Management Advice From Ancient & Classical War Criminals
Let’s face it, we live in an increasingly competitive, hyper connected global economy where you can’t afford to get by with “your best.” The rise of China, hyper fluid labor markets, the de-mobilization of the industrial economy, hundreds of thousands of Indian programmers with utterly flawless English; you can’t just show up and turn in an honest effort anymore, like your quaint parents did back when college tuition wasn’t the highly structured, collateralized global debt obligation we trade in extremely lucrative automated arbitrage markets today.
No, in order to succeed in today’s dynamic economy, you need to be an innovator; the swift adaptation and ruthless dedication of the entrepreneur is now just what’s expected that you bring to the table as an entry level employee in the modern knowledge economy. Sure, you may not be paid for your visionary work as an intern at a fast paced think-outside-the-box company grazing the cutting edge of an industry that is literally just exploding right now, but you know what, that’s just the kind of take-one-for-the-team ethos that’s the sure mark of a leader. You know who else knows about leadership? War criminals.
Today’s management gurus are a dime a dozen, from start up advice, to making friends and pathologically manipulating people, to how to co-opt and outflank your co-workers. But ask yourself, in today’s increasingly competitive and incredibly hyper-connected global economy, do these books have what it takes? Many of these people have never even seen the inside of a boardroom, much less the grizzled remains of a village in the aftermath of a scorched earth campaign waged with light infantry and close air support, so what do they know?
Quantum advances in the information technology revolution, globalized responsive cheap robotic manufacturing, cheap genius, and highly exploitable third world labor markets mean that today, fighting hard won’t bring the same returns that it used to. Average is over. You can’t afford to be just another soldier in a genocidal campaign crushing hundreds of Bangladeshi textile workers under the weight of structurally unsound concrete and the disemboweled bodies of their trapped, shrieking co-workers, you need to lead that campaign. Remember Patton: “wade into the enemy, spill their blood, shoot them in the belly.” Now look at Jill in the pod next to you in your open-plan office and repeat those words silently in your head. If you don’t, Jill probably will.
Take my advice: stick with the classics. Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Carl von Clausewitz, Jomini,and General Douglas MacArthur (“Rise of China? Use the bomb.”). Like these peerless warriors, as members of today’s knowledge economy you have to fight for the good life, for values you cherish, like that compensation package or the value of next quarter’s stock options- these are things worth fighting for. Not everyone can be a general in command of the effective siege of a captive civilian population, not everyone is going to rise to the very top in this global stampede from starvation, incarceration, and addiction where many will be trampled or displaced by rising sea levels, not everyone is going to get the corner office, and concubines are strictly on a first-come-first-serve basis. But you know what? Winners like a challenge.
