0:15 Hello. Got to record the session. There we go. Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and we are here every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time, 2:00 pm Eastern time, and an hour in for Central and Mountain. I was just talking to someone in Central time. So, it's always uh fun to talk to a military uh colleague uh you know, that that uh I I don't know well and get to know him better. Uh he's actually gonna be a
0:50 guest coming up on a show in a few weeks with his wife. So um you can um just you know I'll tease you a little bit about it just just just to leave it there. So uh today we are going to start on the next uh group if you will of uh war Marine Corps warf fighting doctrine and and really get start going in deeper and deeper than we have before on how to apply the how to apply um military uh lessons uh to um starting growing
1:26 improving your business whether whether you're an entrepreneur reneur whether you work for a company it doesn't I think these these uh lessons are equally applicable and so let's let's jump right in and especially since this is based on the military there has to be a PowerPoint that's uh pretty much required so uh you know for those of you who are in the military you know of what I speak and here we go okay so um this is lessons from the military And a as as I typically mentioned this is all um by
2:03 way of working within the three pillars of attainment. Um we are generally working here in the pursuits um pillar within the finances realm although the lessons do apply uh to other things especially to relationships and certainly as we get get into our our self our identity our mindset I think you will find a lot of these apply. All right. So, today we're going to talk about the conduct of war applied to business. That's why I say we're really going to get into some of the nitty-gritty here. Get into some of the
2:38 details. Okay? And throughout Marine Corps warfighting doctrine, you will see this term maneuver warfare. I know I've brought it up in past shows. Maneuver warfare really is the fundamental concept in how the Marine Corps looks at pursuing combat operations. Now what's interesting is over the last certainly decade or two business I think has
3:16 evolved very much in a direction that's compatible with the ideas contained within maneuver warfare. And when I was preparing for the show earlier this morning, a thought occurred to me and I I wanna I want to bring this up because I I think it'll it'll help see why I feel there's such a strong connection between the milit between military lessons and how they can be applied to business. So in America, we live or we we operate under a a capitalistic system. And people will argue it's not
3:53 pure capitalism. It's certainly not addivistic capitalism, that's for sure. But in general, we we have our economic system is capitalism. And one of the features of capitalism that I think doesn't get talked about very often, perhaps because it sounds so negative, but is indeed in many ways one of the um reasons why capitalism is, as Church Hill called it, uh the worst economic system except for all the others. Okay?
4:28 is contained within capitalism is is a a sense of um I lost the the phrase now creative destruction. Okay. So capitalism is in a constant process of destroying in order to create something new. Okay. So let's let's take a you know a famous example um going back you know o over a hundred years ago now 120 years ago or so the automobile had been invented um but it was not a widely adopted uh u technology
5:05 if you will right there was people still got around um in on horses they still had horsedrawn uh vehicles and there was a still a thriving industry in buggy whips, which were whips that you you you would sit in your buggy and you'd, you know, whip the horse to get it to go faster. Um, and and makers of buggy whips, you know, they sort of just sloughed off the idea of the automobile. It was noisy. It was unreliable. It scared horses. They hated it. Um, the roads, there were no roads
5:41 were not compatible with automobiles. You you I you can come up with all the explanations you want as to how you know someone could convince himself that you know the automobile was just a flash in the pan. It was never going to last compared to the horse which had been the mode of human transportation at that point for literally millennia. Right? And where are all the buggy whip manufacturers today? They're all gone. they they got put out of business over probably about a 20-year period during which time the automobile went from you know a nent technology to being widely
6:17 adopted in part because uh you know Henry Ford came along and he figured out a way to make an automobile that could be that that that people who worked for making the automobiles could afford to buy, right? And so it became a consumer product and it just basically wiped out horses as as a means of transportation. That's the reality. So it destroyed the buggy whip manufacturing business, but it opened up the manufacturing of automobiles and far
6:52 more people were employed manufacturing automobiles in and it it necessitated a a much larger number of skilled people to design the automobiles, to run the factories, to make the cars. and and as much as we hear about the you know how awful it was working on these assembly lines and yet um I'm not sure that assembly line work was any you know less boring or more boring I should say than you know farm labor and and things like that. So, you know, setting those issues
