A New Generation of Business Leaders Thanks to the US Military

If you haven’t seen the current issue of Fortune Magazine, take a look at the wonderful story on Battle-Tested: How a Decade of War Has Created a New Generation of Elite Business Leaders. The story tells how companies as diverse as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, State Farm, Bank of America and others are finding that the next generation of business leaders is coming from the US Military. In addition, here is a link to another story that is on their website on the same subject: Warriors in the Workplace by Brian O’Keefe.

Having just come from a wonderful session hosted by the SBA, Operation Startup and Grow which is a veterans business conference in Upstate New York for veterans and members of the military community who want to start or expand their own small business, I can tell you that veterans are also becoming entrepreneurs. According to academic research, the best predictor of whether someone will start their own business is prior military service. Having had the chance to chat with a number of vets this morning, I’m also looking forward to seeing more vets’ enter the business world as entrepreneurs. No matter which way our veterans enter the business world, colleges like Syracuse University stand ready to help as our way of saying thanks for all that you’ve done for our country.