Strategic Planning & Soft Leadership Skills: June 10, 2021

Title: Applying Principles and Methods of Military Strategy to Effective Business Planning

Presented By: Richard A. Stewart, Major, US Marine Corps (Ret.); Principal Cybersecurity Consultant, KBR; Former Director, Cybersecurity at CSC and CGI, Corporate Chief Information Security Officer, SGT, Inc.; Author of “Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941” (1988).

Description: How the following military principles and methods can be adopted to improve business planning and execution:

  • Mission, Defining Objectives (to accomplish mission)
  • Planning to achieve Objectives
    • Threat and Competition Analysis
  • Organization and Resourcing to Achieve Objectives
  • Training and Team Building
  • Flexible Execution and Adaptability
  • Esprit de Corps – Instilling Pride, Loyalty and Focus on Mission and Objectives
    • Making a Difference
    • Rewards

Some Examples of Military methods affecting industry business practices:

  • U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Program’s Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) statistical tool was adopted by industry to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. Basis for developed Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) just-in-time processes.
  • Jeff Sutherland, Developer of Agile-Scrum methodology for software development used throughout industry credited U.S. military adaptive software development methods for this methodology

Learning Outcomes:

  • Participants will be able to state one major example of where military concepts and adaptive innovation have influenced commercial practices and capabilities;
  • Participants will be able to articulate a clearly defined Mission statement for their organization and have the ability to develop specific, achievable objectives to support achieving that Mission;
  • Participants will be able to identify at least two significant threats to their organization;
  • Participants will be able to identify their most likely competition, compare strengths and weaknesses and use military concepts such as the OODA loop to get ahead of their competition;
  • Participants will be able to recognize ways to adopt military planning adaptivity to introduce adaptive planning and execution into their organization;
  • Participants will be able to articulate how military leadership concepts such as leading by example, inspiring and rewarding excellence and initiative, disciplined decision making, and taking responsibility can improve effectiveness, build teams and instill confidence, pride and loyalty.

Biography: Richard Stewart, Major, USMC (Ret.), CISSP, CISM is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in International Security Affairs. He holds Masters Degrees in National Security Studies from Georgetown University and Public Administration from Pepperdine University. He is the author of more than 20 professional articles in various military journals, is the winner of the prestigious Major General Harold W. Chase Essay award by the Marine Corps Foundation, and author of the book “Sunrise at Abadan” by Praeger Press, about Iran during the Second World War and selected by Choice Magazine as one of the Outstanding Scholarly Books of 1989. 

Mr. Stewart served as a career Marine Corps officer specializing in IT Communications, Signals Intelligence, Cryptology, Electronic Warfare and International Relations.  His career including service as a Communications Officer who provided radio and communications center support for Operation Frequent Wind (the evacuation of Saigon) and the subsequent rescue of the SS. Mayaguez from Communist Cambodian forces and the associated battle of Koh Tang Island off Cambodia.  He served in various Marine Corps tactical units as a platoon commander, company executive officer, battalion operations officer and battalion executive officer. He twice participated in planned interventions in Haiti and participated in Exercise Bright Star II in Egypt one month after President Sadat was assassinated. He also served a tour as an Intelligence analyst with a U.S. intelligence agency and served in various staff officer roles including four years in Research, Development and Acquisition and as the Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare officer on the staff of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic Headquarters, the senior Marine Corps headquarters for the U.S. East Coast and Europe. He participated in Marine Corps mechanized warfare exercises and testing at the Marine Corps Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California. There he published influential articles on the need for the Marine Corps to adopt wheeled light armored vehicles for improved maneuver warfare and on potential scenarios for Marine Corps deployment to the Persian Gulf. As a result of his articles, he was asked by the Marine Corps Development Center’s Firepower Division to develop the Concept Paper for the Marine Corps Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) program which provided the basis for Congressional testimony and the formal Marine Corps requirements for the LAV program. The LAV program revolutionized Marine Corps tactical operations and played a critical role in Marine Corps operations in Panama, both Gulf Wars and is now a centerpiece of the Marine Corps strategy for the Western Pacific. Because of his writings on the Persian Gulf, the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School engaged him to help develop a new amphibious exercise scenario based in the Persian Gulf.  Mr. Stewart holds numerous military awards including the Vietnam Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, three Navy Commendation Medals, Joint Service Commendation Medal and Meritorious Unit Citation. 

After retiring from the Marine Corps, Mr. Stewart brought his military leadership, system acquisition and technical experience into the U.S. corporate world where he has worked in the field of Information/Cyber Security for 28 years. He has held Director—level positions for large global IT service corporations such as CSC and CGI in roles such as Technical Director, Director of Security Engineering, Director of Global Cybersecurity Sales Operations, Global Solutions Executive and Cybersecurity Practices Director. He received from CSC two prestigious corporate level awards for Excellence.  While at CSC, his Global Cybersecurity Sales Operations team achieved an unprecedented new business win rate of almost 80% which was reported to the company’s CEO.  He also served as a Director of Information Security/ Corporate Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for SGT, Inc. where he used his military and corporate experience to implement a comprehensive Information Security program.  He also provided senior technical consulting support to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in helping develop and leading a key workstream for the President’s Cybersecurity Framework for Critical Infrastructure.  Mr. Stewart currently works for KBR, Inc.’s Space and Science business unit as a Principal Cybersecurity Engineering Consultant providing cybersecurity engineering services to the Department of Transportation and to the FAA’s two largest IT programs. He recently contributed a chapter to a scholarly book on Human Habitation of the Moon scheduled to be published by Springer Publishing. Mr. Stewart and his wife Cora reside in Hanover, Maryland.