0:01 who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Tuesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time to talk about business sorry to talk about military Doctrine military history and the practices of great military leaders
0:37 all by way of distilling lessons that we can use in order to build our businesses and professional practices so um this is my way as as a veteran to give back to my fellow citizens all of you uh for the support that you have gave and continue to give to the US military um over the last um you know 20 years plus that I started the military in 2006 so um we in the military do a tremendous amount of training it costs billions upon billions
1:13 of dollars every year and I think there are numerous uh lessons that that we can take um both the military as a good example as also as an example of what not to do so and in in fact on that note today i'm going to be talking about taking effective action and this is an area where historically on on the Strategic scale often times the United States military
1:49 has been shall we say behind the curve so if if you you know are engaged in in the study of military history at all you probably have heard the accusation that um the military tends to fight the last war and that is certainly in the 20th century and the and the very beginning of the 21st century um that unfortunately has generally been the case and I'm just going to go through um
2:27 five examples um that to to you know sort of demonstrate my point and to bring out some ideas then that that we can apply to our businesses and professional pra uh practices so um starting with the the first war that the United States fought um in the 20th century World War I so it was a situation where for those of you have watched other episodes I've talked about World War I the United States actually got into the war into World War
3:02 I late in the game so um we didn't enter World War I until uh April of of 1917 the war had already been going on for two and a half uh almost three years I think at that point and the way that the the the doctrine that um General John persing who was the Commanding General of the American expeditionary Force went to Europe to fight with the Allies was interestingly enough in a way ahead
3:38 of its time almost so by the time America entered World War I it had bogged down into trench warfare so you had each side the the um the Central Powers and the Allied Powers had had dug in you know across of a front and there was this whole no man's land in between um covered in barb wire and and you know periodically there would be attacks where one side would Rise Up From The
4:13 Trenches and attack the other side usually it was preceded by an artillery bombardment and and the reality was this was the first time that America fought in a war where where there were the kind of Technology of War um was was so massively destructive so while you know gaffling guns had existed in the um in the 19th century um and and there were cannons I mean there was nothing prior prior to
4:49 World War I that the United States fought in with the kind of artillery Firepower with the use of gas Warfare with the use of machine guns that could just lay down a blanket of fire that would literally mow down entire um platoon and companies um that that were attacking and and in fact toward the latter part of the war there were also the introduction of Tanks which was not a not a huge impact technologically in
5:24 World War I but it was it was starting it one could already see that it was starting to so and and the the tactics of of uh I'm should say the the strategy of the American expeditionary force was one of the rifle and the bayonet were you know Paramount and and a a a force well trained in the use of of a rifle which was a single shot rifle basically um and and a bayonet uh would dominate the battlefield even in the
6:01 face of machine guns artillery mustard gas all these things and and clearly that was not the case um and and so over the 18 months or so that that the United States was involved in World War I there had to be and there there was a a a change in the strategy that the um the field commanders used and the ones who were most successful were the ones who in general learned from France and England
6:40 um who had been fighting already for several years in terms of laying down artillery bombardments prior to an prior to an advance um um flanking machine gun positions in in order to take them out not trying to attack them in a frontal assault where your men would be killed so the whole this again the strategy and and the operational level of World War I had to change it actually changed relatively quickly and and um I'm I'm
7:16 actually working to get um Ryan gthr said um on on the show as a guest because he he wrote an entire book on on this topic and I think it would be great to have his depth of knowledge to to talk about this but any event the the strategy pursued by field commanders changed actually pretty rapidly and and adapted to the conditions so that uh by you know by the end of World War I the United States had been very effective in helping bring about victory over the
7:51 Central Powers so so again you know the way things started and the way they ended um very very different because the United States in a way was still fighting you know the Civil War or maybe the Spanish American War which was not applicable during World War I so World War II now interestingly enough World War I in some ways reversed that Dynamic so um the reason that that Nazi Germany was so successful especially in the
