STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP PAPER: UNITED STATES AIR FORCE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CAREER FIELD

Disclaimer:

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of the United States Air Force (USAF) Air University, the USAF Air War College, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency.

About the Author:

Lt Col Ben Koch has over fifteen years in the United States Air Force (USAF) Financial Management career field and over ten years in the defense contractor arena. He has deployed overseas three times, was a Comptroller Commander, has worked as a contractor supporting tier-1 prime contractors, and supported the government as a Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contractor.

Motivation of Topic

The topics presented in this paper are well known within the career field. Motivation is to ignite constructive discussions and sharing of frustrations (i.e., to help

pull positive cultural and technological change).

Abstract

How we do things matters. How we do things ultimately drives culture, morale, and productivity. For example, we cannot afford to have a budget analyst (or whomever) manually compiling data that can be done more efficiently using artificial intelligence (e.g., IBM WATSON, aka modern technology). We want that budget or contract analyst spending time analyzing, benchmarking best practices, and helping their program manager and integrated product team (IPT) members, and having time to travel with the team, etc. The grind of overly manual business processes must be killed.