Preface
Three very different books, written centuries apart, have proved to be highly valued sources of ideas for ambitious business people. The Art of War has for many years been a favourite title among those keen to gain the upper hand in the boardroom. While cunning and insightful, Sun Tzu is keen to stress the importance for a leader of maintaining key virtues. Not so with Niccolo Machiavelli. His The Prince promoted such notoriously underhand (and downright dastardly) tactics that even people who’ve never read the book understand the implications of the term ‘Machiavellian’. Samuel Smiles’ Self- help is possibly less well-known as a business classic but he too has some useful insights for anybody keen on scrambling to the top in business. These books are still read and valued today but all that reading can be inclined to leave you with little time to put the ideas into practice. Strategy power plays is therefore a modern interpretation of the essential ideas from these classics. It isn’t intended to replace them, but what it will do is illustrate the timeless nature of these authors’ insights by bringing them to life with contemporary examples. Chances are you count among millions of business people around the world who already own a copy of The Art of War, probably strategically positioned at eye level on your book shelf alongside On Becoming a Leader by Warren G. Bennis, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And chances are, that like so many of those millions, you sat down one day, excited and enthusiastic to read the wisdom recorded in its ancient pages only to find that after a few short chapters you’d lost the will to live. Make no mistake The Art of War is a classic and warrants our deepest respect but it’s no easy read. Written in the 6th century BC by a Chinese military genius – Sun Tzu or Master Sun as he was also known – it’s no wonder it’s a bittrickyattimes.Yet,despite that,TheArtofWarisstillregardedasessential reading for global entrepreneurs seeking to master strategy and has had a huge influence on military planning in both the East and the West. Assuming you don’t necessarily have any countries to invade or plan to lay siege to any kingdoms in the foreseeable future we’ll be interpreting the strategy for the debatably less dangerous pursuit of business. Two and a half thousand years from now, it’s unlikely that people will still be poring over any of today’s business books in the hope of fast tracking their career. But they will probably still be reading The Art of War. (The translation used in this book was made by Lionel Giles in 1910. There are many such translations but this one has stood the test of time and while the phrasing may vary from version to version the essence of what is being expressed is the same.) The Prince is the book that brought Machiavelli fame and created his reputation as the father of modern political thought. This concise combination of CV and how-to guide reads like a modern self-help book. Its direct and often hilariously amoral advice, delivered in plain language, is an excellent guide to getting ahead at work. That is, if you’ve got the guts to take the advice. Today ‘Machiavellian’ is how we describe someone who lies and cheats simply to gain and hold on to power. It’s true that The Prince is all about getting and keeping power; it’s also true that Machiavelli, as we will see, had some ideas about how this should be done that sideline conventional morality. But if we dismiss him as some sort of Renaissance gangster, we’re a long way wide of the mark. Many people have condemned the book as a manual for tyrants, and it’s true that you can see echoes of Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and every one of history’s bad guys. But there are reasons for this. Machiavelli was responding to the world as it was: he wanted his princes to have power because power brought stability. In the 500 years since Machiavelli died his ideas have been taken up by outsiders, and – even though most people don’t like to admit it – copied by them. Deep inside, few of us believe we can achieve power and influence by talent alone. Concepts like ‘office politics’ or ‘public relations’ are properly Machiavellian. It’s impossible to adapt Machiavelli’s thinking wholesale to the modern world. He wasn’t writing about twenty-first century Western Europe. But he would have probably recognised the world of global business, hostile takeovers and international finance. His Prince is closer in nature to a modern CEO than to a prime minister. You don’t have to swallow Machiavelli’s ideas whole; he’s not prescribing a way for all of us to live, he’s saying that if you want to lead, you need power; and if you want power, this is what you have to do to hold on to it. Four-hundred and fifty years after his death a truly modern political thinker, Malcom X, reflected the thinking behind The Prince perfectly in his speeches, when he said, ‘The only thing that power respects is power’. Samuel Smiles was keenly aware of the difference between theorising about life and experiencing it first hand and was at pains to insist that Self- Help was a collection of illustrations from life rather than a distillation, a short cut, a magic bullet: ‘Useful and instructive though good reading may be, it is yet only one mode of cultivating the mind; and is much less influential than practical experience and good example in the formation of character.’ Self-Help is a collection of examples of those who achieved greatness by perseverance, application, and bucket loads of back-breaking hard work. Smiles even frowned on the idea of being helped by others, believing that a path made easier by others would not reap the same rewards. If that sounds austere and Victorian it’s because it is. Smiles was the very model of a Victorian man, gathering up the stories and attributes of upstanding, industrious and virtuous men for the ‘edification’ (he wasn’t too hot on ‘entertainment’) of his readers. A bestseller from its appearance in 1859, Self-Help went on to be one of the most popular non-fiction titles of the century. Smiles’ conclusions that a gentleman was made not born, and that greatness was in everyone’s reach – regardless of how humble their origins – must have made for compelling reading at a time when an industrial nation was re-inventing itself, its role models and the balance of world power. Smiles believed that theoretical knowledge without practical application was mere learning rather than wisdom and that the latter was worth far more than the former. So while he would have preferred to make the process of self improvement harder for you, he would at least have approved of the end goal. A successful leader needs to develop certain leadership characteristics as well as knowing how to handle the competition, get the most out of a workforce and present the right image to the outside world. With that in mind this book is divided into four sections to make sure you don’t miss out on any essential ideas. With the help of these three great minds you should find yourself well on the way to business success.