8:27 early um days and and months and years of of World War II was they adopted what they called The Blitz or they they yeah adopted what was called The Blitz c um the lightning Warfare it was a combined arms way of fighting where you had infantry which is you know typical in an army but it was combined with tanks and air support in a way that essentially overwhelmed fixed defenses uh the the so-called magal line
9:04 that that France built for example it just overwhelmed them and it allowed Germany the German forces the the the verm which which means military it's usually used to mean the Army but the Army was the hod so the vermak which included the hod and the LFA um they overran um Holland Belgium uh and and and France um and just overwhelmed the fixed defenses that in World War I would have prevented uh
9:39 Germany from being able to to do that um but you know because the technology of warfare had Advanced um especially with respect to tanks and and armored War armored vehicles and aircraft so um you know when World War I most aircraft were bylanes they were very lightweight they were very fragile they couldn't carry much of a bomb payload at all and by you know World War II so the the Germans had the the mmid
10:17 um BF 109 I believe it was and the folk wafer 190 um both of which were um extraordinarily um uh um well de well-designed platforms for the kind of support that that was needed in the blitz cre as well as the infamous Stuka dive bombers um all of these at the beginning of World War II were were very very effective aerial weapons and and and so the Allies in the early part of
10:52 the war were they were convinced that fixed fortifications um were you know were going to protect them from a resurge in Germany and that turned out not to be the case as a result uh the the Allies were way behind in terms of effective tanks effective aircraft um effective artillery and and were it not for America entering the war on the side of the allies and really becoming you know as it was called in the time the arsenal of
11:27 democracy um and and and really outproducing Germany thousands tens of thousands of planes tens of thousands of Tanks so um both both the the British and the French um produced tanks but it was really the Sherman tank that was produced in such enormous numbers that that provided um the the the the margin of victory at at least with respect to tanks that that was was needed for the Allies to Prevail so although for
12:03 example the German tiger tank was a better tank than the Sherman more powerful and better armored Etc the fact of the matter was by the time the tiger was developed the the German economy could not build enough of them and and the number of Sherman tanks that could be that were deployed by the Allies could just overwhelm them as well the planes that the Allies started out with at the beginning of World War II so the um uh shoot I'm going up on the name of
12:41 the the British planes um um but but in any event while they were successful in in holding off um the B the Battle of Britain um the reality was it took the uh P-51 Mustang and the um the Thunderbolt um Pro probably the two best fighter planes in World War II especially even taking into account the Japanese zero the the the p-51s and the
13:16 um trying to remember the designation for the Thunderbolts um it wasn't the 40 um in any in any event um these two platforms um really uh were were dominant um in in the air as were the bombers that were um developed the um uh the B17 and the um and the uh uh B24 primarily heavy bombers you know again they they those really outclassed
13:52 anything that um the the axis had in Europe switching over to the Pacific Theater For a Moment the um f the um uh f f6f um and the um the gold winged um F4U um the again these were the F f6s Wildcat and the um the F4U which was the the Marine cores the um Corsair that they flew again completely outclassed what what the Japanese uh had available
14:29 in terms of ability but also in terms of sheer numbers that the US produced you know just overwhelmed them but this was not where the United States was at the beginning of the war this the United States had to play catchup and not only in terms of tanks and aircraft but also in ship building so the ships that the United States started out with um were just nothing like the the the type of ships that America ended up the war with
15:05 u the very whether it was destroyers Cruisers aircraft carriers the the capabilities of these ships Advanced extremely rapidly during World War II to the point where again the um the US Navy's ability to lay down Firepower to protect the sea Lanes against uh submarine the submarine predations of Nazi Germany uh just overwhelmed um the the kgs marine and the Imperial Japanese Navy but that was
15:41 not possible at the beginning of the war these were all realizations the United States had to come to as a result of Pearl Harbor for example as a result of losses in the battle for the North Atlantic of of Mer ships being sunk by the uh the wolf packs of of Nazi submarines so so again the the the thinking in in the beginning of World War II was fixed defenses will protect us and as Patton was George George Patton arguably the most successful
