Banks look to Army for inspiration

Inspirational Development, a training company, runs leadership and development courses at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst overseen by Craig Preston, a former British Army officer and Coca-Cola executive.

He says investment banks are important clients. "There is growing awareness of the benefits of military styles of leadership. The key things are calmness in times of stress and the importance of maintaining morale."

Preston says the image of Army officers barking orders to submissive underlings is outdated: "When lives are at risk, people need to have faith in the judgment of their leaders. Army officers are excellent communicators as well as excellent planners."

Courses cover subjects from motivating team members to contingency planning and dealing with dissent. The latter is best done face to face, rather than through gossiping in corridors, says Preston.

Financial services groups can benefit from Army management styles without sending staff to Sandhurst. There is a well-trodden career path between the military and the City of London, signposted by the old boys' network. The financial services industry is heavily populated with military types as a result.

High profile examples include General Sir Peter de la Billière, commander of the British forces in the first Gulf War, who went on to become a director of Flemings bank, and Lord Guthrie, former chief of the defence staff, who is a non-executive director at Rothschild.

Less well known are the hundreds of other former services personnel working in disciplines from corporate finance and private banking to financial public relations and headhunting.

Many meet twice a year at the Cavalry Lunch Club, formed in the early 1980s by a group of ex-cavalry officers, including Jonathan Baines, founder of headhunting firm Baines Gwinner - later bought by Whitehead Mann - and David Rosier, a director of Mercury Asset Management and former member of the Queens Division Guards.

The popularity of the club is testimony to the scale of the influx of services personnel into financial services in the 1980s. One member says: "The City of London was in recruiting overdrive at exactly the same time that a very successful and large group of people came out of the Army. They had seen more of the world and had more management and leadership experience than other recruits. They had more experience of getting things done and were better at delivery and implementation."

In addition to offering networking opportunities and undertaking charitable activities, the Cavalry Club tries to help young and retired cavalry officers into a new career.

These days this may be easier said than done. Hugh Sandars, head of the employment department of the Officers' Association, a charity which assists former armed forces officers, says the financial services downturn means Army leavers are finding it as hard as everyone else to get a job in the industry.

"It's very difficult at the moment. We're advising people to look at generalist management careers in areas like the retail sector," he says.

Some have recently managed to move into the City, however. Alex Bark, a client relationship manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, was until last August a Royal Navy officer in command of 10 ships.

He liaises with pension funds and institutional investors and says a career in the armed forces is good preparation for working in financial services. Bark says: "The military teaches excellent skills in leadership, management and team working. It is an international career and involves interaction with high-profile individuals. Meeting high-ranking diplomats, politicians and royalty as a naval officer is not dissimilar to meeting pension fund trustees or chief executives in the business world."

Bark acknowledges he was fortunate. George Wilson, head of human resources at Rothschild, says there are so many experienced ex-bankers on the market that inexperienced former forces personnel stand little chance of finding a way in. "It's a buyers' market. People trying to enter banking at the age of 26 or 27 are competing against individuals with four or five years' experience." he says.

Banks could be losing out by not hiring former military personnel. Philip Farrer, a former officer in the Coldstream Guards and ex-head of institutional equity sales at Bank of America, believes his time in the Army made him a better broker. He says: "I was used to listening to people's needs and formulating plans of action.This transferred easily to the needs of broking."

Farrer says investment banks place too much emphasis on academic achievement over practical experience. "Firms are missing out on recruiting some very bright, enthusiastic and experienced personnel from the armed services, who should be the foundation for selecting potential leaders of the future."

Simon Vaughan-Edwards, a former Army officer and a director of headhunter Alexander Mann, agrees: "Ex-Army officers represent a highly focused, adaptable, graduate workforce with a considerable transferable skill base, a strong work ethic, tried and tested management skills, and much maligned loyalty to an employer they can respect."

Military ways of thinking do not impress everyone and can hardly be applicable to every aspect of civilian life. However, the connection between the armed forces and financial services looks likely to endure.