This is part 5 of why you want someone with a Top Secret Clearance leading innovation at your company; especially if you’re B2B or B2C.
Horses that go to war do not dance at weddings. Someone with a Top-Secret clearance is immune to hype cycles and hardened in a way that protects your company from chasing every shinny object.
Let me ask, are we happy with all the 5G robot surgeons, 5G factories, and 5G-powered Vehicle-to-Vehicle comms? Oh I’m sorry, did none of those things become real? Shucks, if we only could have known. Intelligence work is about separating weak signals from hype. Signal-over-noise judgment is exactly what an innovation portfolios require.
Talent coming from an Top-Secret space has rigor about sources and engineering truths. They distinguish fact, assessment, and assumption, and label each. They know how to build out a frock use case, with the pre-conditions and post-conditions to exercise the game theory of your new idea. Ultimately your business models get sharper and more accurate because they are immune to hype and undercurrents of media.
Lastly, they are comfortable being uncomfortable. They’re used to deciding with incomplete information and clearly stating confidence levels moving into engineering phases. Innovation requires operating in the gray, therefore making good calls when the rulebook runs out is a matter of red or black in your next shareholder report.
