Marty Strong has an accomplished leadership career spanning four decades. He worked his way from enlisted SEAL Team member to the SEAL Officer corps, retiring with twenty years’ service in that highly-decorated and esteemed military unit. After retiring from service, Marty was a successful account vice president and investment advisor to high-net-worth individuals and institutions with the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS). Today he is a CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, board director, and business investor. Marty is also a sought-after motivational speaker and leadership consultant.
For many years Marty gleaned wisdom from the best and brightest writers and thought leaders in strategy, human systems design, human capital management, creativity, and innovative leadership. As he began to mentor and coach his own executives and others outside his organization, Marty had difficulty locating guides, books, or coherent musings that were not solely focused on large corporations. This frustration motivated Marty to write his first leadership book, Be Nimble - How the Navy SEAL Mindset Wins on the Battleground and in Business, released January 2022, followed soon after by his second business leadership book, Be Visionary - Strategic Leadership in the Age of Optimization, released January 2023.
READER REVIEWS - Be Nimble:
Be Nimble, How the Navy SEAL Mindset Wins on the Battlefield and in Business, is the testimony of leadership and success written by a highly effective, well-respected Navy SEAL officer and world-class business leader. Marty Strong shares his unique and unconventional business principles and tactics that have led to his exceptional military and business career, which has spanned for over four decades. The book is instructive, full of brilliant ideas, and provides a clear and straightforward approach to decision-making that can be employed regardless of personal or business objectives. Marty Strong’s vision, his strength of purpose, and focus are clear as he outlines his effective business lessons and principles. He provides the reader with a rare opportunity to gain proven advice, unlike anything available in the conventional business world, that can be utilized by any person or organization approaching significant challenges and/or when building strong and effective teams.
- Don Mann New York Times Best Seller Author of Inside SEAL Team SIX Author of Reaching Beyond Boundaries: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Achieving Everything, World class adventure racer, author, retired SEAL, entrepreneur.
I enthusiastically seize this opportunity to recommend reading Marty Strong’s new book “Be Nimble.” Marty’s accomplishments and stories throughout the book serve as motivators to search for areas in our own businesses where we may be vulnerable and where we can do more. I was especially drawn to Marty’s encouragement of free thought, experimentation, and creativity which are of paramount importance in today’s fast changing business environment. This book will act as a reference for situations encountered throughout your business career and will ultimately fuel an assessment of what else we as leaders can be doing to execute and excel.
- Lee J. Priest, CEO ETAK Systems, Harvard MBA
Be Nimble reads like a conversation with an old friend. However, the old friend you are connecting with is a highly accomplished business executive who spent his first 20 years as an accomplished leader in Special Ops, a decorated combat veteran of the Navy Seal Teams. Marty has ‘been there and back’ in life and in business. The advice in Be Nimble will help you develop the leadership mindset and ability to handle anything. After reading this book, I learned how important it is to identify, hire, lead and work with great leaders and teams. Marty’s message is simple - no matter what you’re faced with in business or life - be strategic, adaptive, effective, and NEVER QUIT!
READER REVIEWS - Be Visionary:
This is a great read for leaders, dreamers and for those stuck in the mindset that, as this book puts it, “today and tomorrow will be much like yesterday” way of thinking. Throughout this book Marty helps to inspire you to get out of the day to day grind we can easily get stuck in and start dreaming again. He gives you plenty of tools to start executing your visions like giving you a glimpse inside the mind of the ones being pitched your ideas. Be Visionary has motivated me to think differently, and to be different!
- Rachel Parkman, Human Resources Managment Professional
READER REVIEWS - Be Different:
Marty helps us develop one of the most important mindsets in this age where we are in dire need of innovation: unconventional thinking.
- Marco Dondi, Successful author, and expert associate partner, Mckinsey & Company, Geneva Switzerland
This work completes his high impact trinity of successful books on leadership, strategy, and innovation.
- Robert Pizzini, Navy Special Operations veteran, CEO, and bestselling author of Elevate Your Leadership.
Marty writes in such a way that you see his experience unfold right in front of you, communicated in such a careful narrative manner. A gift!
- Michael Steiner, Executive Director, BEST Robotics, Inc.
SPEAKING TESTIMONIALS:
Marty Strong had great business advice to motivate our leaders and audience, inspiring strategic thought, and action. He weaves in credible stories and examples both from his Navy SEAL and broad business leadership experience to drive his points home. Marty has a great voice and speaking pace that keeps you interested, and his presentation content stimulates thinking. Our corporation supplemented his talk by providing attendees with a copy of his book, Be Nimble. After his event I had several people who wanted to bring him back for another speech. He is an engaging speaker who challenges you to up your game. I would bring him into our organization to speak again every year!
Thomas Priest
VP Sales and Marketing and Innovation
Pratt Industries
LEADERSHIP CONSULTING ENDORSEMENTS:
The key to the success of any business is the effectiveness of the management team, a truth proven repeatedly over my thirty-year investment career. Having worked closely with Marty Strong as the leading investor and chairman of his board of directors, I can attest to Marty living his Be Nimble principles every day. As a strategic thinker, he transformed the company into a rapidly growing healthcare segment leader. His talent at organizational design allowed the team to scale up operations and better deliver the services of a small acquisition, which is now the main effort of the company. A dynamic business leader, Marty oversaw the implementation of the business plan, doubling sales in two years and tracking toward doing so again. Importantly, Marty consistently strived to ensure his team kept pace with him by being a leadership mentor and coach, adding to the scope and depth of the team’s capabilities while increasing their flexibility. Put simply, Marty leads by example and is a high-performance innovator. Be Nimble will be required reading for all our portfolio company executives.
- William Hayes Co-founder & partner of private equity firm Mosaic Capital Partners Investment professional with over thirty years of experience working | Senior Private Equity underwriter and fellow board member.
For forty years, both in the SEAL Teams and in business, I’ve marveled at how Marty Strong’s adaptive mindset would cut through the fog of distractors and identify the real challenges we were facing. I watched as his asymmetrical thinking would kick in giving us razor focus, allowing us to crystalize a workable solution. Time after time his creative energy and leadership produced the WIN-WIN outcome we were all seeking. I can remember saying to myself, “Why hadn’t I thought of that?” For decision-makers, Be Nimble, The Navy SEAL Path to Enlightened Execution and Creative Leadership, will give you and your team the keys to the same innovative, strategic insight that marked Marty’s leadership and selfless success in and out of uniform.
- Rear Admiral (retired SEAL) Thomas Steffens Former Commodore Naval Special Warfare Group Four Former Commander Naval Special Warfare Center | Retired SEAL Admiral, now board director on several charitable and advanced learning institutions.
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