16:18 American field commander in World War II argued fixed defenses were a relic of history and he proved that time and time again through essentially a type of warfare that was very similar to to the blitz C and and and and and the Relentless pressuring of the enemy not giving them time to to regroup and and and just continually pushing forward um and and and essentially overwhelming the enemy so then you know come forward
16:55 to uh the Vietnam War so in Vietnam the United States had very much of a conventional War mindset that came out of World War II um it it was essentially successful in the Korean conflict or the Korean War um and but then um because um the United States was was you know fighting in a in a um uh United Nations Coalition with uh with South Korea with you
17:30 know Greek um French British troops right so and they were fighting against essentially the North Koreans supported by the Chinese um and the Russians so the Korean War was fought largely a as a conventional war in the sense of of World War II style war but then we got to Vietnam and again early in the war or it was US military strategic thinking that we should do heavy bombing and we should do
18:06 conventional ground Warfare and and it didn't work with a North with the North Vietnamese enemy and the Viet Kong enemy that was able to fight was really much of a an Insurgency and Guerilla type of warfare that that just you know they would fight and then sort of melt into the you know jungle and disappear so conventional Warfare was just not going to work and and again the
18:43 United States had to change its tactics and and and build up counterinsurgency etc etc unfortunately the shift in strategy really never was successful in Vietnam and that's why eventually you know the United States withdrew from Vietnam and and North Vietnam took over the South reunited the country under a communist government so the United States was never really able to adapt um
19:18 to the kind of Guerilla Warfare um that was necessary in in in order to to be be successful ful in in World War I'm sorry in the Vietnam War and um this this this sort of continued into the um Iraq and Afghanistan Wars where because of the first Gulf War being so successful largely using what amounted to Conventional tactics again
19:54 the United States was able to um liberate Kuwait and and essentially over overthrow um the um the regime of Saddam Hussein or not over I'm sorry liberate Kuwait so that was the first Gulf War so because conventional means worked so effectively doing that in the second Gulf war in Iraq and Afghanistan the idea was there that somehow conventional Warfare would be successful the problem was that although initially it was
20:30 successful a a a counterinsurgency developed and this this Guerilla Warfare not exactly the same thing as Vietnam but um similar problem so the United States had to develop counterinsurgency um techniques and practices in order to you know quell what was going on and um um and it you know for a while they worked but they're I think they're in
21:06 the long term there wasn't the will to keep doing this and to make the um make the Investments if you will in time in order to truly um transform um the the um the Iraqi and Afghani situations um in order to get rid of um all of the resistance so if one thinks about it um the United States Occupied Japan for roughly a quarter Century um
21:43 after uh World War II um and and was and had very very tight controls on what happened in Japan during that time there was in fact attempts to raise Guerilla Warfare in Japan post World War II um Le less so in Germany Germany was so badly destroyed um in World War II um there was no real you know significant um you know attempt to create an Insurgency um
22:19 however in the case of Germany as well it took literally decades in order to um you know essentially turn Germany into a contemporary um Democratic Republic um you know similar to the other countries in in Western Europe and and and the same thing is true in Japan so there wasn't that commitment there wasn't that um willingness to expend resources um in Iraq and Afghanistan um to do that now one might argue the the cultural
22:56 differences um between the m east and south Asia were were so great um that you know it would never have been achieved you know that that's a good bourbon topic um maybe that's the case although certainly Japan is is an Asian culture and very very different than American culture so um I I think that um in the end the the the issues with Iraq and Afghanistan is um Americans were Americans the PE our
23:34 nation people were just not able to if you will stomach um the kind of allout warfare that's necessary um that was what took place in certainly in in in Germany and in the Pacific during World War II um and to a large extent in Korea as well I think there was a certain kind of exhaustion uh with that kind of warfare but unfortunately that is that's that's what's needed in order to to you know
24:09 win a war and so because the United States went in with a a a less than um solid commitment to Prevail indeed the United States did not Prevail in any of these conflicts in the latter half of the 20 20th century in the beginning the 21st century uh and and and so today we still see this this this playing out so you know we we see a shift of well we need to you know focus on the war on terrorism and and then and then we see
24:44 the rise of of China and Iran um and and and Russia as being more conventional threats so then we do we refocus on conventional threats and and and how the do we handle situations like what we see in the Middle East where we have the houthis based in Yemen um you know launching missiles and drones at commercial traffic going through um you know the the the Gulf of I mean the um Suez Canal um and the Red Sea um how you
