Fostering Military Entrepreneurs: The ‘Disruptive Thinkers’ Plan a Conference

Fostering Military Entrepreneurs: The ‘Disruptive Thinkers’ Plan a Conference by Navy Lt. Benjamin Kohlmann, Marine Capt. Lindsay Rodman, Army Maj. Nathan Finney, and Air Force Capt. Jeff Gilmore, Armed Forces Journal.

Our generation has returned from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, where we met war’s chaos with the creativity it demanded, to a garrison life where innovation remains both badly needed and too often stifled. We want to put our natural entrepreneurship and our shared experience to further use in the military we serve, to advance useful new policy and technology solutions within an institution that often has difficulty absorbing unorthodox ideas.

So we have formed informal groups and networks of similarly minded people — from all services, communities, and even the civilian world — who come together to find inspiration, sounding boards, and partners. We started small, a group of friends sharing their frustrations over beers in a San Diego bar, but our “Disruptive Thinkers” movement has grown quickly into monthly events and satellite chapters across the country. On Oct. 12-14 in Chicago we will host our most public and far-reaching event yet: the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum…

Read on.