On March 3, 1990, Tony Brown left a secure job with a “Big Six” accounting and consulting firm to join a handful of colleagues at Public Consulting Group (PCG), Inc., a small, privately held consulting firm founded in 1986 to serve state and local health and human services clients primarily in the Northeast. Brown was entrusted with growing the firm, managing the information technology components and building a team of employees who understood adversity and knew how to channel the challenges of the workplace into revenue generating successes for the clients.
Hiring veterans and employees with skills similar to those taught in the military was a strategy Brown employed from the beginning. He explains, “The biggest thing we have always looked for in recruiting employees is a gross mindset, that is to say the characteristic of people who, when they bump up against adversity, become more engaged. More often than not, you’ll get that with someone from the military because they have been trained to push through challenges and keep going.”
Brown adds, “I think after you have been through the military, and if you have experienced the life changes that come with a disability on top of it, the adversities you will experience in the office pale in comparison.”
Veterans Handle Failure Differently
Tony Brown believes that in the business world, every employee will experience some degree of failure and veterans, from his experience, seem to handle it quite well. “In business, you are going to fail,” he says. “Failure is inherent in almost every job we do. How an employee reacts to failure, and how he channels it, is what makes an employee more valuable.”
In the business world, like the military, projects aren’t always going to go well and clients aren’t always going to be satisfied. It is therefore critical that an employee knows how to handle challenges and persevere. Tony Brown says perseverance is a skill well learned in the military. The veterans he has employs have little tolerance for mediocrity and they understand how to lead. “They have a talent of making the expectations clear and fulfilling them even when losing a battle becomes part of winning the war,” Brown explains.
Challenges in the Workplace
Transitioning from the military into the business world can be a challenging transition for a veteran. Tony Brown sites the lack of structure of some client engagements as a potential hurdle but not a roadblock.
“Imagine taking a soldier who has been trained on a base and who has worked in a structured unit and then dropping him or her behind enemy lines to fend for themself. That’s similar to what happens on some of our engagements,” he explains. “To succeed, you have to be self reliant and think independently. Whether you are a veteran or a new MBA, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. It is a challenge that everyone has to face but it is one that more often catches someone who comes from the military.”
Today, with more than 700 professionals in 28 offices around the U.S., PCG is an industry leader partly thanks to veterans with and without disabilities in the ranks. “Any time a resume from a veteran comes across my desk, I’ll take a look at it,” Tony Brown asserts.
Finding a place in business is not so much about understanding employment law or meeting minimum standards of the ADA as it is about knowing what unique skills to bring to the office. Veterans with and without disabilities have been, and continue to be, valuable leaders and technicians at companies like PCG. “I value our employees who have served and don’t think our experiences as a company are unique,” concludes Tony Brown.
