Unique challenges of innovation in the aerospace and defense industry

Tim Sharp is the Director of Aerospace and Defence in Western Europe for Sopheon. He is a driven Sales Professional with a passion for understanding and diagnosing customer business needs, and articulating solutions that deliver excellent long-term revenue growth and profitability. He has extensive European, Middle East, and Africa experience shaping sales campaigns and has previously worked with InterlocutorGB, Fujitsu, Boeing, Miro, and Futura. Tim was also a Military Helicopter Pilot and Staff Officer for twenty-seven years and a Lieutenant Colonel at the UK Joint Doctrine and Concepts Center, where he ran the analytical program that looked at the trends and drivers that would shape security and defense fifteen to thirty years into the future. Tim holds an Association of Project Management certification from Civil Service College and attended the NATO Defense College in Rome. Tim joins me today to share the unique challenges of innovation in the aerospace and defense industry. He shares how companies use innovation in technology to help security forces gain an advantage over an adversary and gain a competitive advantage in open government tenders. Tim highlights the risks of escalating costs because of requirement changes on projects that can take years to complete. We discuss the expense of productizing technology and the revenue and profit opportunities that exist in product bolt-ons, upgrades, and commercial adoption. Tim reveals the future implications for defense in managing food, water aid, and people moving across borders in response to climate change. Tim also shares the latest innovation challenges for commercial and military applications such as emissions and the green agenda, COVID passports, aircraft filtration, and collision avoidance.

"Timing and speed is always a challenge." - Tim Sharp

• How Tim got involved in product development and innovation after leaving the military
• Tim's work with NATO
• The strategic thinking, speed, and timing challenges of innovation for defense and aerospace companies working on long projects
• Working at the cutting edge of technology
• The balance between creating new-to-market products and making additions and improvements to existing platforms
• Government choices for spending on post-COVID recovery or defense and security
• The bridge and commercial crossover of defense technologies, such as cyberspace security
• How climate and planet change may affect the way defense and security works in the future
• The importance of having the right data at decision-making moments and collaborating data sources

• Book: Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World by Alexander Rose
• Book: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

• Sopheon
• Tim Sharp on LinkedIn

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