Richard Martin

Richard Martin brings his military and business leadership experience to bear for executives and organizations seeking to exploit change, maximize opportunities, and minimize risks.

He is based in Montreal but works across North America with public and private sector clients, both for and non profit. Past and current clients include The Empire Life Insurance Company, RBC Asset Management, City of Kingston, Kingston Airport, Kingston Transit, Environment Canada, Department of National Defence, Mutuelle des municipalités du Québec, Corporation des services d'ambulance du Québec, Association des professionels en gestion philanthropique.

Specific areas of expertise include: leadership development, strategy formulation and implementation, strategic planning, organizational development, emergency management, conflict management, project management, military technology, facilitation, and coaching.

HCM would like to thank Mr. Martin for joining us and providing permission to place his articles on our web site.

Three levels of leadership?

by Richard Martin

March 2011

One of the challenges many managers and leaders face is in understanding the distinctions between levels of leadership. Though there is a common basis of theory and practice, the requirements of tactical leadership are quite different from those of strategic leadership. In addition, there is a whole level of leadership – operational – that many people don’t even realize exists.

What Is Your Return on Risk?

BY RICHARD MARTIN

February 2011

It is a fundamental tenet of military strategy that one should only take on major risk if there is a prospect of a major victory. The Normandy Landings were a major risk, but the potential rewards were huge, as proven by subsequent events. The same principle applies in investing, where the idea of a congruency between risk and reward is well established (though not always applied).

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Probing vs plunging

by Richard Martin

January 2011

“…firms have shown in the recent past an unfortunate tendency to plunge rather than probe.”
Igor Ansoff, Corporate Strategy

Igor Ansoff was one of the fathers of business strategy. He wrote that sentence in 1965, but it is just as relevant today as it was then. He was of course referring to the fact that many (if not most) companies tend to plunge into major strategic changes without necessarily knowing what they’re getting into. It’s how we end up with waves of mergers and acquisitions, investment bubbles, and various other manifestations of economic, financial, and business herding.

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Offense is essential to victory

by Richard Martin

(This article is gratefully reproduced with the permission of Richard Martin - http://www.alcera.ca/)

The best form of defense is attack.
Clausewitz

Nobody ever won a war by hunkering down and staying on the defensive. At most, one can avoid losing, but that is not a very favourable outcome. You need an offensive mindset. Offense is about gaining and keeping the initiative. It’s as much a state of mind as a physical reality. The attacker has the choice of time and place to make his moves and that confers a marked advantage.

Lee Iacocca took the helm of Chrysler Corporation in the late 70s after the US government saved the company. He had to do something symbolic to go back on the offensive. Despite market research that showed little interest in a convertible, he ordered his engineers to cut the roof off a New Yorker and to make a prototype convertible he could drive around. The reaction from onlookers was immediate and very positive, so he decided to go ahead with a new line of convertibles, thereby reinvigorating those brands and the reputation of the company. The highly successful introduction of the minivan, a category buster that combined the size of the station wagon with the comfort and space of a van, all on a car chassis, followed this. It was so successful that imitations started pouring out of the competition. Unfortunately, Chrysler was not able to sustain this level of innovation over time and has declined almost to oblivion.

So, how do you gain and keep the initiative in business?

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