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Scuttle Your Ships before Advancing: And Other Lessons from History on Leadership and Change for Today's Managers
In the spring of 1942, Japan's Admiral Yamamoto devised an ingenious strategy to attack Midway Island and deliver the knockout punch of the war in the Pacific. His elegant operational plan--which involved elaborate traps and diversions and required clockwork coordination--was founded on
complete faith that he could predict the Americans' every move. But the perfect plan went wrong, and Japan's elite Strike Force was crushed, losing four carriers, over three hundred aircraft, and 2,500 men.
What can today's business managers learn from Yamamoto's stunning defeat at the Battle of Midway? A great deal, according to Richard Luecke, and in Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing , he illuminates lessons to be learned from Yamamoto and other leaders who have faced memorable crises. We find,
for instance, the epitome of decisiveness and entrepreneurialism in Hernan Cortes, as he and a small band of 16th-century adverturers risked everything in a bold gamble for the Aztec empire (the book's title, Scuttle Your Ships , refers to Cortes' strategy that kept his men moving forward). Underdogs
who would challenge the status quo can look to France's Louis XI, the "Spider King," and learn how he undermined entrenched rivals through patience and cunning. The Emperor Hadrian, in his consolidation of the sprawling Roman Empire, provides a brilliant model for managing today's multinational
corporation. And attitudes toward technology and innovation are vividly illustrated by the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt, in which the stubborn refusal of the French to adopt their English enemy's weapon--the longbow--led to their massacre. From these and other historical episodes, Luecke shows
how leadership, daring, and artful administration meant the difference between success and failure. He draws explicit lessons for managers from these long-ago events, and he also reveals parallels in the recent experiences of major corporations from GM to Shearson Lehman. And along the way, he
evokes portraits of Martin Luther, W. Edwards Deming, and other visionaries as they struggled with the timeless challenges of authority, change, and human conflict.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Skillfully narrated, inspiring yet down-to-earth, Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing serves up powerful historical lessons for all who would manage and lead in the twenty-first century.
complete faith that he could predict the Americans' every move. But the perfect plan went wrong, and Japan's elite Strike Force was crushed, losing four carriers, over three hundred aircraft, and 2,500 men.
What can today's business managers learn from Yamamoto's stunning defeat at the Battle of Midway? A great deal, according to Richard Luecke, and in Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing , he illuminates lessons to be learned from Yamamoto and other leaders who have faced memorable crises. We find,
for instance, the epitome of decisiveness and entrepreneurialism in Hernan Cortes, as he and a small band of 16th-century adverturers risked everything in a bold gamble for the Aztec empire (the book's title, Scuttle Your Ships , refers to Cortes' strategy that kept his men moving forward). Underdogs
who would challenge the status quo can look to France's Louis XI, the "Spider King," and learn how he undermined entrenched rivals through patience and cunning. The Emperor Hadrian, in his consolidation of the sprawling Roman Empire, provides a brilliant model for managing today's multinational
corporation. And attitudes toward technology and innovation are vividly illustrated by the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt, in which the stubborn refusal of the French to adopt their English enemy's weapon--the longbow--led to their massacre. From these and other historical episodes, Luecke shows
how leadership, daring, and artful administration meant the difference between success and failure. He draws explicit lessons for managers from these long-ago events, and he also reveals parallels in the recent experiences of major corporations from GM to Shearson Lehman. And along the way, he
evokes portraits of Martin Luther, W. Edwards Deming, and other visionaries as they struggled with the timeless challenges of authority, change, and human conflict.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Skillfully narrated, inspiring yet down-to-earth, Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing serves up powerful historical lessons for all who would manage and lead in the twenty-first century.
- GenresHistory
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 1993
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Richard A. Luecke
32 books6 followersRichard Luecke (b. 1943) is an American business writer and editor, and has authored numerous books on business and management including Entrepreneur's Toolkit (2004) and The Busy Manager's Guide to Delegation (2009). He also plays acoustic guitar in the Celtic folk group O'Carolan Etcetera. Luecke holds a BA from Shimer College, and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. (from Shimer College Wiki)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 26, 2017
The history portion of this book was really well done but would make a really boring turn too quickly most chapters.
August 26, 2018
This book has been on my shelf--and my "to-read" pile, for about ten years. I initially bought it because I was contemplating writing a similar book--a set of leadership lessons drawn from certain key moments, and figures, in history. I never wrote the book, but I remain interested in historical analogies that can be re-purposed as contemporary object lessons. Luecke's book provides some of these, but the analysis is inconsistent and the historical detail is much better than the somewhat mechanistic application to contemporary business.
