Lessons Learned and Organizing Innovation in the Air Force

In August 2022, the Pentagon tasked Victor Lopez, then a captain in the U.S. Air Force, with launching a new Air Force innovation unit that leveraged commercial developers and military talent to acquire advanced technologies. Having been granted flexibility in the setup of the office, Lopez pondered the complexities of his assignment and the decisions around organizational design he would have to make.

It’s often believed that only small start-up organizations can innovate, but a lot of innovation happens in big organizations, including government. Harvard Business School assistant professor Maria Roche is joined by Major Lopez to discuss the challenges of digital transformation in a large bureaucratic organization and the specific choices the U.S. Air Force needed to make when launching its AI Accelerator in her case, “Accelerating AI Adoption in the United States Air Force.”