Seasoned Drinks Professional Adds to Firm’s Breadth and Depth of Expertise

Business Execution Firm Attracts Former Senior Military Officer and McKinsey Operations Leader

Sir Robert Fry is chairman of McKinney Rogers. His career in the British military includes being director of operations in the Ministry of Defence, advising then prime minister Tony Blair on the military strategic direction of the UK’s response to the September 11 attacks. The opinions expressed are his own.

Steve Jee has joined international business execution advisers McKinney Rogers to lead its Competitive Intelligence team from the London office.

Supported by New Web Site, Mission Leadership Dashboard App, Social Media and Thought Leadership Campaigns.

Military methodologies succeed in the most hostile conditions. Here is why they are vital to successful business execution.

Recent conflicts have changed the game for states and individuals in Europe. Countries like Poland and Estonia have established their international credentials by close involvement; others, like The Netherlands and Denmark, have burnished theirs. But it is individuals and not countries that concern this article. As chairman of an international consultancy, I draw on two traditions: the military and business, and I am not alone.

Generations of executives have attempted to adapt the mindset of the battlefield to the business world, from developing a strategy to defeat corporate rivals to building camaraderie in an inhospitable environment.

Taking its cue from Britain’s vaunted Royal Marines, McKinney Rogers claims to have taken the approach a crucial step forward and unlocked the secret to delivering practical results through its self-styled Mission Leadership methodology.

Thirty years ago, as a junior military officer, I picked up a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. I was a young man then, and I realized that to succeed I would need to develop my intellect, to have a proper, fully rounded education. Or at least I'd need something more complex than banging out a ton of smoke and then going straight up the middle, as we used to say.

Of course a book on military strategy would be useful to a military man, but how useful can it be to a businessman? What can a 2,500-year-old text, heavy on the descriptions of chariots and mercenaries and cloaked in Confucian mysticism, tell us about the modern business environment?