BT DEFENCE
Jonathan Cole ( CB , OBE ), Director , Defence at BT , talks about Data , Tech and the Private and Public Defence relationship
Alot of people aren ’ t aware that the army runs an external placement scheme for officers and that such schemes can act as bridges between the private sector and the traditionally public world of defence .
The technical knowledge and expertise gained can run in both directions , thereby strengthening both sectors and propelling strategy and development , providing mutual benefits to defence as a whole . Jonathan Cole , CB , OBE and Director of Defence at BT , is one of those bridges and , due to his extensive knowledge and expertise , is an important asset to BT .
“ I took part in the placement scheme as a fairly senior officer ,” he says , “ as I was a Brigadier who was about to be promoted to Major General . For six months , I had the opportunity to come and work for BT .”
At that time , Cole worked in the technology unit of BT rather than where he is now – in its Enterprise business , which is one of the customer-facing units . “ I really came here to have a breath of fresh air , to learn about the commercial world and about some of the technologies that are out in the commercial sector that defence was potentially not utilising . In many ways , it was a chance for me to understand another large enterprise with a lot of parallels to the Ministry of Defence ( MoD ).”
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