7:28 aside, which are probably better, you know, discussed over a, you know, a glass of bourbon or or rye. Um, the reality is is is what the automobile industry created was such a leap forward for um economics, for societal growth, etc. So, in the midst of the destruction wrought by capitalism of things like um the the the buggy whip business and you know um blacksmiths, you know, who had to shoe horses and all that kind of stuff, barriers, um a new technology
8:06 came and now we're starting to see um as as electric cars become more common and they they're talking about hydrogen powered cars and all these other things, we're starting to see the next evolution of transport portation technology. And and while it may not happen as fast as um the the conversion from horses to to cars, um still it it it's it's little by little probably going to destroy the automobile business as we know it today or certainly as we knew it, you know, 20
8:42 30 years ago where the internal combustion engine was was the technology. I mean, there really wasn't any other way to power a car. Now there's electrical, there's natural gas, there's all these there's all these other things. So, um, contained within that creative destruction that's a part of capitalism is the need for maneuver warfare or the the the ideas contained within maneuver warfare, which is probably more to the point. Okay. And um we we hear about um
9:18 there's this term you hear in in business a lot um disruption, right? So disruption I would argue is creative destruction taken to the next level. and maneuver warfare or the principles of maneuver warfare. Let's let's let's speak it that way are really the principles that allow disruption to happen. Okay. So let's get into these now and see why that's the case. Okay. So when we we think about
9:53 maneuver, often times what we think about is sort of maneuvering on the ground or maybe maneuvering in the air like an airplane maneuvering or a ship maneuvering, sort of what what you might call spatial maneuver. And certainly that is from a war fighting standpoint that is one aspect of maneuver. Where Marine Corps doctrine really is looking though is beyond that very narrow concept of maneuver and they're applying it to psychological maneuver, technological maneuver as well as temporal issues like
10:31 spatial maneuver. Okay? So we want to be agile. We want to apply maneuver to every single part of our business. Okay? So we want to have maneuver in finances. We want to have maneuver in marketing. We want to have maneuver in project uh product development and service development. We we want to constantly be looking on how to move within those various realms in the overall um space of business.
11:07 Okay. And we and we and we also want to be thinking how do we develop maneuver as a psychological concept? How do we build that in instead of thinking linearly? How do we get our our um new product, new service people thinking on a maneuver basis? How do we get our finance people thinking on a maneuver basis? Okay? Because that's where we can c, you know, we can disrupt and make leaps toward our goals and toward
11:43 wherever business is going to go in the future. Okay. So the thing about maneuver whether it's psychological, whether it's technological is number one, it's rapid and number two it's focused. Okay? We cannot be rapid and dispersed at the same time. All that's doing is more quickly depleting all of our energy. Whether it's physical energy, mental energy, spiritual energy, doesn't matter. Dispersed rapidity is
12:18 just it's just um it's just making it diminish more quickly. Okay? So, we need to be focused in our rapid movements. Okay. And and that and if you if you'll go back, we I talked about um focus in general. And it really means like being very targeted. Where are we going to put our our energies with respect to finances? When are we where are we going to put our energies with respect to marketing? Okay. And this is
12:53 where I think businesses get off base is they set all these sort of grandiose goals or whatever and brand awareness and all this kind of no what we want to do is is get down really what are the fundamental issues within our business that we can work on and one of them is we want to play to our strengths. Okay. We we want to to the extent we can avoid having to deal with our weaknesses and play to our strengths. And the way we
13:28 deal with our weaknesses is we get someone else on our team who's strong in that area where we're not. Okay? That's how you deal with weaknesses for the most part. Okay? So we want to move rapidly and we want to be very very focused and again in all areas of our business sales marketing um new product and and and uh services development and how we're doing our financing. Now by the way in things like financing and and certainly in accountancy okay we don't want to be breaking the rules of course and in fact we don't want to be ever
14:03 breaking the rules. We don't want to break the bounds of of moral business con conduct of ethical marketing, that sort of thing. Okay? So, I'm not saying we want to be so rapid and focused that we're breaking through any sort of norm and anything goes. Quite to the contrary, we want to recognize those boundaries and work in a rapidfocused way within them so that we're leaping forward, but we're not leaping outside
14:38 the boundaries and doing something that may be illegal or immoral that then is going to potentially put us out of the game. And and that's where I think when we talk about disrupting, I think people get too rap. They want to disrupt everything. No, we want to be ethical, honest business people. Okay? We just want to look for opportunities to really drive our businesses forward. Okay? And we want to bypass to penetrate. Okay? If we've got if we see some kind of