25:19 know how do we deal with that how do we deal with a situation where we have these um sort of lowlevel urban type conflicts um in in the Gaza Strip and in southern Lebanon between Israel and Kamas andah um how do we deal with an Iran that at least until recently essentially fought Wars through proxies through Hezbollah Hamas the houthis ETC um and has only recently um you know directly
25:54 attacked uh Israel how do we deal with a North Korea that is um sending troops to Russia to fight in the war with with Ukraine right I I don't know that the United States has a coherent strategy for that how do we you know how are we going to deal with China with with mainland China if it attacks Taiwan or or the Philippines for that matter right so and and and one you you know can say well how do you know how you're going to
26:29 fight it until you know what you're fighting and and that that is the challenge right so what do we learn from this then for our business lives so I've raised a few issues that I want to highlight from a Business and Professional uh perspective so you saw one of the themes that hopefully you recognize as I went through this this the sort of fighting the last war uh Continuum um is that technological
27:04 change required a rethinking of strategy operations and even tactics unfortunately in many cases there was not a recognition of how those technological changes would change the state of War would change the battlefield and so I think we've got some similar going on in the business world right now so last night I I had a conversation with with my friend Michael who I've mentioned many times about IIA a I'm sorry AI um and how how it might
27:42 impact business the workplace in America how people work how much labor is needed what kinds of jobs will be more more affected by AI than other types of jobs right this is a crucial issue for us in business to deal with and and to make some at at least educated guesses and start experimenting with it so that we're not left behind in in you know we're better off being you
28:19 know the businesses that figure out how to use the technology and and and others have to catch up to us then being the ones who need to catch up so uh for I'll give you an example in real life um this was in the Wall Street Journal yesterday I think or maybe over the weekend um so there are a number of private uh space uh companies now um blue origin SpaceX um there's there's another one in Europe
28:54 I'm um Arian I believe it is um and um if you saw the launch of spacex's uh heavy rocket and and and the booster came back and they caught it in the tower so that it can be reusable it would it will significantly reduce the cost of putting satellites other things into outer space and that gives SpaceX a a you know a huge advantage on in the commercial space market right so other companies are
29:31 really behind the curve in terms of creating reusable vehicles for going into space well this has been a long-term goal of SpaceX and and they've theyve pursued it uh you know quite uh strongly if you will and and while they certainly haven't worked all the bugs out by by Rec recognizing that this would give them a t tremendous Advantage economically they have made tremendous strides in bringing it into reality so
30:08 these other companies now are going to have to play catchup now will you know will spacex's Advantage always remain you know for time in Memorial well history teaches us no it won't eventually companies stumble um and other companies overtake them look at IBM for example having said that um at least in this short and and and medium term SpaceX has a a recognizable advantage in its Marketplace because it
30:44 dealt forthrightly with the potential technological changes that will make them a stronger company and and so that you know works out that delivers to their success so all of us need to be looking at technologies that can be that can help make our businesses more efficient uh lower cost to our customers and clients we should be continually examining these things even if you're a solo solopreneur like a oneperson business right um we need to take the time to do that maybe work with other
31:20 people who have similar businesses as ours um and talk to them about how you know how how do you think we canuse use technology join some kind of uh Professional Organization or some sort of you know business group and and that's a topic that should be commonly dealt with regularly dealt with in meetings with uh with other people so keeping up with technological change is one way to take effective action okay so that's one thing the the second thing is
31:57 um it and again this was kind of a theme throughout is recognizing where is my or let me rephrase this how will the enemy I need to defeat in on the battlefield how are they going to pursue their actions and is what I'm considering on a strategic operational and tactical level likely to be effective in counteracting the actions
32:32 that they're going to take right and again we saw repeatedly that the United States was behind the curve in figuring out how to deal with it and sometimes to the point where we essentially you know lost a war right we you know we had the you know leaving the Vietnam War what was it was withdrawal dignity with honor or withdrawal with honor whatever it was okay fine but you know the fact of the matter is um we lost the Vietnam War um so so too in our businesses we need to be continually
