亚马逊为何青睐老兵

    当今世界，要成为一家财富500强公司（Fortune 500）的初级主管，通常需要做以下准备工作：上大学，参加某家大公司的管理培训项目，或许还需要攻读一个MBA学位。但丹尼斯•克兰西显然是一个异类。这位29岁、满脸洋溢着青春活力的年轻人在亚马逊公司（Amazon）凤凰城仓储中心担任营运经理（亚马逊公司在全美各地共建立了34个仓储中心），负责确保由他监管的数十个工人准确地分拣、包装产品，并按照指定路径将其递送给亚马逊公司的数百万客户。

    然而，克兰西接受的培训并不涉及物流管理学位。相反，这位西点军校（West Point）毕业生曾是驻伊美军的一位步兵排长，随后又在位于科罗拉多州斯普林斯市的美国陆军空间和导弹防御司令部（U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command）担任了一段时间的运营军官。他的具体工作是扫描数字地平线，搜索瞄准美国、正在飞向美国本土的洲际弹道导弹（一旦发现目标，他需要在不到30分钟内与中校商议应对之策，后者的职责是启动导弹防御系统，以拯救我们所知的这个世界）。

    那么，一个受训目的在于保护美国免受导弹袭击的军人为什么愿意效力于亚马逊这样一家公司呢？毕竟，亚马逊的使命平淡乏味，就是不懈努力，压低大小货物的零售价。“我是在旺季被招募进来的，”克兰西说。他所指的是亚马逊公司那段混乱的、全员发动的时期，负责销售的平民通常将其称为圣诞节前的购物高峰期。克兰西称，2010年9月加入亚马逊公司后，正好赶在“旺季”即将来临，他需要在非常短的时间内“强化训练”——还没有完全褪去军人烙印的克兰西还时常使用一些军事用语。“能来这里工作让我非常兴奋，”他说。“我之所以留在这里，是因为这家公司的领导层，以及我们与战友之间融洽的关系。”

    “战友”指的是亚马逊公司的小时工，他们在商业世界中的地位相当于军队中的士兵。克兰西对其雇主和下属的忠诚似乎谦卑得有点令人难以置信，请不要惊讶。这仅仅是以亚马逊为代表的财富500强公司（亚马逊位居第56位）因大胆招募在军队中成长起来的人才而收获的众多好处之一。

    实际上，越来越多的美国公司开始雇佣一大批训练有素、刚刚从军队退役的军官和士兵，亚马逊公司仅仅是其中之一。在某种程度上，这些公司其实也在填补一项社会需求，因为五角大楼通常更善于打仗，帮助退役军人找到平民工作并非其特长。2011年，在911恐怖袭击之后服役的240万老兵【美国劳工部（the U.S. Department of Labor）将这一群体归类为“第二次海湾战争老兵”】的失业率高达12.1%，远远高于美国非老兵人口的失业率（8.7%）。年龄在18岁至24岁之间的男性退伍军人的失业率为29.1%，而美国同一年龄段非老兵男性人口的失业率“仅为”17.6%。

    亚马逊的物流中心主要由退伍军人负责运营。

    In a world where the typical preparation for becoming a junior executive at a Fortune 500 company is to go to college, sign on to some big corporation's management-training program, and perhaps pick up an MBA, Dennis Clancey stands out. The fresh-faced 29-year-old is an operations manager at an Amazon.com warehouse in Phoenix, one of the 34 Amazon runs across the U.S. He oversees scores of workers who make sure products are accurately picked, packaged, and routed for delivery to Amazon's millions of customers.

    Clancey's training, however, didn't involve earning a degree in the business of logistics management. Instead, the West Point graduate served as an infantry platoon leader in Iraq and then as an operations officer with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Colorado Springs. There he scanned the digital horizon for incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at the United States. (If he'd detected one, he would have had less than 30 minutes to advise the lieutenant colonel whose job it was to initiate the missile defense system to try to save the world as we know it.)

    Why would someone who'd been trained to protect America against incoming missiles want to work at a company whose more pedestrian mission is to relentlessly drive down retail prices on goods large and small? "I was attracted to peak season," says Clancey, referring to the chaotic, all-hands-on-deck period at Amazon that merchandising civilians would call the pre-Christmas shopping rush. Having joined Amazon in September 2010, just before "peak" began, Clancey says he needed to "train up" in a short period of time, military-speak not quite having exited his system. "That excited me to come here," he says. "I stayed because of the leadership and the relationships we have with associates."

    "Associates" are Amazon's hourly workers, the workaday world's equivalent of the military's enlisted personnel. If Clancey's aw-shucks fealty to his employer and his subordinates seems a little too good to be true, well, that's just one of the many benefits a company like Amazon (No. 56 on the Fortune 500) gets for placing its talent bets on those who cut their teeth in uniform.

    In fact, Amazon is one of a growing number of U.S. companies that is taking advantage of a bumper crop of well-trained officers and enlisted people transitioning out of the services. These corporations are filling a need too, in part because the Pentagon typically excels more at fighting wars than helping its personnel find civilian jobs. In 2011, unemployment among the 2.4 million veterans who have served since the 9/11 attacks -- a cohort the U.S. Department of Labor categorizes as "Gulf War-era II veterans" -- was 12.1%, compared with a rate of 8.7% for all nonveterans in the U.S. Male veterans ages 18 to 24 were out of work at a rate of 29.1%, compared with 17.6% for male nonveterans of the same age.

    Amazon's fulfillment centers, like this one in Phoenix, are largely run by veterans.