Naval Supply Systems Command: Leading Change (a)

Abstract

The effects of a declining resource environment were evident in the challenges facing the Commander of Naval Supply Systems Command in maintaining the readiness of Pacific Fleet forces. His superiors were calling for a significant transformation in the Navy's business practices to overcome what was then projected as a $10 billion annual shortfall in the amount needed to recapitalize the fleet. But returning readiness levels to acceptable levels, while programming for procurement of future forces and capabilities, was an increasingly difficult balancing act. He needed to find an additional source of funds to “balance the books.” Excerpt UVA-S-0148 Rev. Nov. 30, 2010 Naval Supply Systems Command: LEADING CHANGE (A) Rear Admiral J. Dan McCarthy gazed out his office window at Pacific Fleet headquarters, contemplating the message in his hands—orders to report as Commander, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) and 42nd Chief of Supply Corps. McCarthy was in his 32nd year of commissioned service since completing Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. As a Supply Corps Officer, both his sea and shore assignments had provided him with extensive leadership, logistics, and financial management experience. His logistics assignments had included positions in transportation, warehousing, material-handling operations, inventory management, and operational logistics. He was now in his third year as Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Fleet Supply, and Ordnance, U.S. Pacific Fleet. McCarthy was intimately aware of the significant fiscal challenges facing the Navy in 2001 and that NAVSUP would be expected to contribute to finding solutions to those challenges during his three-year assignment as Commander. He thought Admiral Vern Clark, soon to become Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) was right in calling for a significant transformation in the Navy's business practices to overcome what was then projected as a $ 10 billion annual shortfall in the amount needed to recapitalize the fleet. Clark was focused on the need for improved business practices throughout the Navy enterprise as a mechanism to generate the resources required to both recapitalize the fleet and provide the war-fighting capabilities to deal with the emerging threat of global terrorism. Clark had made it clear that getting the requirements right was the first step and generating the improved effectiveness and efficiency to help finance that requirement was equally important to deliver the Navy of the future. Department of Defense (DoD) Supply Chain . . .