Ahead of the Curve: Scouting for Disruptive Technologies

By Tracy Staedter

Innovation is changing the world at exponential speeds. In just the last 10 years, tablet computers, streaming high-definition video, AI-based virtual assistants, drones, and internet-connected gadgets enabling ride-sharing and room-sharing have become ubiquitous. These disruptive technologies have fundamentally shifted business models, altered the way people live, work and play and put imagined futures within arm's reach.

Many of these advances were either created or matured in the commercial sector, which invests billions of dollars annually into research and development. “The implication is that a large portion of technology development has shifted to the private sector, rather than from government- or defense industry-funded R&D,” says Jonathan Green, Director of Disruptive Concepts and Technologies (DC&T) at Northrop Grumman.

This organization was formed to assess early-stage ideas and innovations to include scouting the commercial sector for technologies that are relevant to Northrop Grumman business areas and their customers' missions. This requires the team to both project when those technologies have the potential to disrupt existing approaches and understand how they can be leveraged to address a particular problem.

 “To be more innovative for our customers and deliver capabilities more rapidly, we create an environment where our scientists and engineers are encouraged to think big and fail fast, to test the limits of possible, and to leverage external technologies whenever it provides an advantage” says Green.