Inaugural workshop lays groundwork for international collaboration

Defense Contract Management Agency
Story by Jo Adail Stephenson

Date: 12.01.2011
Posted: 12.01.2011 09:06
News ID: 80767
Inaugural workshop lays groundwork for international collaboration

BUDAPEST, Hungary - The recent inaugural Senior Leaders Workshop held here, and attended by senior acquisition and quality assurance executives from seven countries and the International Armaments Cooperation group in Hungary, laid the groundwork for forging an international collaborative senior management forum.

Hosted by Defense Contract Management Agency International with the support of the Hungarian Ministry of Defense Institute of Military Technology, the workshop provided the opportunity for attendees to share best practices, discuss national initiatives and develop common solutions to strategic issues and challenges at a senior level.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring us together on a more strategic level to benchmark successes, share lessons-learned, to develop joint strategies and to determine how we can best leverage our resources for the future,” DCMA Director Charlie E. Williams, Jr., said.

The workshop’s objective was “to initiate new and enhance existing acquisition management senior executive collaboration and interaction,” DCMA International Commander Navy Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau said.

“It’s all about relationships,” Gilbeau said. He stressed the importance of having a forum for leaders in executive leadership roles to leverage “ways in which we can more efficiently and effectively provide quality and cost management and delivery schedule management and production management in support of our nations’ forces.”

Workshop attendees commented on the importance of a senior-level international collaboration forum.

“The workshop was a great opportunity to meet and discuss challenges with other nations. Overall a great first session, and now there is a way forward,” one attendee noted.

It was a “very good idea to organize this workshop - a good way to strengthen relationships through communication, exchange of information and sharing experiences,” according to another attendee.

The next step is organizing a follow-on meeting targeting attendance by senior executives, who can promote change. The objectives will be to validate the list of issues established during this first meeting, create agreed-upon objectives with leaders and outline proposed outputs and timelines.