Most people after working for a company have a sense of loyalty towards it, the company has paid them for their work, they may have worked upwards or had influence on the company as they years go by. All these feelings towards loyalty and doing right by the company are normal. What happens when you can see the future but senior management does not seem to get it? One option is to quit and do a start up, but what happened to the armed forces after World War I?

There is a movie called The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell staring Gary Cooper released in 1955 which asks the question what happens? The war was over and the setting was 10 years later in 1923 – unlike President Trump who increased the military budget, the military budget was slashed for the country was no longer at war. There were two branches Army and Navy and the senior brass thought the next war’s strategy when it occurred would be similar to the last war. There were others who believed technology had changed and the next war was going to be different. One of them was the Brigadier General Billy Mitchell who flew airplanes during the war. He could see as technology developed, dropping bombs from airplanes was going to be a strategic advantage. By 1923, the military had technically 669 planes. 600 of them were built for the war effort in 1912-14. 60 were used for training and 9 were battle ready. If you are fortunate enough to live near a air force base or been in the area – the number of planes are much different today.

General Mitchell was very loyal to the Army, but given he was near the end of career and was never going to go higher and could see the blinkers on senior leadership, the General caused a military trial to be held that was semi-public. He was hoping by having good people testify to the in-actions of the military, he could change policy and move on. The military was more interested in destroying his character and keeping the status quo. The movie shows loyalty to an organization has not changed and people are conflicted as what to do.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in all organizations when something works people keep doing it, till it does not. Then the company asks the employees for ideas and most of the ideas will meet the standard something should be changed. It takes great management to recognize it and as shareholder while you enjoy the fruits of doing the same thing to make money, you want to ensure it continues. How does senior management see change and do you agree? If you do, you can keep the stock, if you disagree seek alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.