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Hsiung certainly faced that challenge until an internet search connected him to Canada Company, a not-for-profit founded in 2006 by Blake Goldring, executive chairman of asset manager AGF Management Ltd. Part of Canada Company’s mission is to bridge the divide between the battlefield and the boardroom. Hsiung met for coffee with someone at the organization who tweaked his resumé. Within two weeks, he had a job.

Although Hsiung is now an established banking executive, his army training still forms the bedrock of his professional self. Take his shoes: he never pays to get them shined, since he knows he can do a better job. He still runs a six-minute mile, too, and can bang off 25 pull-ups in a pinch. He even irons his own shirts. Greater than his personal grooming skills is his capacity to find solutions to complex problems, and to stay calm amid the proverbial storm. There is always an answer, in his view, you just need to work at it, and you need to be willing to tell senior executives what does and doesn’t work.

“Effective communication is an important skill I learned in the military,” Hsiung says. “When you are on the radio with a fighter pilot, for example, you have to be brief, and you have to be concise. You can’t say, ‘I think this Taliban is just over the ridge.’ You say, ‘Here are the coordinates. This is what I want you to do. End of story.’”

Hsiung takes the same approach in the corporate world. The straight take may rankle some, but it hasn’t prevented him from becoming a vice-president with a team of six people reporting to him and an office on the fifth floor. Hsiung keeps two photographs on his desk. One is from his post-army career, and shows him with a Canadian flag at Everest base camp. The other is from Afghanistan, riding in a Blackhawk helicopter, wearing full combat gear, peering out the window at the world below. “I keep that picture on my desk as a reminder,” he says. “There are long days at the office, but there are no bad days. No one is trying to kill you. It is just work.” FPM