But I’m in the Military … How can I be an Entrepreneur?

Google ‘entrepreneur’ and what do you get? Besides the offers to study business at a university and the wiki definition, the common thread about entrepreneurs is that they seem to leave their full time employment working for “the man” to start up something new. The other entrepreneur story is someone who uses all their hard earned savings to take a risk instead of spending it on shoes a house. At first glance, there seems to be no real appetite for a government employed entrepreneur.

So how then can a full time junior military commander be an entrepreneur?

What happens if the thing you want to change can’t help the private sector and isn’t necessarily a tangible piece of equipment? What if you just have a great idea and all that idea needs is an investor? Could that investor be in your chain-of-command with the ability to consider organisational change? Well herein is the birth of the defence entrepreneur.

Our military friends in the United States are harnessing the potential of defence entrepreneurs and have identified three key features a defence entrepreneur needs to be successful. The three characteristics are:

• Entrepreneurs watch for opportunities.
• Entrepreneurs make judgements under uncertainty.
• Entrepreneurs meld the factors of change in sticky ways.

Not surprisingly, these three elements are also key factors that makes a junior commander effective.

Drawing on those three traits, if a junior commander has the ability to be a good entrepreneur, then what other characteristics do they need? I’ll confess that I’m a lazy researcher so whenever I want to research a topic I simply add a cheeky ‘.com’ on the end. Occasionally it ends in success (sometimes it ends up in disaster). This time I had a win. Entrepreneur.com had their 50 signs you might be an entrepreneur. Two traits really stood out:

• Number 2 – You hate the status quo. You’re a person who is always questioning why people do the things they do. You strive to make things better and are willing to take action on it.
• Number 35 – You think outside of the box. If not, what will change?

So do you think that’s you? Do you have an idea that conceptually considers how to improve our organisation and make it more effective? Do you think forward to solutions instead of descending into a cycle of complaint? Well then maybe you are a defence entrepreneur.

Lucky for you there are others out there in our military family wanting to help shape and pitch ideas to get those investors on board through a professionally respectful environment. DEF Australia is sticking its head above the parapet to make sure those ideas can see the light of day and gain traction. To give you an avenue to help network and start the conversation within our military environment to make innovation and entrepreneurship progress from the ground-up.

Have an idea? Then check out the details for DEF Australia (Facebook and Twitter and DEF Aus Blog)

Some other interesting reads for those who are either procrastinating (like yours truly) or those who think they have an idea they want to pitch are:

• Defence Entrepreneurs Forum
• Richard Branson to young entrepreneurs
• Harvard Business School – should entrepreneurs pitch products or ideas?

About the author

Jasmin Diab is a Royal Australian Engineer and committee member for Women in Nuclear Australia. She is passionate about the inclusion of scientific thought in warfare and is the Director of Business for DEF Australia.