The entrepreneurial spirit

The Services are most certainly not short of individuals with flair, imagination and get-up-and-go when it comes to operations and training. The difficulty usually lies in trying to stop people from going too far rather than having to kick them into action. Battles are won by and individuals are honoured for acts of heroism that might, in other circumstances, have led to a prison sentence or a longish stay in a mental hospital.

Even on non-operational duties, the same qualities of physical and mental courage, the can-do attitude, the determination never to be beaten, come to the fore. Getting a ship ready for sea in an emergency, organising a brigade for fire-fighting, or mounting an air-sea rescue may call for the rules to be stretched and for such niceties as leave entitlement or a non-essential course to be abandoned.

By contrast, the civilian world can seem plodding and filled with ‘jobsworths’ who are surrounded by a web of petty regulations and are incapable of action without a severe prod from behind. Every so often the cry goes up that, ‘The Armed Forces ought to run the trains – then they’d be on time’, and senior rail industry figures either wince or explode with rage at the thought of a senior officer trying to deal with the unions.

But, hold on a minute. Are these the same Armed Forces and MoD who take 30 years to buy a new ship, tank or aircraft? And aren’t these shiny new acquisitions usually out of date by the time they are in Service? Aren’t these the same people being criticised year in year out by the Audit Commission over waste? Isn’t there a great deal of petty bureaucracy in the Services? Can the system of expenses, travel and subsistence really be called efficient? And every Service magazine carries complaints about pay and allowances.

Moreover, the dull and plodding civilian world produced Branson, Sugar, Leahy (Tesco) and Green – entrepreneurs all and some in piratical style. From billionaire hedge fund managers to small shopkeepers, civilians take financial risks every day that would bring Service people sleepless nights. Civilians rarely get six months’ notice of a change of job – they sometimes get a brief interview and an invitation to leave the company car keys on the table.

So let’s forget the stereotypes of the dashing, bold battle-winning hero and the poor, boring, meek clerk; or, if you come from the other direction, the stupid, blindly obedient, uniformed cannon-fodder and the sharp, dynamic, high-visibility executive.

Very few of us are anywhere near these extremes, and most are as competent in or out of uniform, as any study of conscripts in war or the volunteer forces during peacetime will demonstrate. Personal attributes and character are just as much in evidence in both walks of life. However, people tend to be more comfortable in the culture and environment that is familiar to them. A civilian might find it as impossible to accept that life might be ended by a bullet, as a Service person might find it to understand that it was necessary to risk their house to start a business.

Therefore there are most certainly some areas in which civilians are often more capable and have more experience than their Service equivalents. One example is employment. In the Forces, you are provided with the manpower and you get on with the job. With few exceptions, commanders do not have the right to hire and fire, they do not determine wages and they can even have little say in promotion. Generally speaking, all of these issues are dealt with centrally by a huge human resources department. Conversely, civilian managers can often be responsible for all these areas and their consequences.

In consequence, a military boss may feel extremely uncomfortable with and even threatened by a solicitor’s letter complaining about unfair dismissal or discrimination and threatening formal action. While no one welcomes such things, his civilian counterpart is more likely to say ‘bring it on’ and lose no sleep whatsoever – purely because these things happen comparatively frequently in a competitive civilian environment.

Similarly, a civilian project manager – and they also make mistakes as shown in the ten-fold overspend on the Scottish Parliament building – is likely to have a much more total control over the workforce, with the freedom to make decisions about who, how many and what skills are required from day to day. Lay-offs and recruitment may be at short notice, short term and even a little brutal as people struggle to get the job done with the minimum resources.

Competition and market reactivity demand fast, direct decision-making and action, just like military operations. Maybe the easiest way to imagine it is that civilian commercial organisations, and also some non-profit-making ones, are permanently on operations or the equivalent. Their battles may be fought with finance rather than ammunition but they are real nevertheless. There are casualties and ‘collateral damage’, winners and losers. So, have some respect for the survivors in what can be a ruthless business and make sure that you are ready for ‘civilian warfare’.