With over 30 years of experience at companies like SAP, KPMG, Cisco, and EY, Michael Cortesio, Rimini Street’s VP of Manufacturing, draws on lessons from his nine-year tenure as a Lieutenant Commander and Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy. We spoke with him about how his military experience shaped his civilian career, his transition into consulting, and how his time in the Navy prepared him for success in the business world.
Supply Chain 24/7: For background, you graduated from the Naval Academy and then spent 9 years working in senior operations management across various departments of the Navy. Can you describe what you did on a day-to-day basis?
Michael Cortesio: I had several major tours of duty (roles) during my tenure as an active-duty Naval Officer. My first tour was serving as the Ordnance and Nuclear Weapons Handling Officer for a guided missile cruiser. My second assignment as an active-duty officer was to serve as the Damage Control, Repair, and Electrical Officer for an aircraft carrier. Overseeing a team of 250, I directed all engineering operations when the ship was underway. I was decorated for my role in leading the organization where no damage control issues or system failures occurred during this combat effort.
My final assignment was to serve as the Fleet Operations Officer under the Navy’s Space and Electronic Warfare organization for its combat information systems and data networks. I was also decorated in this role for having led the command without degradation or disruption to combat systems communications and fleet operations.
SC247: What was it like shifting from a Naval Officer working in cyber warfare to a position outside the military as a consultant?
MC: I had originally planned on a 30-plus-year career as a naval officer. However, I decided to transition to a civilian career in support of my family requirements and the business career that my wife wished to continue to pursue. I was fortunate to transition smoothly into a business career after significantly networking and learning of different career options that I could pursue, given my background.
SC247: Was transitioning from a military to a civilian career difficult, and how did you manage that?
MC: I was personally fortunate during my transition to meet several future colleagues in management consulting who were looking for transitioning military officers to join their respective management consulting practices. My biggest challenge (since I was not planning to pursue government-related consulting) was determining the industry in which I wanted to focus. That quickly became the manufacturing industry when I settled into my role in management consulting in Chicago, where I quickly got involved with several industry initiatives relative to manufacturing, especially in the consumer products sector. I have continued to focus on the manufacturing industry throughout my consulting career to gain exposure to the end-to-end processes and aspects of manufacturing and supply chain. The early industry initiatives where I initially got involved were the industry’s New Product Development initiative called “Efficient Consumer Response,” Uniform Code Council (UCC) related initiatives for Consumer Products, and the industry’s Global Commerce Initiative.
SC247: How does the leadership style you developed in the Navy compare to the one you use in the corporate world?
MC: I have applied all the skills and leadership best practices that I learned in the Navy to my career in business. The best practices of leadership in the Navy or armed forces apply directly and in totality to what is required to be a successful leader in the corporate world. The daily operational situations may be different; however, the principles remain the same, especially in terms of motivating others, creating an environment of teamwork, collaboration, loyalty, and organizational success, and setting an example for my fellow colleagues and workers.
SC247: What key skills from your military background have been most valuable in your career?
MC: I learned early on from my military background the skills of loyalty, teamwork, collaboration, and utilization of the comprehensive capabilities of your organization, the ability to make decisions and execute effectively, performance measurement and feedback, setting the example for others through action, motivating others for the collective benefit of the organization, serving those who you are in a position to lead, organization above personal objectives, the constant pursuit of knowledge and training as an organization, and many other concepts ingrained in me from my earliest days of military training.
SC247: If I were a high school senior interested in the business world, would you recommend the Naval Academy, or would I be better off at a school with a good business program?
MC: I would strongly recommend that a high school senior consider one of the service academies, or ROTC, as an alternative to going directly to a college business program if they have a strong interest in serving their country. I think the service question is the most important question to ask oneself if considering an academy or officer program. The strong curriculum for a good business program will always be accessible to the individual if a military commitment is pursued through one of these programs (academy or ROTC). The key consideration is, “Will this individual relish the opportunity to invest the time, effort, and cause involved with protecting the freedoms and direction of this country?”
SC247: In your industry, what’s the one thing you’re most looking forward to in 2025?
MC: This year, we’ve seen major providers like VMWare and SAP continue to push migrations, hike prices, and disregard the needs of their loyal customers. In 2025 and beyond, business leaders in greater numbers will likely shift away from software and support models that entail vendor lock-ins and self-serving practices and move toward IT support offerings tailored to their enterprise’s needs.
Expect to see enterprises leveraging ERP capabilities, including extending the life of current systems, and IT leaders receiving personalized, professional support from seasoned industry experts — a critical component to IT success amid a growing technology skills gap. Through these new capabilities, the industry should see a boom in front-end innovation, as time and money saved from optimizing critical backend systems will empower the business to focus on driving innovation and industry disruption.
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