Mentoring and Strategy
My work in mentoring and strategy is divided into two main areas, which are related by my interest and study of military history (see my separate books pages).
The first is commercial, in which I advise the corporate sector on the application of military techniques of strategy and leadership – the latter involving the decentralised model of Mission Command which I codified for the British Army in the 1990s, and have helped to develop since. Typically I organise an event for the business community in close conjunction with Corporate Battlefields Ltd, run by my colleague and Waterloo-expert Graeme Cooper (founder of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides). I have been the senior leadership host of Corporate Battlefields since 2012. Our clients have included e-Bay, Boeing UK and, most recently, OLX.
The second is the educational sector. Here I present to civilian and military audiences on strategy, operational art and campaign planning, together with Mission Command, and mentor seminar groups on planning and decision-making. Recent (January 2017) audiences have been drawn from the United Kingdom’s Defence Academy and the Baltic Defence College in Estonia. As in the commercial sector, I make extensive use of military historical examples to relate theory to practice, so bringing my presentations to life.
A related area of expertise lies in the planning and running of battlefield tours, staff rides and staff studies. Since the late 1990s, I have taken senior mentoring and speaking roles on a series of major military staff rides across Europe (training events on the fields of battle for commanders and their staffs) and civilian battlefield tours, such for the British Commission for Military History (BCMH). I edited the British Army’s guide to the battlefields of the Western Front of the First World War (see the post on this volume from my BCMH colleague Frank Baldwin).
Please contact me if you wish any advice or support in strategy, lecturing and mentoring, or on staff rides and battlefield tours.