There's a story here of the transition at the top of General Dynamics, the giant defense contractor. Of note, the new CEO will be my old boss, Jay Johnson.
Johnson, as many of you remember, was the Chief of Naval Operations from 1996-2000, taking over when ADM Boorda committed suicide. I served as Johnson's speechwriter for two years during that time, a tour that was often fascinating and sometimes just plain grinding.
What I always admired about Johnson was that when he left the Pentagon, he didn't put on a suit and then shill for some big defense firm. He went down to Richmond and took a VP of Strategic Planning job with the Dominion Corporation. Two years later he was the CEO of a business unit there, then he became CEO of an even bigger business unit. Point is, he left the military for something completely different, a move that took a lot of courage and confidence. He built a reputation for himself in business and is now back in the defense world, where I think we'll see him do a solid job at GD.
I have a hard time understanding the courage and confidence it takes a retired 4 star to begin another career. I am sure he had more than several opportunities to pick from. Looks like he picked what was right for him at the time.
ReplyDeleteI would argue courage and confidence is when you leave and have don't have more than several opportunities to pick from - more like zero....
However, I do believe the path he picked helped him to gather appropriate the business experience needed to be a big company CEO.
Nathan...he's no different than any other human being. He could have slid easily into some defense contractor eminance grise kind of job, but he went into American business instead. I think that takes some courage and confidence.
ReplyDeleteI'll grant you cutting loose with no prospects takes courage and confidence too.