Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 28

have considerable consequences for the future of the
Army. Unfortunately, these officers fail to realize the
importance of nonoperational topics and show little
interest in the one subject they will use most in their
future: force management.
These officers are very smart individuals, but they
generally only see the Army from their company-grade
tactical experiences, and they have little exposure to
force management in their early careers. This is because much of force management is executed at the
operational and strategic levels. Additionally, there has
been little recent effort to include force management in
unit-level professional development because of higher
priorities caused by operational rotations.
The force-management process is the primary means
of ensuring that the secretary of the Army and the
Army staff meet the requirements set forth by Congress.
Title 10 of the U.S. Code states that the secretary of the
Army is responsible for “carrying out the functions of
the Department of the Army so as to fulfill the current
and future operational requirements of the unified and
specified combatant commands.”1 It also states that
the responsibility of the Army staff is to “prepare for
such employment of the Army and for such, recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, servicing, mobilizing/demobilizing, and maintaining of the
Army.”2 Department of Defense-assigned missions and
combatant commander requirements to meet wartime
needs are the two factors that drive the Army to develop
a sufficient force to satisfy both within the context of
the operational environment and utilizing available
resources. Arguably, the vast majority of the effort of the
Army staff and major commands is directly related to
force management—the business side of the Army.
Force management, in simplest terms, is the process
of providing the most capable Army within available
resources by generating forces and providing operational units to combatant commanders in support of
national objectives.3 The Army has changed significantly
throughout its history while meeting the Nation’s needs,
but the requirement for effective force management has
remained a constant. From muskets to M4 rifles, horses
to tanks, and balloons to unmanned aerial vehicles,
Army leadership has developed and managed the Army
through these changes. Majors today have lived the effects of force-management decisions such as the “Grow
the Force” initiative, modularity, and nearly constant
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equipment fielding and distribution, but most do not
know or understand the processes that affect change
in the Army.4 And, the future portends even more
change. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations
Committee’s defense subcommittee in 2014, then Army
Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno outlined impacts on
the force based on maintaining the balance between
readiness, personnel, and modernization.5
Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP)
6-22, Army Leadership, states, “Competent leadership
implies managing change, adapting, and making it
work for the entire team.”6 The Army helps develop this
leadership competence in its field grade officers during
CGSOC, which is generally the first formal opportunity
to introduce new field grade officers to force management. These officers need to seize on this educational
opportunity to succeed in their careers and contribute
to their professional responsibility of running the Army.
CGSOC is designed to open the students’ eyes to the
processes they will utilize over the rest of their career to
carry on the legacy and tradition of managing the force
as it changes to “Force 2025 and Beyond.”7

Business Context
In the private sector, management organizes and
coordinates the activities of businesses in order to
achieve defined objectives. This includes creating corporate policy and then organizing, planning, funding,
controlling, and directing organizational resources in
order to achieve the objectives of that policy. The Army
is, in essence, a global business that operates with a vision (“Force 2025 and Beyond”), mission (Title 10 and
combatant commander requirements), business model
(Army operating concept), funding (Army budget),
and objectives (Army campaign plan) to meet new and
evolving markets (partnerships and threats). Much as
leaders move up the corporate ladder and are exposed
to the financing, product development, and strategy of
the company, leaders in the Army must learn and apply
these same business concepts as they are promoted into
positions of greater responsibility and gain a broader
vision of the Army functions.
The depth and breadth of the management of
the Army illustrated in figure 1 should justify to any
new field grade officer why they need to have a basic
understanding of the “business of the Army.”8 No other
company in the world can boast the scale of assets and
July-August 2016  MILITARY REVIEW