The Way of the Warrior
Business Tactics and Techniques from History's Twelve Greatest Generals
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Business and war: both are forms of conflict, and both have more in common than people think. Business, like war, is the art of outdoing the competition. Businesses, like armies, need to practice strategic thinking and understand the nature of competitive conflict. CEOs devise business plans to win in the marketplace; generals use strategic thinking to win wars.
In The Way of the Warrior James Dunnigan and Daniel Masterson reveal the management lessons of history's finest twelve military leaders, including: Alexander the Great, on having vision; Genghis Khan, on quick decisions; Julius Caesar, on communication; Napoleon, on managing change; Ulysses S. Grant, on the art of the turnaround; Douglas MacArthur, on coping with disaster; and Norman Schwarzkopf, on building alliances. The management hubris of these men is directly applicable in today's business world.
Comprehensive, insightful, and extremely accessible, The Way of the Warrior won't show you how to call in air strikes on the competition, but it will show you how to be a manager who never loses his cool under fire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The business-as-war metaphor has become trite, and books that talk about what executives can learn from warriors are now cliched. Government military adviser Dunnigan and software executive Masterson point out here that military leaders spend little of their time in combat; their day-to-day activities are devoted mostly to doing everything from feeding their troops to assuring they have sufficient military resources. In other words, they spend the bulk of their time managing. The authors round up the usual suspects from the category "military masters"--Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Napoleon, MacArthur, Patton--then highlight particular traits that supposedly made them effective managers. What these warriors had in common--besides courage and leading by example--are excellent communication and people skills, a belief in training and an overarching vision. Today's managers are probably better off studying the kinds of organizations these leaders put together than trying to memorize their fighting tactics to use in the boardroom.
