Business Process Design
Change Management
Program Development
Research
Governor Ige Approved Hawai‘i’s First Ever Multi-Military Branch Strategic Plan
Spire’s findings pave the path to the formation of a funded and empowered department that aligns all military branches, for the first time.
History and Context
The Office of Homeland Security (OHS) was created due to a lack of coordination between the military agencies, following the terrorist activity of September 11th, 2001. OHS was contained within the State of Hawai‘i Department of Defense. Historically OHS had no Program ID needed for funding. Yet despite being a fledgling agency with a small staff and no budget, it was tasked with the management of coordination across state and national organizations, based on the threat-related information it received from the various military branches.
Further emphasizing the need for cross-branch integration, the military mission to protect the nation doesn’t necessarily mean protecting individual states, exemplified by the reality that Hawai‘i’s branch of military tasked with defending the state, is the National Guard.
Adaptation of Corporate Best Practice for Military Defense Purposes
Recognizing the fundamental importance and need for integration across the various military branches, Spire adopted an expansive strategic scope in its preliminary discovery process, spanning all facets of the different organizations, from operations through to staffing and facilities.
To facilitate the delineation and assessment of all organizational elements, interdependencies, issues, threats and opportunities, Spire conducted multiple interviews with key stakeholders alongside deploying a quantitative survey for all military branches, to better understand sentiments and satisfaction levels. The team also audited existing strategic initiatives and documents, from which a current state of strategic intent and understanding was established.
These findings were then used to inform the development of a comprehensive strategic plan and set of recommendations. These recommendations addressed the foundational need to rectify the issues related to key lines of communication, while ensuring appropriate authority levels were in place—to enable informed and timely decision making, needed to defend the State of Hawai‘i and the wider United States.
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First Strategic Plan
Governor Ige approves Hawai‘i’s first multi-branch military strategy
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New Department Formed
Established to align military branches under unified command
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Improved Defense Response
Enhanced coordination for faster threat management
The Creation of a New, Integrated Department
Governor Ige approved the first-of-its-kind integrated and deliverable strategic plan.
Moreover, the core of the plan, was able to resolve historical conflicts of jurisdiction and coordination between the agencies.
A new department was formed, Department of Law Enforcement, which resulted in meaningful alignment across the different military branches for the first time.
Empowered with appropriate levels of authority, the new department can manage and resolve potential inter-agency issues, which in turn means a much more efficient response to all threats.
This led to the reorganization of Hawai‘i’s military resources, to align the entirety of its defense and law enforcement forces—creating an integrated defense structure for the first time in history.
