By Lee Kirby, Co-founder and Chairman of Salute Mission Critical
When traveling in uniform, you find out that there are a lot of people who will buy you a coffee or pay for your lunch and tell you how much they appreciate your service. That is WAY better than it was for our brothers and sisters who served in Vietnam, and it is appreciated. However, if I could be so bold, buying a coffee for someone going to a combat zone is more a self-gratifying move. It provides a moment of pride for everyone but no real impact. What I think would be much cooler, is that you walk up to the table of uniformed military people and thank them for their service and tell them you will be praying for their safe return, then pull out your business card and tell them to call you when they get back and are ready to return to civilian life. Of the Veterans we have hired in the last 4+ years, 12% of them were in VA Homeless shelters and all of them had their free coffee in airports, but they could not find a job. Salute is providing jobs for Veterans, who were thought to be unskilled, and we have produced something even greater in the process which is sustaining our growth. That “something” is a company ethos built on our core values and training, and has become a powerful force to be leveraged by our clients as a competitive advantage. I will try to explain with a real-life example.
Richard Werner of EdgeConneX is a great example of the perfect client for Salute. He heard about Salute’s mission at an industry conference and gave us a chance to prove our capabilities. We crafted a custom services solution to meet his needs and deployed and trained the team rapidly. The situation evolved and we worked in partnership to adjust and refine repeatedly. Through this process, we were both flexible and disciplined in our approach and able to contribute far greater value than anticipated. Richard noted that “It is obvious that Salute’s DNA is based on military doctrine for rapidly training and deploying highly effective teams into any situation and to constantly evolve to meet the ever-changing environment. They have proven this time and again for us and the combination of their strengths and ours provides a strategic edge in the industry.” This is the fabric that sets us apart and when you think with your head and not your heart, you come to realize the value and benefit from doing business with Salute, regardless of the added natural consequences of changing the lives of Veterans. Salute stands ready to help provide a flexible staffing solution that you can leverage to your advantage.