How America's Top Military Officer Uses Business to Boost National Security

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An Information Hound: Mullen grabs a few minutes to read the newspaper in his Pentagon office. | Photo: Olaf Blecker

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On the evening of January 6, Admiral Mike Mullen got into his armored SUV and girded himself for the last meeting of his day. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been up since well before dawn -- he'd gone to the gym at 4:30 that morning. A bad cold was making him feel as if his head were stuffed with gauze. And his aides? Slave drivers! He'd wanted to cancel his appearance on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, but he had done that once before, and they thought it would be bad form to back out again. So he'd flown up to New York, done the show, and survived gaffe-free. Now it was time for dinner.

The nation's top military officer drove to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side town house. It was not the chairman's usual crowd. For one thing, the collective net worth of the gathered guests can safely be estimated as in the gajillions. Mullen's 2009 salary of $220,734.36 was approximately 1/100th the 2009 compensation of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who was at the table. Among others in the group were the mayor's companion, Diana Taylor, a managing director at the boutique investment firm Wolfensohn & Co.; Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman; Larry Fink, head of the investment-management firm BlackRock; real estate and media magnate Mort Zuckerman; and American Express CEO Ken Chenault.

Mullen, 63, had visited Stewart's turf to talk; on Bloomberg's, he intended to listen. The giants of finance quickly grabbed his ear with a litany of complaints about the White House and Congress. "They talked about how disappointed they are with Washington," says one guest at the dinner. "People are sick and tired of being bashed by politicians, and then being called and asked for money the next day."

Mullen often speaks in facial micro-expressions -- a flicker in his eyes and a slight upturn of the lips can signal bemusement, while a sudden hard set of his jaw registers impatience or disagreement -- but what comes out of his mouth is unfailingly polite. While he said nothing to discourage the complaints, he was more interested in what the group had to say about the global economy. He turned the talk to macro issues. "He wanted to know what kind of environment can be created in which business can thrive and what role governments have to play," recalls a guest. "What is it that makes businesses successful?"

"It was a lively conversation," says Mayor Bloomberg, with a group who have thought a lot about the global economy and "who hear firsthand what people around the world think about the United States."

Mullen left Bloomberg's house unsettled. "What I took away from the dinner was the sense that because of our fiscal irresponsibility, the system emulated by so many people is now being questioned," he says. "That's really worrisome to me."

Oh, and he knows what you're about to ask: How exactly is this his business? What does any of this have to do with his job or with the military's? "Our financial health is directly related to our national security," Mullen says. "The biggest driver globally right now is the economy -- and I'd argue it always has been. I'm not an economist and I'm not a finance guy, but I need to understand the global trends that work those engines. Where are these guys putting their money? If they're betting on certain outcomes -- whether good or bad -- why?"

In a series of conversations with Fast Company in the weeks after the dinner, Mullen -- who likes to say, "The sea is my business" -- detailed for the first time the surprising and eclectic ways in which he is worrying about everybody else's businesses. The first chairman of the Joint Chiefs to have attended Harvard Business School, he has sought the advice of economists, entrepreneurs, not-for-profit executives, even a former Disney Imagineer. With an assist from his Twitter-loving wife, he has become the military's marketer-in-chief. He deploys social media and quiet candor to tackle controversial issues like "don't ask, don't tell" and to strengthen ties between the military that's fighting the wars and the civilians who are paying for them. "It's America's military," he explains, "and America's wars."

In the private sector, such multidisciplinary outreach may be expected; in the tradition-bound military, it is unorthodox. These tactics have helped a laconic California kid who "just wanted to have a good time" become the top military adviser to the president of the United States and the most influential, provocative, and visible chairman of the Joint Chiefs since Colin Powell. And they have made Admiral Mullen not just a new model for military officers -- and a new kind of business titan -- but also a case study in 21st-century leadership.