One of the perks of my job is being invited to lunches hosted by leaders around the area to talk about their businesses.  Today, I heard from one of Indiana’s prominent leaders, Major General R. Martin Umbarger, commanding officer of the Indiana National Guard.

While their mission, dedication and sacrifice is impressive, I was taken with the strategic approach General Umbarger has taken to growing his business and listening to his customers.  Sounds a lot like what we talk about in the media business.

Indiana’s Adjutant General hosted a half dozen business leaders at the Guard headquarters at Stout Field.  I don’t think many folks know about the field which, at one time, served Indianapolis as an airport.  It’s just south of Minnesota Street and Holt Road, south of I-70.  The runways are still there.

Here’s what I mean about growing the business.  Umbarger understands the changing mission of the Army and Air Force and the equipment they need.  As the general explains, we’ve moved both in the United States  and overseas from agrarian economies to  more urban economies where 75% of the people now live in more densely populated areas.  So our weapons need to fit the mission of fighting in those areas.

The Indiana Guard is moving away from the F-16 Fighting Falcon air-to-ground aircraft and into the A-10 Thunderbolt II,  dubbed the “Tank Buster”, which fits the urban mission better.  And, the Guard has converted a lot of property in central Indiana to build training centers for urban warfare.   One of three major centers in the U.S. is down by Seymour.  More jobs for Hoosiers, funded by Uncle Sam, not Uncle Mitch.

Out west, Terre Haute hosts one of the Air Force’s few data centers that communicate with the pilotless Predator aircraft flying over Afghanistan, attacking strategic targets without putting our airmen and airwomen in harm’s way. From Asia to Terre Haute and back.

I was also impressed by the general’s understanding of the changing role of leadership to take care of military families and the shifting of resources and adding of staff to make sure those families of our soldiers and airmen deployed overseas, often multiple times, are understood and taken care of.

When I was in the Air Force forty years ago, the National Guard was a place guys tried to get into to avoid the regular services and to avoid going to Viet Nam.  Pretty soft duty back then, generally.

But with the move to the all-volunteer Army, the nation has become more and more dependent on the National Guard to fill the role the regular Army did back when.  And, from my visit today, I think their leaders understand that changing role and have moved the culture to acknowledge it.

I also believe that if Umbarger hadn’t chosen a military career forty years ago last July, he’d have been a great “get” for any business.  Actually, he still will be when he decides to hang up his cammos.