33:10 examining how is our competition looking to gain an advantage in the marketplace right that that we need to be able to counter thrust if you will okay so I'm going to stick with um the SpaceX example the reason why technologically it's so beneficial to have reusable boosters is at least two factors one is it's a cost savings so
33:46 not having to you know create a new booster every time there's a launch means a savings in terms of the cost of materials and the cost of labor to do that now the booster has to be refurbished but if it's built properly to begin with it can be reused multiple times and the cost of refurbishing it for each relaunch is significantly less than building a new one okay now the advantage there of course is if I can
34:21 lower my operational costs I can lower what I charge undercut my competitor's prices and get more business so that's one advantage that reusable boosters have in terms of how SpaceX is approaching the market and the second one is that by using a reusable booster one can turn around and relaunch more quickly because again refurbishing
34:56 that booster is a faster process than building a new one right so in in theory I I don't know what the actual you know numbers are but it you know in theory one could refurbish maybe who knows two three five 10 boosters in the time it takes to build one from scratch okay so again having a shorter turnaround time okay that does a couple things for us one is is it allows us to launch more
35:31 frequently and it lowers the the the the cost because I I I can I can you know launch more flights so our our fixed costs can be amortized over more launches okay which again lowers our our operating costs overall which allows us to lower our prices Okay so the ability to launch more to to do more launches in a shorter period of time economically makes us more effic not us makes SpaceX
36:08 more efficient and therefore makes them more competitive in the marketplace right so for blue origin and the other companies um Boeing as also is is a competitor in this at least in theory although the the word the word is that they're looking to sell their space business but for them they need to respond to that challenge okay and if they just kind of keep doing what they've been doing up until now it's like fighting the last war because SpaceX has changed the
36:44 nature of the competition in in private in private this private space race okay so so that's another aspect that we need to look at as we um as we take lessons from the you know the fighting of the last war what are the what are the strategies and tactics that our competitors are going to use that may be more Nimble uh may be more efficient May cost less um may allow them to just
37:19 somehow appear you know kind of make a bigger Splash right I mean the the fact that that SpaceX you know caught that booster it's not just that they caught caught the booster it's it's when you look at the video it's just it's so amazing you it's just you're like wow you know I think I want to work with these guys right so sometimes the the advantage is is almost ethereal in a way right but we need to be aware of those and we need to deal with them um as as
37:54 we um look at how we need to alter our strategy operations and tactics all right and um the the third lesson that um I think we need to take from fighting the last war is do we enter into combat in from the from the be you know from the get-go are we going to commit to winning this war will we be able to sustain it to the
38:34 point of Victory right and that's that's the lesson that that I I was talking about or that was the issue I was talking about as as I was looking at the the wars we fought in the latter half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century that I think in many ways America as a country as a citizenry just was not prepared for the sacrifices um that winning those Wars required and those sacrifices were the
39:12 willingness to do the kind of things necessary to win a war to fight an allout War where there was going to be destruction there was going to be a lot of death not just um not just the casualties of our own uh service members but on the other side essentially bleading them to the point where they just couldn't go on anymore that is essentially what we did in World War Two For example with the atomic bombs we
39:47 showed Japan that we were willing to be essentially in a way more brutal than they could stand and that is why Japan surrendered now by the way it was a bluff right because we only had two atomic bombs that we we were able to drop on Japan we didn't have anymore it's just Japan didn't know that and so that that's why in the end Japan surrendered um so the the commitment uh so so switching over now into the business realm the professional realm if we're going to launch an
40:22 initiative are we committed to seeing it through or are we committed to whatever our goal is to reaching that goal okay so one of the things that you can see in SpaceX is um Elon Musk and his team they are 110% committed to the mission of SpaceX and I'm not sure that that same commitment for ex exist for example with
