Learn how trailblazers gain a decisive competitive advantage in any market.

Armies fight with weapons and businesses compete with products and services. In both cases, people win the victories.

The paradox of success: When I led 800 paratroopers in the mountains of Afghanistan, every day was a battle for survival. We were winning every battle, but each victory seemed to bring even greater challenges. After 90 days, four of our troopers were killed, and scores were wounded. Our metrics indicated success, but I felt the conflict was getting worse. The people we thought we were helping were, in many cases, the same ones trying to kill us.  

Recognizing the need for change: The best businesses often face similar situations. You are winning the battles and bringing in revenues, and your team is proud of what they are achieving. But you feel the ground shifting under your feet. Gaining a decisive competitive advantage feels just out of reach. You need buy-in for strategic innovation, but your people might not yet see the need for change. Doing the same things in the same ways won’t get the same results if your competitors are innovating. Just ask Sears or Blockbuster. 

Back in Afghanistan, it was clear to me that the ground was shifting. If we kept doing the same things, we’d keep getting the same or worse results. But deviating from the playbook was risky—it meant going against deeply entrenched norms. The pressure to “stay the course” was intense. Yet, it was also clear that staying the course meant no path to success. We needed to blaze a new trail. 

Lessons From Afghanistan: A Transformation Framework

The turning point came when I stopped seeing the Taliban purely as enemies and started seeing them as human beings driven by practical grievances—ones that we could potentially address. This insight ignited a new approach: we needed to spend less time chasing bad guys and more time building allies. CEOs must innovate, too, but earning buy-in can be challenging. 

3 Pillars to Gain a Decisive Competitive Advantage

The trailblazing owners and CEOs who work with me implement three pillars to gain a decisive competitive advantage: 

1. Winning Strategy: We moved from an enemy-focused strategy to one built on partnership and mutual benefit—just as businesses must often pivot from competing on price to offering superior value. 

2. Inspiring Culture: We refocused our unit’s culture from ‘destroy the enemy’ to ‘build lasting alliances’—similar to how the best companies shift from short-term results to long-term value creation. 

3. Empowering Leadership: We developed leadership behaviors that built trust within our ranks and with local leaders, paralleling how successful CEOs must build trust across their organization and with stakeholders. 

It wasn’t easy, but we innovated successfully. Six months later, the biggest insurgent group in the area stopped fighting and started working with us, giving us a decisive competitive advantage. It was the only example of such an outcome in the 20-year history of the war.

Turning High-Stakes Challenges Into a Decisive Competitive Advantage

CEOs of $100M+ companies face their own high-stakes challenges: market disruption, evolving employee expectations, fierce competition, and the constant pressure to innovate. Drawing from my military, academic, and business experiences, I help them close the gap between their performance and potential by turning high-stakes challenges into a decisive competitive advantage through a winning strategy, an inspiring culture, and empowering leadership. 

Why It Matters: Making an Enduring Positive Contribution

For the people I work with, a decisive competitive advantage is not an end in itself. You use it to make an enduring positive contribution: providing a joyful workplace, advancing employee livelihoods, and strengthening your communities. What works in the military doesn’t always work in business, and vice versa. But, organizations that develop a winning strategy, build an inspiring culture, and promote empowering leadership behaviors will succeed in a competitive, ever-changing market. 

When the stakes are highest, conventional wisdom often fails us. But any organization can transform its most significant challenges into opportunities with the right strategy, culture, and leadership. That’s what I learned in Afghanistan, and that’s what I help trailblazing CEOs achieve today. My clients, including CEOs, Cabinet-level officials, 4-Star Generals, Police and Fire Chiefs, and NFL teams, have grown by over $100 million and counting.

Let’s Have a Meaningful Conversation

Would you be interested in a strategy call about closing the gap between your performance and potential? A strategy call has two main objectives. First, and most importantly, is to deliver value to you. By the time we’re done, you will have gained something of significant value – it might be an idea, some perspective, or an insight into your situation.

Once we’ve had that part of the discussion and you feel that you’ve gotten that value, then we can address if and how I might be able to support you. At that point, we can decide to work together or not work together, and either way is fine. There’s no pressure. Does that work for you? If so, schedule a time.