Command and Control is Dead - Long Live Value Proposition

I’ve heard a lot lately about declining interest in the RMC Club. People ask “Why is this so?” My answer? “Command and Control is dead”. And being a former CELE officer, I recognize the heresy in this, but for Ex-Cadet purposes, I think it works. I’ll leave the doctrinal debate over C2 vs network centric warfare to those better versed the current state of the art of electronic warfare.

There was a time when the RMC Club would announce an event, and Ex-Cadets would fill the seats. But you may have noticed a trend in society lately. Parents are more involved with their kids. Business is more competitive. Traffic is worse. Costs are higher. With divorces, children, work travel, mergers, and postings, we can't expect people to have the Club in the same status that it held 30 years ago. If we, as Ex-Cadets, don't reach out to our members, to share the value, we can't expect them to just 'show up' the way we used to. It has to be worth their valuable time. And what was valuable 5 years ago, is a commodity today.

One fundamental truth I’ve learned about business success is that you must have a clear value proposition. In addition, one needs reasonable prices, convenient access and sensible time expectations. Let's face it, when we, as a Club, organize a function, we need to think like retailers. *Everything* matters, from price to parking. And you'd better be aware that you're competing for your target's time. Finally, *nothing* will come of it unless there is a coordinated sales campaign. I've seen corporate golf tournaments struggle, with free food, free green fees, carts, prizes and drinks. It's not that people aren't interested in free golf. It's that they're time pressed and the sales teams need to work the phones to solidify the value proposition in the customer's heads. Fewer and fewer jobs allow for half days away from the office. And clearly, if we're doing the same things and getting worse results, shouldn't we be changing our methods? Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?

If you're going to get *anyone* to attend a function [be they Ex-Cadets or anyone else] you need to treat them like customers and I believe strongly, that we need to start treating the Ex-Cadet community this way. The folks behind the Veritas and the e-Veritas have been doing a superb job over the years, and you may have noticed that the quality of the product has been improving. But in my mind, we’re missing something key that is preventing more Ex-Cadets from joining the Club and being more active in it. Sure, we have a common background, but if we just assume that the Ex-Cadets are going to 'read the memo' and just show up like so many privates, we've missed the changes that have gone on in society in the last 10 years.

Part of my strategy to promote dialog among our community is to get Ex-Cadets communicating on Facebook. I don't believe that Facebook is going to be some kind of panacea to make the Club successful. It's just another communications means, and should only be considered one part of the overall marketing campaign [we do have a *plan* don't we?] and it needs to be followed up by individual accountability to drive people to join. But it all starts with the definition of the Value Proposition.

What is the Value Proposition for the RMC Club today [in *your* opinion]? What does it need to be for our community to thrive?

The New Psychology of Leadership

While going through an airport last month, the cover of Scientific American Mind had a cover highlighting recent work in the study of leadership. Having an armchair interest in the subject [nurtured by 4 years at RMC], I picked up a copy. You can read the article here. While the essentials of leadership remain unchanged [integrity, domain knowledge, etc.] what I found most interesting is the approach that leaders are more effective if the followers believe that they can somehow relate to them. If you can stomach the first paragraph, [the part about Bush being a great leader] you’ll see that they make a pretty good case.

2007 Sandhurst Competition



You think things were tougher when you were at RMC? Check out these guys and gals training for the Sandhurst Competition... oh, and by the way, they won, beating West Point and Sandhurst....

If you're not squeamish about language you can't use in church, you can check out the 'official' video