40:58 Boeing that has had tremendous problems in getting their next generation of space Vehicles going they've had problem after problem after problem now Boeing as a company has had a lot of problems overall both in their their space and their commercial Aviation and their military Aviation so they they've got a but so one might argue well that's a cultural problem in Boeing and perhaps it is okay but think there's no denying that when you compare SpaceX to Boeing
41:34 SpaceX is committed to spend what it takes to do the work that it takes to reach their goal and somehow that same commitment doesn't come through for Boeing so in our businesses too if we launch a new initiative before we launch it I think we have to have a kind of a heart-to-heart talk with oursel um number one and with our team members are we willing to see this through to do the hard work to make the sacrifices now obviously in business
42:11 we're not talking about existential sacrifices like you know somebody dying I mean I hope we're not in in in business right uh on the other hand we may be talking about a lot of long nights you know working in the office we may be talking about a lot of people on our team really having to move out of their comfort zones and and take on responsibilities that they haven't had before learn a lot of new things maybe fail quite a bit um on the way to finding the success this the path to the
42:46 success you know that we need for our organization all of those things can be Terri can be really difficult for for people to deal with especially if we have a company that where we've been largely successful so far and now we're thinking of branching into something where our success is much less assured at least as we look at it today so are are we really in our gut if you will are we willing to make that commitment okay to to fight those battles um and and to you know make
43:23 those changes that are most likely going to be need that but most likely are going to need to be made in order for us to reach our objective reach our goal you know win our our battle so to speak when our our war our um in in the in the Business and Professional sphere so those are the lessons of taking effective action based on not want not wanting to fight the the last war and I encourage you to think about the things
43:58 um you know this this episode we're it's it's broadcasting here the end of October we're heading into the holiday period so I know one of the things I do every year the last week of the year is I essentially take it off and to to spend a lot of time thinking about the lessons from the the year that's coming to an end and and making plans for the coming year making setting goals and really committing to them that's that is a process it can't
44:35 just happen on the fly right and and that's that's perhaps another lesson that we can take from not fighting the last war is oftentimes the strategy is sort of just done on the Fly well this is what worked before so that's what we're going to do this time rather than sitting down and saying okay we've got a poten poal conflict Brewing here what do we need to be doing now in order to be successful in that conflict and doing I I don't like this term so much but some perhaps some out-of-the-box thinking um so that that
45:13 that perhaps we come up with a strategy operations and tactics that will be successful as we enter into this this this new territory as we enter on to this new battle field so that's my message for you today I I really appre appreciate you joining me I think there's a number of people here on the live broadcast that's always exciting I I hope you uh not just enjoyed the show but but really got something worthwhile out of it some some you know real nutritious food for thought would love
45:49 to hear your comments your thoughts good bad um links to my social to our social media will be in the show notes after this episode posts on YouTube so you can always you can find us on LinkedIn find us on uh on X find us on Facebook um find us on uh Instagram okay they'll all be there and and and tell me your thoughts um and and and while you're and if you if you happen to go to any of our social media please do consider following us and if you're uh if you do go to uh YouTube um please do consider
46:28 subscribing to um our YouTube channel that way you'll always get notified when uh when we're going live or or when a a new show is available for viewing so one last time I thank you very much for joining you for joining me uh wishing you a oh uh real quickly tomorrow at at 10: amm is is my show um uh people making money and and I'm going to be talking uh about holiday party etiquette okay as I mentioned just a couple
47:04 minutes ago we're heading into the holiday season and I think it's it's a good idea to kind of review the this this issue um so that we can have not only as as fun a holiday season as possible but but one where we really you know stay true to our values as individuals and and and and really show ourselves um in the best possible light so please join me again tomorrow 10: a.m. Pacific time for people making money and then next week on Monday 10: am is my show trust in Estates weekly my
47:41 guest is Maryanne Dean Maryanne is expert in dealing with the kind of conflicts that come up in the administration or of a trust or EST State she's essentially spent her entire career doing that really looking forward to having Maryann on the show I hope you'll join me and then of course a week from today we'll be back for the next episode of business lessons from the military so again thank you so much wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do Marie darling you are my bell courage