Professional excellence, based on the tenets of people, leadership and culture, must be the pursuit of all military organisations. In this paper, Darren uses historical examples to inspire the pursuit of excellence. He begins by highlighting the Australian Army’s emphasis on culture, learning and mastery to demonstrate the shift to intellectual development. He stresses that individuals have a key role to play in this process. Finally, he examines past leaders who had a ground breaking influence on society and uses them to identify key attributes for success.

This paper reminds us that the pursuit of professional excellence is the learning culture a military needs all of its people to foster if it is to create an edge against an adversary.