Navy officers get schooled in the business of defense

For the Navy’s top officers, classrooms, professors and even homework are not distant memories.

In 2003, the Navy joined Exxon Mobil, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Wachovia Securities as a client in the long-standing Executive Education program at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business. James W. Dean Jr., the school’s associate dean of executive education, explained that the program, which specializes in nondegree education, “provides for the corporate community.”

But unlike most other companies that enroll their professionals in Executive Education courses, the Navy’s goal has nothing to do with a profit margin and everything to do with teaching Navy officers how to spend taxpayers’ dollars most efficiently, especially for national defense.

“We would be ranked seventh in the Fortune 500 if we were that kind of company,” said Mark Honecker, the Navy’s director of logistics planning and innovation. Honecker, who worked to develop the program and participated as a student last month, referred to the Navy as a $120 billion corporation.

Traditional business courses focus on leadership, but Navy officers already have the training to take on positions of power. Business strategy, problems with human resources, financial issues and information technology concerns are the prominent themes for the program.

“They’re not in the business of buying and selling. They’re in the business of protecting our country,” said Daniel Cable, a professor who has taught Executive Education classes for the Navy since the program’s conception. “But they’re still learning how to get more for less.”

The senior executive core of the Navy, which includes officers, enlisted sailors and civilians, is required to enroll in the one-week course taught by members of the business school faculty.

“The professors brought a good balance of academics and real-life examples to translate the private sector experience to the issues that the Navy faces,” Honecker said.

A similar course is also offered at the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

“Naval officers are experts in flying jet planes and driving ships, but they don’t get a lot of business training,” Dean said.

When they’re promoted to officer positions, they are responsible for large amounts of people and money and need to make effective decisions, he said.

Dean said the biggest difference between teaching University students and members of the Navy is the need to provide leadership training.

“Well, that and the shorter hair,” he said.

The course also focuses on what the Navy calls transformation: how to deal effectively with a massive organization’s constant changes.

Participants are required to read some material before the course begins, but most of the work is done in class.

At the end of the week, the students present an overall project to a senior naval officer, either in person or by video conference.

Cable said, “These students want to learn because what we’re teaching is relevant to what they need.”

He said that unlike undergraduate students, who sometimes doubt the necessity of what they’re learning, naval officers “want what we’re giving them and are eager to use it.”

He added that their level of experience leads them to ask insightful, real-life questions.

Because of the success of the program, the business school is adding additional courses to cater to junior officers as well as to more officers in senior leadership positions.

Recently, Admiral Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, visited the Kenan-Flager business school to support the Executive Education program.

Dean said, “He told me that (the University) has been instrumental in helping to change the Navy.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.