Business 3 min read By Arthur Ellington
Veteran founders turn military service into mission-driven businesses
A Green Beret and a military spouse built companies serving the military community and reached the same conclusions about running mission-driven firms, while veteran chief executives at large US corporations point to similar leadership skills.
A former Green Beret and a military spouse have each built businesses aimed at the military community, and both have arrived at similar conclusions about what it takes to run a mission-driven company. One founder built a business selling equipment, while the other set out to create jobs. Their experiences offer a practical view of how companies that serve a specific community can operate successfully.
The founders' accounts underline that a mission-driven business must balance its social purpose with the basic demands of commercial viability. Both learned that a clear sense of purpose helps attract customers and staff, but that the purpose alone does not sustain a company. Reliable revenue, disciplined operations and a clear understanding of the customer are needed to keep the mission going.
The lessons they describe echo a wider pattern in corporate America. Several Fortune 500 chief executives are military veterans, and many say the discipline and judgment they developed in uniform carried over into business. Their backgrounds show how the skills of military leadership can translate to the boardroom.
Jim Taiclet, chief executive of Lockheed Martin, served as an Air Force pilot from 1985 to 1991 and logged more than 5,000 flight hours. He flew the C-141B Starlifter, including during the Gulf War. He later worked at McKinsey, Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell before becoming chief executive of American Tower in 2004. He has led Lockheed Martin since 2020. The defence contractor employs about 120,000 people, roughly one in five of whom are veterans.
Darren Rebelez, chief executive of Casey's, graduated from West Point in 1988 and served as an infantry officer, including a deployment in the Gulf War. He later held roles at KFC, ExxonMobil, 7-Eleven and IHOP before becoming chief executive of Casey's in 2019. The convenience store chain ranks No. 282 on the Fortune 500 with about $25 billion in revenue.
Shane O'Kelly, chief executive of Advance Auto Parts, graduated from West Point in 1990 and spent seven years as an Army infantry officer. He later earned an MBA from Harvard and worked at McKinsey and Home Depot before leading the retailer. Jeffrey Martin, chief executive of the energy company Sempra, also attended West Point and was commissioned after 1984. He left the Army as a captain in 1989. Sempra's workforce numbers roughly 20,000.
Veteran chief executives frequently cite leadership, personal responsibility and decision-making under pressure as skills that transfer directly from military service to business. For founders building companies around the military community, those same qualities appear to shape how they set priorities, manage teams and keep their missions and their balance sheets in step.
Source: inc.com
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