I didn't find any obstacles. That's why, frankly, we didn't lapse money during my period there. That's why we reduced the cycle time by 40%. I was fortunate to have great people working for me. I was fortunate to have great deputies and ministers. I was fortunate to have colleague ADMs who shared my same sort of entrepreneurial instinct, and together we were able to make significant changes.
I remember towards the last three months of the year, we had a sort of brokerage house moving monies around from region to region so that we would be able to advance projects and not lapse funds. We set standards in the department. No longer were we going to take forever to allow the military to prepare the statement of requirements. The vice-chief said, “Two years, that's all you've got”, and we monitored that. It's interesting that a few years after I had left, the Department of National Defence did its own study that confirmed that not only had we met the challenge mark we had decided upon, but five years later, the times were higher than when we started. The people who I was working with, together we had a common vision and we were able to force that into the system.