Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) Contract
Defence Renewal Team
Key Facts
- Objective: To undertake an in-depth analysis of renewal opportunities at National Defence.
- Against the backdrop of a series of government-wide spending reviews, in 2012, the Deputy Minister and Chief of the Defence Staff established a Defence Renewal Team to lead, coordinate and drive a comprehensive business process renewal programme.
- McKinsey and the Defence Renewal Team worked jointly over a five-month period to design and develop a portfolio of initiatives with the aim of streamlining internal operations and increasing efficiency to transform the way in which the Department achieves better results for Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces.
- Total Value of Contract: $565,000
- Timeframe: 2013-01-07 to 2013-05-13
- Results: Development of a Transformation Charter and Business Plan
- As part of their initial analysis, McKinsey estimated the size of renewal opportunity for some initiatives using rough order of magnitude international benchmarks.
- Through follow-on analysis and consultation across the Defence Team, estimates were refined, with some of them being revised downwards to take account of and adjust for realities specific to the Canadian context.
- These products ultimately informed National Defence’s Defence Renewal Charter (2013) and corresponding action plan which focused on improvements in the areas of organizational practices as well as performance (i.e. operations and training), maintenance and materiel, information management and technology, infrastructure, personnel and management systems.
- While the DRT was stood-down in 2017, its work was folded into the development of SSE initiatives related to modernizing the business of defence, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of DND/CAF to ensure stable, realistic and predictable funding.
- Security Requirement: Secret
- Outsourcing Rationale: National Defence did not have the necessary expertise in regard to international benchmarking, to inform performance targets.
- Contracting mechanism: Competitive
Background
- The Defence Renewal Team (DRT) was established in 2012 and consisted of a 22 member team (military and civilian). Its work was transitioned in 2017 to the organization of the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.
- In 2013, the DRT and McKinsey worked over a five-month period to design and develop a portfolio of initiatives and a plan for moving forward with implementation.
- Throughout this period, ideas and hypotheses originated both within National Defence and from McKinsey’s insights and best practices from renewal experiences with other defence ministries from around the world.
Motion for the Production of Papers
- Despite a thorough search of physical and electronic files, the VCDS group was unable to locate the final report and presentation prepared by McKinsey on findings related to the optimal composition and organization of the DRT.
- The contract was let over ten years ago and the DRT disbanded several years ago. It is likely that documents were not retained beyond the mandatory six year time frame as set out under Treasury Board information management policies and guidelines.
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