Category: Strategy

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Case Study: WeWork and the finances behind the business.

Before, and after, becoming an entrepreneur I flew F-16’s for the US Military.

One of the things we did religiously after every mission was a non-emotional, fact-based debrief.

The debrief had one purpose… to dig for the facts and then from those facts derive concrete lessons learned that we could export to the rest of the Squadron in order to be more effective as warfighters. We debriefed after every mission both in peacetime and in combat focusing on our survivability and lethality. Debriefing is part of who I am now and I do it daily in both my military and civilian life.

I”ve watched with interest the events surrounding WeWork over the last year. Recently the WSJ published an article on the financing side of WeWork. The link to the WSJ article is here. I’m by no means rendering an opinion given that I was not in the board meetings, but one wonders what kind of debrief the team there is conducting and what lessons they will all learn from this experience.

I’m currently serving on an active duty tour with the US Military. This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of any element of the US Government or my views as a US Government employee.

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Elements of National Power

There is a lot going on in the news these days.

The turbulence and drama range from the challenges our economy faces here at home, to the potential conflicts in North Korea, to the ongoing combat operations in the Middle East.

Leaders in both business and government must understand the various elements of national power often referred to as “DIME” and know how to drive them.

DIME is an easy to remember acronym for “Diplomatic”, “Informational”, “Military”, and “Economic”.

In the US Government, different Cabinet Departments and Agencies lead different elements of national power.  The US Department of State leads the “D”, DoD leads the “M”, while the Department of Treasury and Commerce each have parts of the “E”.

The informational “I” element of national power is critical but frankly, the US has not done a good job developing a well-coordinated interagency informational program designed to get the word out.  We need work.

Each element of national power can impact the other.  Great companies and great governments will take all elements of power into consideration and develop a solid strategy and a supporting set of plans to optimally design a gameplan that uses the right element of national power for the given situation.