In very brief terms, Luecke uses the following historical figures to draw the following good, and bad, lessons for modern business leaders:
*Cortes's Conquest of Mexico: Scuttle your ships before advancing (or, more practically, cut off avenues for failure to force your soldiers into the position of fighting or dying, a strategy from Sun Tzu's "Art of War."
*Louis XI's Consolidation of France: Minimize your own ego and accept temporary setbacks and humiliations in order to win the long game.
*Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation and Edwards Denning and the Total Quality Movement: Have really good ideas at around the right time.
*Yamamoto at Midway: Keep your plans simple or stuff will go wrong.
*Hadrian's Consolidation of Rome: Don't hold too tightly to the things that are bringing you down (Hadrian divested the empire of several expensive and far-flung provinces that were sapping resources).
*Hutchinson and the American Revolution: Good managers are not usually good leaders.
*The French Forces Fighting against Edward III and Henry V: Don't stick to the old ways of doing things (mounted aristocratic knights) when your opponents are doing things in a new way (longbows).
All of these are reasonable points, but not all of them really convey useful information for contemporary managers. The best chapters, I think, are the ones involving Yamamoto and Hadrian. There are some tangible strategies in here that can be applied by anyone. Most of the other chapters boil down to something like, "don't suck," or "be the right person at the right time," which makes for interesting, if not helpful reading.
And the title chapter, "scuttle your ships before advancing," strikes me as very good advice, but I can't think of a time when I would ever be in a position to need it.
In very brief terms, Luecke uses the following historical figures to draw the following good, and bad, lessons for modern business leaders:
*Cortes's Conquest of Mexico: Scuttle your ships before advancing (or, more practically, cut off avenues for failure to force your soldiers into the position of fighting or dying, a strategy from Sun Tzu's "Art of War."
*Louis XI's Consolidation of France: Minimize your own ego and accept temporary setbacks and humiliations in order to win the long game.
*Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation and Edwards Denning and the Total Quality Movement: Have really good ideas at around the right time.
*Yamamoto at Midway: Keep your plans simple or stuff will go wrong.
*Hadrian's Consolidation of Rome: Don't hold too tightly to the things that are bringing you down (Hadrian divested the empire of several expensive and far-flung provinces that were sapping resources).
*Hutchinson and the American Revolution: Good managers are not usually good leaders.
*The French Forces Fighting against Edward III and Henry V: Don't stick to the old ways of doing things (mounted aristocratic knights) when your opponents are doing things in a new way (longbows).
All of these are reasonable points, but not all of them really convey useful information for contemporary managers. The best chapters, I think, are the ones involving Yamamoto and Hadrian. There are some tangible strategies in here that can be applied by anyone. Most of the other chapters boil down to something like, "don't suck," or "be the right person at the right time," which makes for interesting, if not helpful reading.
And the title chapter, "scuttle your ships before advancing," strikes me as very good advice, but I can't think of a time when I would ever be in a position to need it.
August 19, 2017
Business lessons from history.
Read
September 26, 2013From Publishers Weekly
Discarding the notion that history is superfluous, freelance writer Luecke weaves a bold intellectual tapestry disclosing the special relevance of history for today's business managers. Endorsing the theory originally postulated by Will and Ariel Durant that "history repeats itself, but only in outline and in the large," Luecke analyzes disparate individuals (Cortes to Yamamoto), events (the Reformation; the Battle of Crecy), and seminal ideas (espoused by the likes of Deming and Hadrian). His illustrative comments about the use and misuse of historical analogies (focusing on presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson as examples) are involving, as are his views on global empires, the Neustadt-May historical methodology and the strength and importance of ethnic diversity in the U.S. This work is fun to read, educational and gripping, rare traits in a "business" work.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Discarding the notion that history is superfluous, freelance writer Luecke weaves a bold intellectual tapestry disclosing the special relevance of history for today's business managers. Endorsing the theory originally postulated by Will and Ariel Durant that "history repeats itself, but only in outline and in the large," Luecke analyzes disparate individuals (Cortes to Yamamoto), events (the Reformation; the Battle of Crecy), and seminal ideas (espoused by the likes of Deming and Hadrian). His illustrative comments about the use and misuse of historical analogies (focusing on presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson as examples) are involving, as are his views on global empires, the Neustadt-May historical methodology and the strength and importance of ethnic diversity in the U.S. This work is fun to read, educational and gripping, rare traits in a "business" work.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
May 16, 2014
Management stuff from History - hand picked - Neat stuff - "It is difficult to unlearn behavior that made us successful" , "Nothing fails like success" - Take stuff from history with caution - Victor's bias.
June 3, 2013
Reflection brings success
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews