HOW MILITARY TEACHES ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In my second innings when I joined the Corporate World after my military stint, I realized that the concepts of business remain same at both the places and only the resources change. It slowly got re emphasized as I kept progressing in my corporate career. And now I strongly believe that the origin of Business or life for that matter was more warfare oriented than transaction based.

Adam lived on hunting and the earliest known societies of the world were tribal, community building happened only after learning the skills to survive. History of hunting can be traced well even pre origin of Homo sapiens.

Nowhere, I am trying to advocate warfare but the basic objective is to learn skills of life and business through an unparallel source. Military teaches us discipline and execution to perfection and this is possible only because of deliberation, calibration and re calibration. Drills and perfection is imbibed in a warrior because he/she has a little or no chances of retakes. High stakes makes one more serious and defined in the acts.

My endeavor here is to share the learning especially to the creative and bright youngsters who aim to be successful entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Probably drawing a parallel between these two tangents (military and corporate) will be better remembered and practiced than the monotonous classroom lectures.

How is Military Similar to Corporate?

Let’s understand how structurally a Military setup is similar to any Business group.

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This list can go endless and was just to draw a similarity in the skeleton. Military is one of the highest risk taking organizations known around, however every risk is well calculated and deliberated to the minutest possible details. Similarly an entrepreneur with his all risk taking capabilities should always be more prepared in terms of his/her groundwork and research. To understand it, simply remember when your stakes are high you tend to be more prepared and aligned. Treat your enterprise as your dream and not just another career or an experiment. Your readiness and contingency plans will help you not to get smothered. While we were working on our startup Rentaluncle.com our first priority was to conceive a multi skill team to have a more of 360 degree overview of business.

Even before the team is designed, the paramount task of an entrepreneur is to distinctly draw the Objective for the organization. Be it any aspect of life, if it needs to derive value has to have a GOAL/OBJECTIVE/AIM.

The journey of an entrepreneur also starts with a Goal. No, becoming an entrepreneur cannot be a Goal, it is a dream indeed. One has to be more specific with the GOAL and it has to be well realized and defined. Your GOAL will act as a Foundation work for your entrepreneurial journey. Let’s try and understand this a bit deeper with some examples.

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I hope the above examples will help you to define a sharper Goal for yourself. In Military Operations it is imperative to define a clear Goal for any smallest of the routine or unconventional operation. It is a mandate to start any briefing with a well defined GOAL. Let me again give you some examples of Goals defined in military operations.

“Our Goal is to capture XYZ sector of enemy area deploying battalion strength by DD/MM/YY”

Now imagine how fatal can it turn when you are leading your troops into enemy area without clear Goal, as your objective will only lay the roads for co-ordination and execution.

GOAL OF GOAL

Now let’s understand what is the importance and relevance of defining a GOAL. A well defined GOAL will always help you and your stakeholders to have a clear structured view of following aspects about the company:

• Target Market

• Target Consumer segment

• Timelines

• Resources required

Goal should also be subdivided in objectives which are your steps to achieve the long term Goal. Goal and Objective is often interchangeable however to understand it in Military terms Winning a Battle can be Goal and winning smaller catchment areas can be Objective.

Let’s go back to the above quoted Goal and see what can be the objectives to achieve that Goal.

“Our Goal is to capture XYZ sector of enemy area deploying battalion strength by DD/MM/YY”

“Our objective is to capture point 4567 with platoon strength by 2000 hrs tomorrow.”

“The Objective of this exercise is to accomplish the replenishment of ammunition to B Company before first light on 23rd November.”

Writing down the clear Objectives and Goals will certainly lead your dreams to turn into reality.

In my coming blogs I will try to cover various stages of entrepreneurship with a correlation and case study drawn with Military Operations.

Author: Maj. Vikrant Khare (Retd.),

CEO & Co Founder Rental Uncle

(These are solely author’s view and are intended only to learn from the ecosystem)