15:14 looming hurdle coming up, we don't necessarily have to just batter batter B- A T R at that hurdle until we get through it. The best way to to deal with that hurdle may be can we just go around it? Can we avoid it? Can we go over it? Can we tunnel under it? Okay. or can we sort of take it at a glancing blow and not have to deal with it a whole lot in order to just get around it more easily,
15:49 more efficiently. Okay, so let's let's let's take an example. Okay, let's say that um uh let me come up with one here real quickly. Uh oh, okay. So, let's say that and we're in times like this, right? There's there's a lot of economic uncertainty that we're dealing with. What does that mean in terms of what's going to happen to our businesses? Are we going to get more
16:24 sales? Are sales going to get contracted? Are we going to hit a recession? Are we not going to hit a recession? Stock market going to go not going to go up? All of those are potential hurdles that we have to deal with. Okay. So, one of the ways to penetrate those hurdles would be to avoid them. Okay. So, rather than waiting for the recession to get here, maybe we want to take a look at streamlining our businesses now. Okay? And it may mean laying some people off. You say, "Well, if we lay people off,
17:00 that's going to make a recession more likely perhaps." Okay? But if you hang on to people, okay, and and and then then we do hit recession and you have to let them go and now all of a sudden employment isn't as strong as it is now. Is that better for the people that that you know are not essential to the operations of your business? I I would think no. Right now, the the the employment market is very tight and so someone can find a new job much more easily than they can if we're actually
17:35 in a recession. Okay? And and and indeed, you may be able to be in a situation where you can give people more time so that they they can job search while also keeping the job with you, but you know, they've got maybe two months to transition or something like that. Okay. So, rather than dealing with that hurdle farther down the line where you're you're going to have to sort of batter through it and and deal with all of the um all of the stress and anxiety of of having to let people go and and
18:10 then, you know, they're upset because the job market isn't good and gosh, I wish I had done I wish you had let me know about this six months ago or whatever. Is look at your workforce now. Optimize your workforce. If you have people on the payroll who who really aren't necessary or the work they do is not necessary, it's not part of the rapid focused effort that you need to make, then start working with those people either to transition them into a more crucial role in your organization
18:46 or finding somewhere else to go where they'll have greater job security than you concurrently offer that. Okay, that's a way to bypass a a future hurdle. Okay, now and that plays into the next thing. Seize the initiative. Okay, don't sit around waiting to to respond to what the competition is doing, to respond to what the market is, you know, not is but may throw at you. Okay. Do we really want to wait until we're in a recession to deal with being
19:22 in a recession? Or it would it be better to I I like I like this word I used a minute ago, optimize our businesses now or at least make plans for how we're going to deal with a recession or may maybe it's mild, maybe it's harsh, maybe have a couple of different options on what we do. Take the initiative now. Make those plans. Have those discussions. talk to your people, okay? Maybe there's some people who are working for you. They're they're really not particularly happy in their work and they would be happier somewhere else.
19:57 Okay? And maybe they're they're hanging in there because they feel a loyalty to you. You're a great employer and they feel like I you know employing you know the labor market is so tight right now. I just I don't feel like in good conscience I can leave and leave you in the lurch. say, "Hey, you know what? I'm trying to figure out how we're going to deal with all of this." And and and if really, if you're not happy here, then let's work together on a plan where you can find somewhere to go happy, where you can be happier. You can go somewhere where you'll be happier. Um and and you will be you'll
20:33 be better off and I'll be able to shrink my workforce. um but without you know a lot of hard feelings on people because people are able to go on to something that's even better than what they were doing here. So seize the initiative okay and talk to people you know there I mean you said well I don't want to I don't want to stir up uncertainty I I if you think that people aren't feeling uncertainty honestly you're probably kidding yourself a little bit. I think most people are feeling pretty uncertain right now. I think it's better to put them on the table instead of leaving letting it be
21:08 the elephant in the room, right? Just put it on the table and say, I and be honest. Listen, I don't know where this is going to lead, but I would like to get your input. What do you see ahead? How do you see your situation? Are you liking your work here? Are you not liking your work here? Do you feel what you're doing is making a meaningful contribution? And and and just ask people a lot of questions. and and figure it out. Seize the initiative. Okay. Now, the key thing and and this is this is why I'm I'm dealing
21:44 with this last is in order to operate successfully in maneuver warfare, you have to be able to cope with uncertainty. and and and the most successful people in business today are the ones who have the strongest stomach for uncertainty. Okay, I I brought up this example before because I I just think it's so it's I mean it's such a great show and movie uh how to succeed in business without really trying, right?
