I took over as the Deputy Chief of the General Staff at a time when the Defence Reforms, recommended by Lord Peter Levene, saw greater budgetary responsibility, authority and accountability being delegated to the Front Line Commands.

My early analysis confirmed that the Army Operating Model was not well configured to fully exploit the opportunity with which it was being presented. The Army Headquarters needed to grow Knowledge, Skills and Experience - and fast - if it was to become an Intelligent Customer, configured to drive forward transformational change.

I quickly recognised that we needed external assistance to help us on this journey. I personally appointed Johnny as team lead. He was responsible for managing a diverse team of consultants from a wide range of companies to help us define, structure and embed a new Operating Model. Timescales were challenging but Johnny could draw on a great depth of knowledge of the Levene Defence Operating Model and he was singularly well equipped to provide unique insights that helped us to move forward quickly and efficiently.

The change required was radical but Johnny, an expert in stakeholder engagement from board level down, was able to keep people engaged and on side as we moved the project forward. He had a clear vision of how the challenges and opportunities required by the Levene model could be addressed and achieved, and with his pragmatic approach was able to lead a large team to deliver a fit for purpose solution.

Whilst based at the MoD, in what was the Directorate of Joint Capabilities, it became clear that we needed to take decisive action to reduce the number of fatalities caused by IEDs. I was therefore keen to explore the development of offensive C-IED capabilities, yet was mindful that we also needed to maintain our defensive C-IED posture.

My experience told me that it was important that we work with specialist consultants who had ‘in theatre’ experience, who understood the scale of the challenge but who were also expert in the commercial consulting world. Warner McCall offered us this unique mix, with Warner McCall co-founders Al Sweet and Johnny Norris, providing a combination of extensive ‘on the ground’ experience, deep defence knowledge and Defence/Industry collaboration expertise.

One significant, unforeseen benefit of their experience, was that, although focused on our C-IED work, we were also able to use Al’s knowledge of indigenous Afghanistan Army force development, training and deployment to gain a better understanding of how we could address the ‘insider threat’ issue.

Throughout their involvement, the team at Warner McCall used their expert change and project management skills to help us develop effective strategies with a raft of supporting policies, roadmaps and guidelines for success. The C-IED solution involved not only improved engagement of the supply chain, but also a more focused and joined up approach to the issues within the MoD. They finely balanced the need for a defensive approach, with a new way of thinking to ultimately reduce the threat.