Business board meeting

The Defense Business Board will hold a meeting on Jan. 21 at the Pentagon to discuss the findings and recommendations of a pair of task groups looking into virtual consultancies and business management, according to a recent Federal Register notice.

The meeting's purpose will be to "review the findings and recommendations from the Task Groups on 'Creating Virtual Consultancies: Engaging Talent (Innovative Culture Part II)' and 'Evaluation of Position of Under Secretary of Defense for Business Management and Information,'" the notice states.

In late July of last year, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work called for a DBB task force to "study and provide recommendations on how the department can establish 'virtual consultancies' that engage our internal talent." Check out Work's terms of reference memo here.

The following month, Work tasked the DBB with looking into the advantages and disadvantages of converting and elevating the position of deputy chief management officer to the newly created under secretary of defense for business management and information post. As Inside the Pentagon reported at the time:

The Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act created the business management and information post, which would consolidate and elevate the Pentagon's DCMO and chief information officer roles. This position will serve as the Pentagon's performance improvement officer and its CIO, and will take precedence in the department behind the deputy defense secretary.

In an Aug. 10 terms of reference, Work calls for the Defense Business Board to provide recommendations on whether the DCMO post should be consolidated and elevated.

"I am establishing a task group under the DBB to study and provide recommendations on whether the position should be consolidated and elevated, assess the advantages and disadvantages of doing so, and such other matters as the DBB determines relevant," Work wrote, noting that the conversion will be effective on Feb. 1, 2017.