Inheriting a troubled operation which had been threatened to receive a Government cure notice, I led a quick organizational turn-around, garnering continous customer award fee ratings in the 98-100% range for the next 10 years, lowering operating costs and increasing profitability every year, and leading Cubic's capture team in the successful re-award of the contract in 2007.  In my final six years our customers rewarded us by adding more than $400M in additional work to the contract. On my departure from Cubic, we had 2,000 prime and sub-contractor employees on site providing services on a contract with a value of $850M.

 

I received my undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy (West Point) and was commissioned into the US Army as an infantry officer in 1975.  I held a wide variety of command and staff assignments during my Army career, rising from Second Lieutenant to Brigadier General. My Army journey also provided me the opportunity to earn a Master of Science degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the University of South Carolina.  I am also a fluent conversational Spanish speaker.

 

I have always taken great pride in being a "muddy boots" officer who - thankfully - never had to serve a day in the Pentagon or Washington, D.C.  Among my more noteworthy military experiences were leading the October, 1993 rescue of Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia - an event popularly known as "Blackhawk Down" - and as primary planner and commander of the 101st Airborne Division's lead ground assault into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

 

The "Blackhawk Down" episode was - perhaps - the first and only time in US military history where a conventional infantry force was called upon to rescue elite Special Operations Forces. Upon the unit's return from Somalia, Major General David Meade encouraged me to write about how I prepared my battalion to accomplish such a complex mission under the worst imaginable conditions.

 

"Developing a Supercharged Battalion" chronicled my approach for molding a group of regular Army enlistees into a fearsome tactical juggernaut.  The formula for this success was simple yet complex: focus organizational energy on achieving a 10% improvement in a small number of core performance areas in order to catapult the unit into high performance across the board.  First published in 1995 as a series of articles in Infantry Magazine, I'm flattered the work continues to enjoy wide readership among combat arms professionals to this day.  But I am even more flattered that the leadership and management approach I used those many years ago continues to be validated by those who have experienced combat at close quarters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

I credit this same leadership and management approach for creating the foundation for my success in business.  Not surprisingly, the business and military worlds have many similarities; particularly when it comes to planning, coordination, integration, synchronization, and execution. My success in both realms has convinced me that achieving the "10% difference" is an approach with universal applicability for all organizations: civilian and military; large and small; public and private; for-profit and not-for-profit.  It is an approach I am eager to share with anyone or any organization with the desire and commitment to become something great.