Leadership insights from J&J's Military Affairs founder

“Transitioning from the military, your personal and professional aperture is the widest it may ever be,” says John Perez, whose remarkable career trajectory—from Army Captain to MBA to founder of our Office of Military and Veterans Affairs at Johnson & Johnson—offers proof. Here’s a snapshot of that journey, plus five career insights to help MBA veterans frame their own.

Career snapshot: John’s journey

John grew up interested in service, but watching the World Trade towers fall as a high schooler in New Jersey brought the intensity of that desire into focus. He enrolled in the ROTC program at Seton Hall, graduated in three years, commissioned as a Signal Corps Officer in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq—the first of two combat-zone deployments in a four-year period.

While continuing service in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Captain, John earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management—a school he says he selected because its purpose was, like the Soldier’s Creed and Johnson & Johnson's Credo, “mission driven and values based”: educating leaders for business and society.

For John, a first-generation college graduate, it was an eye-opening experience in other respects. “All of my classmates were highly intelligent early-in-career professionals with impressive backgrounds,” he recalls, “but I felt like I was one of the very few who knew what it meant to lead teams through truly difficult situations.”

Owning leadership as his differentiating skill set, John decided to hone it further. He participated in a leadership development program at Johnson & Johnson, then progressed through seven different roles across multiple functions: supply chain management, procurement, program management, acquisitions and divestitures, government affairs and policy. In 2020, John founded our Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, heading it for three years before advancing to his current role as Director, Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement, U.S. State Government Affairs.

As ‘first jobs’ go, the military equipped me with more leadership training at an earlier stage in my career development than I would’ve gotten in almost any civilian occupation.

5 career insights for veteran MBAs

John knows from experience that transitioning military veterans in general, and those emerging from MBA programs in particular, face a critical juncture. He shares five pointers that might help you navigate the journey.

1. Lessons in servant leadership from a noncommissioned officer

Today, John can distill the concept of “servant leadership” down to a single memorable precept: “enhancing and enabling your team above all else." But as a practice, he says he's still indebted to two early lessons from his first senior NCO in the Army: 

• “Don’t expect to be treated better than anyone else on your team by virtue of your rank or seniority. Whether or not that happens is probably beyond your ability to control, but expecting it to is problematic. It can push you toward negative behaviors you won’t even be aware of.”
• “Take care of your team and your team will take care of you. If you make it clear that their needs come first in terms of how you communicate and engage with them, they’re going to want to deliver more value, they’re going to be more open about their needs and they’re going to perform that much more effectively as a result.”

2. Keep your options open rather than doubling down

Attentiveness to hierarchy and the chain of command is mandatory in the military. But John thinks career "lattices," rather than "ladders," should be the operative metaphor for veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce.

“For starters, there’s no statute that says your private-sector career has to be in any way a continuation of what you did in the military—you’re completely free to chart a new path,” he points out. “Use this time for broadening experiences. You’ll be wiser, happier and healthier if you immerse yourself in different activities, engagements and communities.”

3. Prioritize the mission and set ambitious goals

Ensuring alignment around the mission has been central to John’s success in the private sector—an approach he describes as “military leadership 101”—but he thinks it comes with an important complement: namely, setting ambitious goals.

“I always start with the mission: What’s our intent? How can we enhance our strengths through collaboration? Grounding yourself in the mission, forming a trusted team, then working to solve the problem—that’s as essential in the military as it is in the private sector, and pretty much everywhere else in life,” John says.

His success in advocating for and launching our Office of Military & Veterans Affairs could be seen as a case in point, but might it have turned out differently had he set less far-reaching goals?

“In my mind, part of the reason I was able to build a broad-based coalition of support with over 100 internal stakeholders at J&J is that I established extremely ambitious goals. It was almost as if the moment I said, ‘We’re going to be the very best company for military veterans, period,’ people were willing to look forward to what was possible instead of focusing on the constraints they’d operated under in the past.”

4. Join the right team: Examine values and culture

“Being ethical is non-negotiable,” John says—an assertion which will be met with universal nods of agreement by military veterans, but he isn’t just standing on principle. This really matters in practice, John explains: “Can you imagine trying to prioritize things like open and honest discussion or individual learning and growth without having built a culture with shared values at its core? Think about the challenges from the standpoint of execution. It wouldn’t be possible.”

It also underscores the importance of joining the right team.

“The military may be the most diverse of all possible working environments—you’re constantly meeting people from all walks of life whose experiences and reference points are significantly different than your own. Yet because of the foundation of shared values, it becomes not only easier but almost inevitable for you to find common ground, secure buy-in and work collaboratively toward solutions.”

5. Don’t overlook two superpowers: Learning agility and strategic risk-taking

Touching down in Iraq for the first time, John remembers, to his surprise, “I was asked to take on all of these different jobs and specialized assignments, some of them requiring skills and knowledge that didn’t seem to align with my core technical training as a Signal Corps Officer.”

But John sees the situation differently now—that is, as part of the unique value that veterans bring to the table, particularly in two areas: learning agility and strategic risk-taking.

“Your learning agility really sets you apart,” he explains, “because you’re able to rapidly assess a situation, develop a plan, execute it, get feedback and then repeat with improvements, which isn’t so different from what’s required of a business leader in healthcare: continually adapting to the environment, for example, taking calculated risks and thinking creatively about solutions. But having to deal with substantial risks early in your career is undeniably a formative experience, and it gives you the ability to maintain composure and bring calmness to the team.”

On the subject of risk, John continues, “How you handle risk reveals a lot about your character and perspective. Are you calm under pressure? Can you sort of slow things down when necessary? Especially as a leader in healthcare, you can’t let the heightened sense of urgency or intensity that surrounds critical decision-making moments cloud your judgment—and making strategic decisions based on foresightful assessments of risk is inherent to innovation."

Join forces with Johnson & Johnson

At a moment when the current military has a higher level of education than the U.S. population overall, John’s career (and the insights above) could be touchstones for transitioning veterans. If you’re among them—eager to hone your leadership skills and open the door to virtually any future endeavor—learn more about our career pathways for military veterans and explore and apply for opportunities at Johnson & Johnson right now.

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