Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
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Churchill: The Agile PM (Part 19)
Most people are very familiar with Winston Churchill but may not be familiar with his “agile” approach to project management and his skills as a PM in the summer of 1940. With an invasion imminent, Part 18 looked at how Lord Beaverbrook focused on the problems of fighter production and took an unorthodox approach that brought in ideas and best practices from other industries. This article looks at the second area of the overall project--the mechanization and automation of the production of intelligence.
“Knowledge is power” was a quote made in 1597 by Sir Francis Bacon, an English philosopher. In the military, knowledge has always been critical and “intelligence” has emerged as the most vital military asset. Churchill had to use the limited resources he had at his disposal in the most effective way. He could only do that through the greater use of organizational and enemy intelligence. Knowing the extent of enemy preparation and activity would provide the necessary insight to where and how the enemy was likely to strike and so resources could be better targeted to meet the threat.
Churchill knew the value of intelligence and was shaped by his previous experiences from the First World War, where the lack of reliable intelligence proved a major undoing for him at Gallipoli in 1915, which crucified his career short term (Part …
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