22:19 And there's the famous song that about the guy he only does it the company way. He doesn't want any change. He doesn't want to take any risk. Okay. That sort of employee today is really kidding himself. That is not the business environment of the 50s where you go to work for a company and 30 years later you retire and you get a defined benefit pension and a gold watch. Those days are over. Okay. The nature of business is uncertainty today. And to be successful in business, we have to consistently be working to be
22:55 able to better cope with uncertainty. Okay? And one of the ways we can help our people do that is by talking to them about the uncertainty in the business, getting their input, and explaining to them, look, I I I'm not trying to make you feel anxious or stressed out. We are in a a a more than usual uh time of uncertainty in the economy and business. And rather than deal with this on my own and then
23:31 end up surprising you with things that I've come up with, I want us to share in this so together we can better cope with whatever the future may hold for us. Whether it's continuing as a team, whether it means some of us have to leave, I I don't know the answer to that right now. What I do know is we have to confront the uncertainty in order to deal with it and we're stronger doing that as a team. Okay, I've used this example often enough as well because I
24:06 do again I think it's so pertinent to the business world and especially when we have younger employees who want to feel that they are a part they're an important part of the organizations for which they're working. You take a submarine, in particular an attack submarine. There's about 110 120 crew members on that submarine and everyone from the most junior to the captain of the boat is expected and welcomed to share ideas on how to run that boat
24:44 better, how to make it a more effective tool of whatever it's doing, gathering intelligence, um being a deterrent to a particular action that an enemy might take, etc. Okay. And in fact, a a a well you you won't have a seaman uh apprentice on a on a submarine, but a seaman or a petty officer third class on a submarine will think nothing of saying, "Hey, skipper, do you have a minute? I had an idea that I want to share with you." And unless that skipper is not a good one, he's
25:20 going to say, "Absolutely, shipmate." Or, "Hey, shipmate, I got something to do right now. uh let's get together in whatever an hour 30 minutes. Let's get together, you know, in in in in three hours and and and let's uh go over this thing or let's or or or I I can't do it today, but but grab the exo and talk to him about it or whatever. He's not going to let that idea just drop for two reasons. One is it may be a great idea that will make his boat run better and he needs that. And two, he doesn't want
25:56 to teach that junior crew member that what he thinks is not worthwhile. To the contrary, he wants that junior crew member to understand your ideas are valuable. You're a valuable member of this crew and and we're going to listen to your ideas. Whether we implement them or not, that's a separate issue, but we're going to listen to them. We may debate them. We may try them or we may not try them right now, but we may try them later. Or we may reject them. But we're going to give you a hearing because even if this
26:33 idea isn't a good idea or it's an idea we don't adopt, the next one you come up with could be and it could be an an unbelievably good idea that is going to really raise the efficiency of the operations of this boat. The same is true in our businesses. And and that's that's we I think we we think of it as being well maybe in marketing that's the case because there's all this social media marketing and all this new stuff that like me I this stuff didn't even exist when I started in business okay not just there in product development in sales in every part of
27:11 the business young people can have ideas because if for no well if for no other reason then they're not so invested Ed and and and um uh I guess invested is the best word in how things have always been done. So they have a different perspective than you know old guys like me can bring to a business and and they bring a fresh outlook and that can be very valuable. They also may be involved in kinds of things that that we're not involved with like like video games. Okay, I used to poo poo video games
27:47 honestly. But what I found is there are many great lessons that can come out of video games and and that can be applied to business and and they're worth listening to. They're worth considering. Okay, so we're we're we're we're almost up on time here. Um so I I encourage you to, you know, wrestle with these ideas, think about them. How can they be applied to the business to your business or the business for which you work and and and really give that some thought
28:22 even if it's only in you know in one little way you use it test it out see if it works for you I think you find that I think you'll find that it will I can tell you this is how I'm these are the these are the principles I'm applying to my own business as I you know rebuild okay and and and it's it's going to be trial and error By the way, unfortunately that is true in combat as well. We we would might like to think, okay, we we we build this combat plan and we execute it and you know, nobody gets killed and and it goes off and No, no. It's like von Malti said, no plan survives first contact
28:59 with the enemy. Okay. But we still need the plan. We still need to follow our principles and and then be able to maneuver, adjust, be rapid and focused, bypass to penetrate, seize the initiative, and continually increase our ability to cope with uncertainty in order to really make our businesses successful. So, that's what I have today. I want to thank you for joining me. And tomorrow
29:34 um is uh my show uh People Making Money at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time, 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. I'm going to go ahead and and uh stop the sharing here and let me I'll tell you what the topic is for uh tomorrow. Oh yes. So, tomorrow uh I'm going to talk about um give you a comprehensive list of issues to deal with if you're negotiating for a job andor if you need to hire people. These are the issues that you want to be prepared to address to them in order to
30:11 make sure that you're offering them the most enticing package that you can. We're in a tight labor market these days and we really need to be looking more giving a harder look at how we work with with our people. Okay. So, we're going to do a a very deep dive into that tomorrow. That's u people making money 12:30 p.m. Pacific, 3:30 p.m. Eastern. Um go to my Eventbrite page. Um um you know I'm going to start putting a link to the event by in Eventbrite uh page in in the show notes. Go to my
30:48 YouTube channel, look at past um uh episodes of the show and that way you'll you can see what it's about. You can join us live streaming online or you can join the meeting live using the Eventbrite link. And then next week starting on Monday is uh Trust and Estates Weekly. um that's a show dedicated to that somewhat narrow um part of of the business world. So, it's it's an opportunity to figure out how you can enhance your business by working in that arena. And then a week from today, we'll be back here for business lessons from the military, continuing on
31:24 with our discussion of the theory of war applied to business. So, thanks again for joining me uh today. I appreciate it very much. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off.