This book is subtitled, “West Point Fundamentals for Business Success”and is written by two West Point grads. I graduated from West Point (’68) and got an MBA from the “West Point of American Business,” Harvard Business School (’77). So my interest was piqued.

The premise of the book is, “You business guys thought we military officers were dumb after Vietnam, but how ’bout that Desert Storm!”

In fact, Vietnam was a fairer test.

Are there any military lessons that could be profitably applied to business management problems? A few. Does this book do that? Very weakly. I’d recommend The Art of War by Sun Tzu or On Strategy by Harry Summers, Jr. instead.

In 31 years as a real estate writer, I’ve mentioned lessons I learned at West Point ever so briefly in my Distressed Real Estate Times and How to Manage… books—and on several pages of the over 4,000 pages of articles I’ve written. That’s about how much I think real estate investors need to know about West Point’s approach.

West Point is probably the world’s greatest leadership school. But that training occurs mainly outside the classroom. It cannot be reduced to book form.

Duty, Honor, Company actually is more about Army fundamentals than West Point fundamentals. The authors are especially taken with Field Manuals 100-5 (Operations) and 101-5 (Staff organization and Operations). I guess there’s no accounting for taste. If you like reading field manuals, which I would characterize as akin to boy scout manuals only less well written, you can get them for free on the Internet.

Truth to tell, back when the U.S. won its wars—1945 and before—it was because of its overwhelming economic might and technological prowess, not its brilliant military organization. The U.S. Army is the most fouled-up organization I was ever in. A recruiting slogan used to say, “Sleep well tonight because your U.S. Army is awake.” I sleep well only because I know that our powerful adversaries’ militaries are also composed entirely of government bureaucrats.

An opposing force of businesspeople would run circles around the military. Indeed, that can be seen in the military’s involvement in the War on Drugs. Drug dealers are military entrepreneurs. The yardstick of success in the War on Drugs is the street price of drugs. If the anti-drug forces were at all successful, the price would go up. It hasn’t.

Paradoxical as it may sound, businesspeople are more disciplined than the military. Businesspeople are “battle” tested day in and day out. A military career typically consists of decades of paper shuffling, a little ivory-tower discussion of and practice for war and a few hours of combat. The military needs a book on “Business fundamentals for military success” far more than business needs a book on how West Point would approach business.

Duty, Honor, Company is a platitudinous attempt to cash in on the mystique some in the business community attribute to Desert Storm leaders and their alma mater. I am a bit embarrassed that fellow alumni wrote such drivel.

John T. Reed

Link to information about John T. Reed’s Succeeding book which, in part, relates lessons learned about succeeding in life from being in the military