Never stop learning: How a fighting force stays on the cutting edge

By Sachin Waikar

As geopolitical challenges and tensions mount, the U.S. Army continues to play a critical role in keeping the nation safe and secure, and the broader world at peace. In this high-stakes context, ensuring that the Army remains an attractive destination for a wide range of talent — and communicating its value proposition and values to the general public — falls largely on the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, or AEMO.

AEMO, based in Chicago, is the Army’s corporate marketing office. To support its mission, the organization’s leaders turned to Kellogg Executive Education for a customized marketing education program for internal leaders and their teams.

We sat down with AEMO’s Lt. Col. Dan Mahoney and deputy chief marketing officer Ignatios Mavridis to understand their experience in the program and how it will benefit the Army and the many stakeholders it serves.

Why Kellogg?

The AEMO leaders described why Kellogg quickly became their partner of choice for a custom program. 

“We have a charter to provide continuing professional education to all our members, to stay on the cutting edge not just for the world of marketing but to make sure we’re being good stewards of the Army’s resources and ensuring a good ROI for any dollars we spend on advertising,” Mavridis said. He was impressed with faculty such as Kellogg professors Eric Anderson and Florian Zettelmeyer who are on the forefront of AI and analytics research that could help AEMO maximize the effectiveness of taxpayer dollars. “We wanted to make sure our personnel had an opportunity to get a world-class education.”

Indeed, multiple AEMO leaders had already been through Kellogg Custom Education courses, including the Chief Marketing Officer course. “A lot of our doctrine that we operate on is informed by frameworks and theories by current or past Kellogg professors, so there is a natural connection from existing relationships and how we do business,” Mahoney said. 

Shaping the Course

To plan the 10-session program, AEMO and Kellogg leaders and staff sat down together. “They met with our teams and asked about their job descriptions, scope of duties and biggest day-to-day challenges,” Mahoney said. “It began with a blank sheet of paper, with no preconceived notions about what we're going to be doing here, and trying to understand our challenges before coming up with a plan of action.”

Says Mavridis, “They worked with Kellogg staff to find the right instructors to deliver the right message in the right order, building the program from the ground up. That resulted in something that really resonated.”

The process of developing the course itself “reflected the frameworks Kellogg teaches and with a very customer-centric approach, reinforcing many of the lessons we ultimately learned about how to focus on customers,” Mahoney said. 

Lessons on marketing and leadership

The collaborative process resulted in a course focusing on marketing, branding, innovation and leadership, among other topics.

“We set up our business as products — just like a bank has checking accounts and credit cards — so we have to make sure the branding and marketing and innovation all align,” Mavridis said.

“Branding is important because we’re thinking about how to synchronize the Army's brand internally and externally,” Mavridis said. “We want to all be speaking with the same voice in terms of the kind of image and values we present to the American public, to the people that wear the uniform daily, and to the civilian workforce that supports us.”

The messaging has a direct impact on the Army’s recruiting and retention, as Mavridis noted: “Branding goes beyond color palettes and style guides. We have to understand what affects our enlistment and surveys about people’s propensity to join the Army, just like a CEO might determine branding based on a Net Promoter Score.”

Leadership, meanwhile, goes hand in hand with marketing. “Leadership is important,” Mahoney said, “because it’s good to get better at messaging our value proposition but also to continue to develop as leaders individually — communicating effectively to people within and outside our own. We see the Army as a people-centered organization.” 

Course highlights

Both AEMO leaders recalled some of their favorite moments from the course.

Mahoney said, “On the first day, we had a marketing class session with Professor Julie Hennessy on strategy and segmentation. Everyone in the room immediately recognized, ‘Yes, this is substantive and what we’ve been waiting to hear.’ It launched the success of the rest of the program.” 

Mavridis agreed: “Hennessy had done her homework and was able to talk about specific points that related to us — and it wasn’t just theoretical. It was clear that the session deeply resonated with everyone.”

Similarly, a session led by Professor David Schonthal helped participants understand barriers to change and adoption. “He talked about the difference between fuel and friction and how removing friction is an easier way to get people on board with change, rather than adding more fuel like incentives or reasons to change,” Mavridis said. “It makes the switch easier.”

Additional instructors for the program included Kellogg marketing faculty Tim Calkins, Steven Franconeri, Kent Grayson, Kevin McTigue and Derek Rucker, as well as Northwestern School of Communication professor Leslie DeChurch.

Applying course lessons

The AEMO team has planned a near-term follow-up session to determine how best to apply what they learned. “We’re going to meet to go through the highlights of the classes and have people talk about what resonated and how they’re going to incorporate it into their day-to-day responsibilities,” Mahoney said.

Mavridis noted the immediacy of application: “Everyone takes something away from these lessons, and they come back and try to implement the processes and best practices almost right away. We are a learning organization, so we take a multi-pronged approach to learning and professionally developing ourselves.”

As in the Army, every detail counts. “We were continually impressed by the professionalism and preparation exhibited by all Kellogg instructors and members of the staff — from providing reading and contextual information to coordinating day-of logistics,” Mavridis said. 

Interested in a custom professional development program for your company? Learn more about Kellogg Executive Education or send an inquiry to our team to start the conversation. 

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