7 Reasons Why An Ex-Soldiers Field Force Provides Unique Advantages to Organisations

A corporate client recently asked me what makes a field force of Ex-soldiers capable of delivering tasks which no other feet-on-the-ground force can. The question was in the context of an extremely critical, large-scale field task, distributed across thousands of locations.

The question was genuine, coming from someone who had not interacted much with the military. So I decided to share my reasons and experiences of employing such a force for multiple large, distributed operational tasks across India (through Brisk Olive Business Solutions Pvt Ltd – https://briskolive.com/). Here are the reasons which make such a force unique and invaluable:

• A Most Closely-Knit Team with Proven Capabilities and Reputations. The defence forces community is the most closely-knit one. Unlike a force of unknown persons, among ex-soldiers, everyone knows everyone else (or you know someone else who knows that person). Who is exceptional at what is also well known. Such reputations are built over years. This makes it easy to handpick and employ persons on tasks at which they will excel!
• India-wide Reach Including in Remote Areas: Soldiers are recruited from across India, on a “zonal” basis. They join from all across the country. And when they retire, they gravitate back to their home-places. Which is why Brisk Olive has teams located in each one of India’s 741 districts.
• Excellence in Operations and Processes, ranging from Blue to White Collar tasks: Ex-Soldiers are known to excel in operations, which is what they do repeatedly during their service lives. Besides, they are good at processes, and managing teams of all sizes. The officers cadre and junior leaders cadres are also trained in strategic thought, operational planning and extreme operational innovativeness. This makes them excellent at all kinds of tasks ranging from white-collar ones to supervisory duties. They can take on black or blue collar local manpower where required, from among known local resources cultivated over time.
• An Intelligent and Educated Field Force: All ex-soldiers are minimum graduates. This ensures a minimum level of education and intelligence amongst the entire force. Besides, many are post-graduates and even PhDs (especially amongst the Navy and the Air Force, and among the officers cadre in the Army).
• Highly Experienced across a Massive Range of Operational Tasks. They have 15 to 20 years experience at least, in these skills:
  – Corps of Engineers, Signals and EME (Army) and tech cadres in the Navy and Air Force are excellent in civil, electrical, mechanical, electronics, telecom, IT and field engineering tasks. They are also good at project management of all kinds.
  – Professionals from the Army Supply Corps and Army Ordnance Corps and form admin and logistics branches of the Navy and Air Force have decades of experience in transport operations, warehousing, logistics, manufacturing, maintenance, and related fields.
  – Intelligence Corps: They excel in surveys, data collection, investigations, audits, etc.
  – Everybody in the armed forces is adept at administration, HR related tasks, team operations, and other generic operational tasks.
  In short, military professionals range from divers to drivers and from strategists to small team experts!
• Legendary Reliability. “Do or Die” is a spirit which every military professional – man or woman – imbibes.
• Honesty and Integrity. What they promise, they deliver. They are not used to marketing and delivering differently.