THE BOOKThe Hollow Middle
A business parable about what governments announce, what countries actually build, and the middle where capability is supposed to become real.
The forthcoming book by Chris Williams. Publishing early 2027.
The Hollow Middle
The Hollow Middle explores the gap between Defence policy ambition and industrial outcome.
It asks a simple question:
Why does a country that spends billions on Defence still struggle to build the industrial capability it says it needs most?
A parable, not a policy paper.
The Hollow Middle is the industrial layer between Defence ambition and practical delivery, and the book tells its story through the people who stand in it. It is written for anyone who has felt the gap between the promise of Defence industry and the reality of making something useful happen.
WHAT IS THE BOOKTHE THREE CHARACTERSThree people. One system.
You have met these people. You may have been one of them.
James. An SME managing director trying to keep an Australian workshop alive while the system keeps asking more of him than it is prepared to reward.
Kit. A submarine officer thrust into the world of Defence procurement, discovering how the institution he serves connects to the industry that supports it, and wondering whether his future is in uniform.
Bill. An older adviser who has worked with primes, boards and government. He sees the system clearly. He is not immune to its costs.
Through them, the book explores the national, commercial and personal cost of a system that works exactly as designed, just not always for the people doing the work.
At low tide, every structure tells the truth.
The Hollow Middle is not the absence of effort. The meetings happen. The strategies are written. The plans are submitted. The funding is allocated. The capable SMEs exist. And still, the outcome does not match the ambition.
Schedule delay, cost growth, supplier failure, workforce shortage: those are symptoms. The deeper problem is structural, and the book names it.
THE CORE IDEAFor the people who have stood in the middle.
Defence SME owners and CEOs who are capable, respected and busy, but not being pulled into the programs that should need them.
Primes and program leaders who need Australian industry to carry more than the current system can reliably absorb.
Boards, investors and advisers who need to know whether a Defence growth story is real and executable.
Public servants and policymakers who care whether sovereign capability becomes industrial fact.
Defence people leaving uniform, trying to understand how the institution they served connects to the industry that supports it.
WHO THE BOOK IS FORCONNECTION TO WILLIAMS ADVISORYThe book Defines the problem. We Deliver.
The book tells the story. The advisory work applies the model. For Defence SME owners, the practical question is not whether the business has capability. It is whether the customer has a reason to pull that capability into the programs that matter.
Register Your Interest
The Hollow Middle is publishing early 2027.
Register for updates to receive the sample chapter, launch announcements, early reader updates, selected essays from the Execution Gap framework, and book event and speaking news.
ABOUT THE AUTHORMeet Chris Williams
Chris Williams is a Defence-industrial adviser and founder of Williams Advisory. A former Royal Australian Navy submarine officer and Defence industry executive, he has spent his career working across the space between policy, industry and delivery.
His work focuses on customer pull, industrial relevance and the conditions required for capable businesses to become part of the programs that matter. The Hollow Middle, publishing in 2027, is his first book.