recently Earl Devaney, the Chairman Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, announced that he would step down and this week he sat down for an exclusive interview with our podcast. Tune in as Chris Dorobek and Earl talk about accountability and transparency in government and how Recovery.gov was stood up.

Data: the government has lots of it. Over the last 2 year or so there has been a concentrated effort on gathering data. The possibilities of using all that data took center stage this year with IBM unveiled Watson and Moneyball the movie taking to the silver screen. Bob Gourley, Former CTO of the Defense Intelligence Agency joins the podcast to talk about what government needs to be doing to manage it's data and build off it.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal said that “Washington is set to let down the nation yet again, as the supercommittee approaches its deadline with no real chances of a deal.” Things are certainly looking bleak right now and joining the podcast is Rosalind Helderman, a congressional reporter for the Washington Post. And she says that there are very important days ahead as pending cuts get closer to fruition.

It's Veterans Day and we'd be remised not to thank our veterans for all they do for our country. But is thanks enough? Recent studies and polls have shown that the life of a United States veteran is growing increasingly bleak. While the government has programs in place to help veterans find jobs after service there is also misconceptions about hiring vets that create an uphill battle. Joining us on the podcast is Chad Storlie is a retired Army Reserve Special Forces officer with more than 20 years of military experience -- and he is the author of two books -- Combat Leader to Corporate Leader: 20 Lessons to Advance Your Civilian Career and Battlefield to Business Success: Applying Military Leadership Skills in Your Career.

The Senate this week approved must-do legislation to fund the day-to-day budgets of five Cabinet agencies, kick-starting long overdue work to add the details to budget limits agreed to by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans this summer. The vote sets up negotiations with the GOP-controlled House on final legislation that could be presented to the president before Thanksgiving. Joining the podcast is Ray Bjorklund is the chief knowledge office for market research firm Deltek. He says that we’ve been through several ages of austerity, but this one could be different.

The end of October also marks the end of cyber-security awareness month and this week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Washington Post that she spends a considerable amount of time dealing with cybersecurity threats, including potential attacks on the nation’s infrastructure. As budget get smaller the need for cyber-security gets larger. Robert Rodriguez the chairman and Managing Principal of the Security Innovation Network joins the podcast to talk about fighting cyber attacks on a budget.

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about how the government can be innovative. Next week, at the Industry Advisory Council’s Executive Leadership Conference, a big focus will be on innovation. And, in fact, we are going to try something a big different maybe even innovative. As part of that discussion, there will be an UN-session. You have have heard of an un-conference. These are where you don’t have a panel or even an agenda. You have... well, the people in the room. You tap the wisdom of crowds. At ELC, we are doing an UN-session. When I say we, the UN-session is going to be guided by myself and Kathy Conrad. Kathy is the principal deputy associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies and our guest on this week's podcast.