Lockheed Martin CEO Pivots from Defense to Healthcare - A Heartfelt Argument
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In a Bold Move, Lockheed Martin, the country’s largest defense contractor, announced to investors that it would be pivoting into a healthcare company. In the announcement, CEO Marilyn Hewson shared that the pivot was based on a conversation that she had with her son Will during her family's weekly zoom call. Will asked, “How many of our products were being used to combat the current COVID-19 crisis?” My answer was “none”. His response was, “Mom, our nation spends 56% of its discretionary budget on defense and you run the largest defense contractor in the world and you are telling me that none of your products are being used to defend us in our greatest time of need? I think you should change the name of your industry.” The United States spends a total of $18.6 billion annually on public health ($7 billion by the federal government and $11.6 billion by states) while spending more than 50 times that amount ($934 billion annually) on defense.
In a post-announcement interview with Aviation Week and Space Technology, Ms. Hewson stated, “It was sobering to realize that we have already lost more people to COVID-19 than we had lost in the entire Vietnam conflict. We as a nation have made a grave miscalculation about the real threats our nation faces, and the defense industry has been a part of the problem. My company spent over $13 million dollars in 2019 lobbying the US government on the criticality of the weapons systems we manufacture. In the past, we have pushed congress to buy C-130 transports that the Air Force said it did not need with the rational of protecting jobs in Georgia. We successfully lobbied for the development and production of the F-35 fighter, which cost over $22 billion to develop with an estimated more than $1.1 trillion operations and sustainability costs over its service life. As I fell asleep that night after my conversation with Will, I realized that the dollars that were wasted on our programs could have helped build a public healthcare infrastructure. Our lack of a strong public health infrastructure is the primary reason that so many people in our country will unnecessarily die or lose their jobs over the coming year. In countries with sophisticated contact-tracking and testing infrastructure, mortality rates are significantly lower and the ability to reopen the economy has shown to be much greater than in the U.S. Our Lockheed Martin engineers have developed systems that can simultaneously track thousands of threats and communicate them on a real time basis across assets controlled by multiple service lines. We have developed test equipment for our systems that can be operated by an airman with a high school education and can be deployed in the harshest environments in the world. Contact-tracking of individuals, test equipment, and PPE development would have been child's play for us to develop. I realize now that we should have been more worried about this than about building sexier weapons or developing operational scenarios to justify Space Force funding.”
She continued, “I personally know people who have died from this horrible virus, am deeply worried about the vulnerable people in my life and care deeply for the 105,000 employees that are part of the Lockheed Martin team. I lost my father when I was nine years old and personally know the lasting impact that death can have on a family. It is for this reason that I am proudly making this change in our corporate direction. For me and I assume for the rest of the fine men and women at Lockheed Martin, nothing would be more inspiring than to work on addressing a real threat to our nation and more broadly our world. The term ‘Skunk Works’ was developed at Lockheed and symbolizes our ability to take on any challenge. Through this shift, I am excited to begin taking on the true challenges the world faces including public health and climate change. Because of my son Will, I realize that I have a second chance to make a real difference and can sleep soundly tonight. God bless the 16 million healthcare workers who are fighting for our lives without the proper equipment to protect themselves in this fight.”
Fact Checker’s Comments: Unfortunately, the only untrue aspects of this story are the Lockheed Martin pivot and the conversation between Ms. Hewson and her son Will. An undisputed fact is that Ms. Hewson was raised by a single mother in Junction City Kansas, and through sheer grit and intelligence, grew up to lead one of the most powerful companies in the world in one of the most male dominated industiries the is. I am sure her son Will could not be more proud of his mom. We will try to be more false in the future. Our goal is to be the World’s Most Trusted Source for Fake News so it saddens us when truth seeps into our work.