How the CEOs of Booz Allen, L3Harris view DOGE's vision

Booz Allen Hamilton

The early 2010s period of across-the-board sequestration cuts was intended to force a budget agreement in Congress and resulted in downward pressure on the government services industry when no deal emerged.

During Booz Allen’s fiscal third quarter earnings call, CEO Horacio Rozanski said he views the DOGE and its push for change through a completely different lens versus sequestration.

“If I listen to the conversation that is happening around DOGE, this is about creating efficiencies and then deciding how that is going to be invested for the American people,” Rozanski told analysts. “Our expectation is that a lot of what is going to be created in the form of efficiencies will be reinvested as investments in technology that will drive future outcomes.”

A second major point of difference between sequestration and the DOGE is the length of time for actions and seeing the downstream effects of them.

Rozanski said Booz Allen entered 2011 with the idea that “this was going to be a multi-year period of difficulty,” but opted to “double down and invest as opposed to retrench.” The firm’s Vision 2020 strategy came out of that decision.

“We think this (DOGE) is a much shorter period of adjustment, followed by a real clear set of opportunities and priorities we can pursue,” Rozanski said.

As Rozanski sees things, the DOGE’s timing and big-picture vision also matches up with what many leaders want to see happen anyway.

“We are in a geopolitically very difficult environment where, we're just not moving fast enough. I think there's a possibility to accelerate that,” Rozanski said. “There's a real desire in the department, both by the incoming team and by the existing professionals there, to accelerate things, and this should enable that, both from a funding and a process perspective.”

L3Harris Technologies

Chris Kubasik, CEO of the self-touted “The Trusted Disruptor,” has already made his voice heard in an open letter directly addressed to the DOGE that includes his four recommended changes to defense contracting.

During L3Harris’ fourth quarter and year-end earnings call Thursday, Kubasik explained more of his motivations for writing the letter and what he hopes to see in the grander scheme of things.

“I'm really just trying to start the dialogue. I think Congress plays a role. I think the DOD (Defense Department) plays a role. The warfighter plays a role,” Kubasik told analysts. “I think it's important for industry to be part of this ecosystem and give their perspective. I know several others have started to write letters.”

Kubasik’s letter, and those others he hinted at, zero in on the reduction of bureaucracy and regulation to aid the defense customer in getting new tech into the field faster.

On the matter of timelines and signposts to watch, Kubasik pointed to 2026 as when the true effects of DOGE could start to manifest. The middle or end of this calendar year is when he expects that department to unveil its proposed changes to government.

“There's going to be an unprecedented change in 2025, and some will be able to adapt and take advantage of it,” Kubasik said. “We plan to be one of those companies, and maybe others won't, but let's see what the future brings.”

What kind of companies does Kubasik see as being able to take advantage of that change?

“The ones that can go fast, that can get solutions that aren't vertically integrated, that aren't closed systems,” Kubasik said. “I think we're leading the industry with these partnerships, straddling and working collaboratively with the traditional primes, working with the new entrants. Sometimes we'll prime, sometimes we'll sub, sometimes we'll be a merchant supplier.”