Who was the American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, who surrounded himself with the group of experts called Whiz Kids?
Whiz Kids (Department of Defense) Whiz Kids was a name given to a group of experts from RAND Corporation with which Robert McNamara surrounded himself in order to turn around the management of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in the 1960s. The purpose was to shape a modern defense strategy in the Nuclear Age by bringing in economic analysis, operations research, game theory, computing, as well as implementing modern management systems to coordinate the huge dimension of operations of the DoD with methods such as the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS). They were called the Whiz Kids recalling the group at Ford Motor Company that McNamara was part of a decade earlier. The group included (among others):
Deputy's Advisory Working Group The Deputy's Advisory Working Group (DAWG) was a senior level review panel for the United States Department of Defense. The DAWG was co-chaired by the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The DAWG used to be known as the 'Group of 12'. It represents the most senior panel of civilian and military leaders within the Pentagon. The DAWG was superseded by the Deputy Secretary's Management Action Group (DMAG) on October 6, 2011.