Author Topic: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck  (Read 1801 times)

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Offline Ford289HiPo

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The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« on: January 10, 2013, 11:39:25 pm »
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/business/bleeding-talent-sees-a-military-management-mess.html?smid=li-share&goback=%2Egde_100364_member_202811050&_r=0

IT was once a wry joke that the military was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots. Not anymore, Tim Kane writes. As an all-volunteer force, the young men and women who serve these days are top drawer; it is the institution that is idiotic, he argues. And he has a drastic remedy in mind: a dose of classic economics.
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Jake Guevara/The New York Times
In “Bleeding Talent” (Palgrave Macmillan, $30), Mr. Kane gives us a veteran’s proud, though acutely critical, perspective on the American military. He offers an illuminating view of the other “1 percent” — not the privileged upper crust, but the sliver of Americans who have accepted the burden of waging two of the longest wars in our history.

The military is perhaps as selfless an institution as our society has produced. But in its current form, Mr. Kane says, it stifles the aspirations of the best who seek to serve it and pushes them out. “In terms of attracting and training innovative leaders, the U.S. military is unparalleled,” he writes. “In terms of managing talent, the U.S. military is doing everything wrong.”

The core problem, he argues, is that while the military may be “all volunteer” on the first day, it is thoroughly coercive every day thereafter. In particular, it dictates the jobs, promotions and careers of the millions in its ranks through a centralized, top-down, one-size-fits-almost-all system that drives many talented officers to resign in frustration. They leave, he says, because they believe that “the military personnel system — every aspect of it — is nearly blind to merit.”

Mr. Kane knows whereof he speaks. An Air Force Academy graduate, he worked in military intelligence for five years before resigning, in the mid-1990s, after the Air Force declined to send him for graduate studies in economics. He is now chief economist at the Hudson Institute, a conservative research group. In the years between, he helped start a couple of small companies and picked up a taste for entrepreneurship.

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This is an excerpt. Read more at the link.

I wonder when the lies will stop and truth begin, even as grim as the truth may be. And then I remember that for 70 years, the reign of terror in Russia called itself "the people's government." We have so far to fall, yet we are falling fast and Hell yawns to receive us.

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Re: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2013, 12:11:41 am »
I know a USNA graduate who resigned his commission out of pure frustration at such "blindness" to merit

Offline Ford289HiPo

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Re: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2013, 12:43:44 am »
I know a USNA graduate who resigned his commission out of pure frustration at such "blindness" to merit

I saw it time and time again when I was on active duty. "Who you know, and who you blow" or "screw up and move up" were common, yet accurate sayings.

At the Advanced NCO Academy, we had a SGM brief us on his roadmap to making E-9 in 20 years or less. Those of us who were on a team for more than 2 years were accused of "hiding behind a rucksack".  It was a slap in our faces since he was advocating that we take staff positions if we wanted to be promoted.
IMO- many staff positions were for those who did not fit and were waiting to move on.
I wonder when the lies will stop and truth begin, even as grim as the truth may be. And then I remember that for 70 years, the reign of terror in Russia called itself "the people's government." We have so far to fall, yet we are falling fast and Hell yawns to receive us.

Offline PzLdr

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Re: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2013, 04:32:35 am »
The major failing of the U.S Army since WW II has been its preference for top down command and control over the German practice of Aufstragtaktik. That led to ticket punching, 'get along to move along', and the stifling, if not suffocation of initiative by junior officers. I remember being threatened with a court martial for not following a patrol overlay when i was running ambush patrols in the ROK DMZ. I deviated because we found strong indicia the North Koreas were working another area. When I questioned my Bn. CO regarding what the mission was, i.e stopping infiltration or being at point 'A' so the CG would know where we were two days ahead of time [when they got the overlay], I was told, 'Follow the overlay". My next patrol out, I had to move 3 in the AM, and set up accross from the 25th ROK Div. I then got a call to pop a flare, so the idiots from Bn. HQ [and anybody else in the neighborhood] would know exactly where I was.  :shrug:
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Offline truth_seeker

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Re: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2013, 05:55:41 am »
I'd say the 11 year war in Afghanistan is evidence of our military leaders' inability to complete a task of reasonable scale.

It was one thing to defeat Germany and Japan completely in less than 4 years, and stay behind nearly indefinitely, but in peace.

By comparison, we are now inept in terms of military outcomes.
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Offline Relic

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Re: The Military Machine as a Management Wreck
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2013, 02:40:56 pm »
I'd say the 11 year war in Afghanistan is evidence of our military leaders' inability to complete a task of reasonable scale.

It was one thing to defeat Germany and Japan completely in less than 4 years, and stay behind nearly indefinitely, but in peace.

By comparison, we are now inept in terms of military outcomes.

Afghanistan brought down the USSR and now it's brought down the USA.