The Business of National Defense Is Changing. So Is the Classroom.

What does it take for a small company to challenge the economics of American defense manufacturing?

For Doug Denneny (EMBA ’13), founder of Virginia-based CoAspire, the answer includes a cruise missile built with just 200 parts, some commercially available. Its engine originated in the hobbyist market. Even BBs serve a purpose, providing ballast in the missile's nose.

Denneny's approach was featured in a recent CBS Sunday Morning report examining the challenges of American missile production and the emergence of smaller companies seeking to bring new capabilities to the defense sector.

His work raises questions that extend well beyond any single technology: How can entrepreneurs compete in a market dominated by established manufacturers? What does it take to turn an innovative product into a viable business when the customer is the federal government?

At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, those questions are at the heart of a new defense innovation course where MBA students and experienced professionals from the defense industry, military and government will learn alongside one another.

The premise is that a military veteran, a technology entrepreneur and an MBA student might approach the same business problem in three very different ways. Each may recognize something the others have overlooked.

Inside Darden's Defense Innovation Classroom

The five-day intensive, scheduled for January 2027 at Darden's Sands Family Grounds in Rosslyn, Virginia, is being developed by Tim Laseter (MBA ’84), Professor of Practice and MacAvoy Professor of Business Administration, and Joe Thomas, a retired Marine colonel who directs the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Their approach draws on Darden's case method, which places participants in the position of decision-makers confronting complex problems with incomplete information.

A new business case involving CoAspire will give participants an opportunity to examine how a defense technology startup approaches innovation, manufacturing and the challenge of bringing new capabilities to government customers. Students will tackle those decisions alongside people who understand the realities of military operations, government acquisition and building businesses.

Laseter also sees opportunities for participants to develop professional relationships that extend beyond the course itself.

"I'm excited to help our MBAs expand their 'crazy quilt' of connections to become the effectual entrepreneurs that my colleague Saras Sarasvathy's research identified," Laseter said.

Sarasvathy, who retired from Darden this spring as the Paul M. Hammaker Professor of Business Administration, is a pioneering entrepreneurship scholar whose research on effectuation examines how entrepreneurs build ventures amid uncertainty. Her "crazy quilt" principle emphasizes forming partnerships with people who commit their knowledge, resources and relationships to a new venture.

In the defense sector, those connections can bridge the worlds of business, technology and government, bringing together people who might otherwise approach the same challenge from entirely different directions.

The potential questions are as varied as the industry itself.

Could acquiring an established manufacturer offer a faster path to expanding domestic production than building a new facility? How should a company balance supply-chain costs against security and resilience? What would it take to move a promising artificial intelligence capability, such as those developed through the Pentagon's Project Maven initiative, into operational use?

These are familiar business questions, but the defense sector introduces different constraints, competing priorities and measures of success. To help participants examine those tradeoffs, Laseter and Thomas are bringing practitioners with firsthand experience into the classroom.

Among several guest contributors slated to join the course is Rear Adm. Andrew M. Biehn, a UVA undergraduate alumnus and Navy acquisition leader. Biehn co-authored a fictionalized business case following an Army officer whose efforts to deliver new technology encounter setbacks involving funding, cybersecurity, operational requirements and organizational coordination. Told through a series of dreams, the case illustrates what can go wrong as an innovation moves from concept to deployment in the Warfighter Acquisition System.

Working through such challenges alongside experienced professionals, Darden students will have opportunities to test their thinking against the realities of military operations, government acquisition and the business of bringing new capabilities to market.

When Business Decisions Carry Broader Consequences

For Thomas, those perspectives are central to the course's ethical and leadership dimensions.

A technology that promises greater efficiency may challenge the traditional rules of engagement. A commercially attractive product may raise difficult questions about its potential uses in the field. A decision that benefits a company may affect people far removed from the boardroom.

"The fact that a technology can do something doesn't settle whether or how it should be used," Thomas said. "Ethical leaders have to understand the consequences of their decisions, including for people who may never have a seat at the table. That's why we need different perspectives challenging one another."

Also joining the course as a guest contributor is Bobbi Doorenbos (EMBA ’23), a retired Air National Guard brigadier general and one of the first women to fly the F-16. On 11 September 2001, she was scrambled in response to the terrorist attacks that day. Now serving on one corporate and three non-profit boards, Doorenbos brings a perspective shaped by over 30 years of military operations and business leadership, helping participants examine how decisions made in the boardroom play out in the field.

The course builds on Darden's more than 50 years of business education for military and government organizations, while introducing a different dynamic by bringing MBA students and experienced professionals into the same case discussions and collaborative exercises.

Join the conversation at Darden.

Through Defense Innovation for Mission Impact, Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning offers executives, entrepreneurs and other professionals a distinctive open-enrollment opportunity to learn alongside Darden MBA students. The five-day program takes place 4–8 January 2027 at UVA Darden DC Metro. Explore the program and learn how to participate.