“If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States & former Army Colonel
The past six months have tested everyone, everywhere, and in every industry and walk of life. Lives were lost, lives were changed forever, and most businesses have suffered incalculable losses. For those of us in the parking, transportation and mobility space, we are still working to find our paths back to some semblance of normalcy, or at least our new newest version of it. Change is inevitable, we have just had a massive dose of it thrust upon us. Lessons in the value of resilience have been taught to us in spades.
Still, times of change always force needed progression on to our businesses. For example, the shift to touchless parking solutions was being advanced before March 2020 for reasons of convenience, consumer experience, increased digitization of parking transactions and many other purely business-related reasons. Now, the stakes are much higher, and touchless parking options are now the absolute minimum expectation of everyone in this industry for the good of mankind. Change needed to happen, and now it’s happening much faster than it was prior to our current crisis. Periods of change, especially extreme ones, test our companies and our fellow teammates’ resilience and ability to endure.
Veterans have always demonstrated resilience in times of adversity. Further, being trained to function effectively and as part of a functional team during extreme adversity is foundational to all military branches. Overcoming, adapting, surviving, pushing forward -are all fundamental credos of the various military branches.
Touchless parking options are now the absolute minimum expectation of everyone in this industry.
If you’re currently employing veterans, seek them out and assign them to critical tasks and projects as you bring your business back to normal over the next few fiscal quarters. They are uniquely adept at surviving the winds of change and finding new paths forward.
If your employment ranks are light in the veterans category, seek to employ more of them in the coming months and years. In my multi-decade career in this industry, a recurring theme I have heard from colleagues across many verticals in parking, transportation and mobility is the challenge with affecting change throughout their organizations when needed. This could be cultural change, technological adaptation, business models, and many others. The secret to successfully changing is having personnel that are willing to accept change and move forward.
Veterans carry this characteristic with them from the day they complete their basic training. Infuse them into your ranks, and watch the change you want occur faster and more easily. The past six months have been an intense period of change and adaptation to remind us of the always present need for staff that is willing to accept it.
Todd Tucker is Senior VP and General Counsel at Arrive. He can be reached at tt@arrive.com
