The inside outsider: Robert Neller scraps the Marines’ winning formula
The most brilliant tactical formation devised by any team in the last half-century isn’t football’s Packer sweep, basketball’s triangle offense or anything else relating to sports.
It’s the rifle squads of the United States Marine Corps.
.. the last infantry formation of substance—is a squad of 13 Marines composed of a leader and a dozen riflemen grouped into three “fire teams” of four... likens Marine squads to world-class dance troupes. “Everybody’s movement depends on everybody else’s,” he says... Marine Corps Commandant Robert Neller.. Marines can’t wrap their heads around: why he wants to scrap them... the most exotic leadership breeds of all—the inside outsider... dubbed him the president of the “I don’t see why” club... contrarian streak came with him.“I was always the guy in the audience throwing the metaphorical Molotov cocktail,”.. Few resident gadflies ever get to the top; they ruffle too many feathers along the way... Marines had spent nearly two decades in a state of constant deployment. They hadn’t had time to fully address the shifting map of global threats or even the mandate to include women in combat roles. Above all, they needed to get a handle on technology... OK, Neller. You’ve been out here wanking for 38 years. We’re going to make you own this
.. Military leaders are often accused of preparing to fight the last war. Gen. Neller doesn’t have that problem.
.. In December, for instance, he made headlines in Norway by telling a group of Marines to be prepared for a “bigass fight.”
.. Marines don’t get many shots at war, so studying history is a vital form of practice.
.. In his view, the historical transition to digital warfare is just as significant as earlier shifts Marines have made from horses to vehicles or vehicles to tanks.
.. Gen. Neller concluded that each rifle squad needed two additional billets—an assistant squad leader and a squad systems operator focused on technology. Adding two people presented a problem
.. Not only did he add those new billets, he decided to reduce a squad’s size to 12 by eliminating one Marine from each of its three fire teams.
.. One knock on inside outsiders is that they often rush to implement pet ideas without thoroughly examining them or creating backup plans in case they fail.
.. he’s fully prepared to restore one rifleman to each fire team if it proves necessary.
After the Glass Ceiling, a Glass Cliff
Only 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies are run by women. Why? Research shows that female executives are more likely to be put in charge of firms that are already in crisis. Are they being set up to fail? (Part 5 of a special series, “The Secret Life of C.E.O.’s.”)
GLASS: We found that white women and people of color are significantly more likely than white men to be promoted C.E.O. to weakly performing firms.
Extra: David Rubenstein Full Interview
What follows is a conversation with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, one of the most storied private-equity firms in history. We spoke with Rubenstein in August, 2017, for our six-part series, “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” Since we spoke, Rubenstein stepped down as co-C.E.O. of Carlyle, but he’s still executive chairman
How Nations Recover
I’ve been especially interested in the way Britain revived itself between 1820 and 1848. Its comeback has some humbling lessons for us today.
Britain was roiled by economic and demographic changes. There were financial crises, bad harvests and a severe depression. There was crushing inequality. The average life expectancy nationwide was 40, but in the industrial cities of Manchester and Liverpool it was around 28.
.. The Chartists cohered around The People’s Charter, which had six demands, including universal male suffrage, vote by ballot and equal electoral districts. In 1842, the Chartists presented a petition to Parliament with three million signatures.
.. Finally, there was the Anti-Corn Law League. This was the best organized and best funded pressure group in 19th-century Britain. It promoted free-trade legislation to reduce the power of the landed gentry, to make food cheaper for the working classes and to encourage international exchange and cooperation.
.. Britain was blessed by a stable parliamentary system and by a legislative culture that valued deliberation and debate. Political leaders in both parties understood that the winds of change were blowing and they had better initiate reforms if they wanted to head off a revolution.