Imagine you have spent
fifteen years working for an organization; most of it directly with the Boss.
You have given most of your working hours in its, and his, service. You are
called upon, and you respond at all times, day and night. At the cost of your
family life.
You haven’t been paid as much
you think you are worth. But you love the job, because you are a clever and creative
strategy officer. You are a backroom boy. You always act on behalf of your boss. In turn he privately acknowledges your contribution; and publicly, takes
all the credit. He keeps you in office for long hours at his beck and call; so
you have taken to writing plays, comedies and tracts in your favourite
language.
You have created wealth for
your organization and it’s all gone to the Boss. Not a piece of it has come
your way. But you are happy, you love the job. You reason that credit will
eventually come your way; you are indispensable to your Boss.
Suddenly your Boss dies. The
new one fires you.
You have all the time in the
world now. Your family has moved on, they don’t have time for you. Penniless,
you publish some of the plays you wrote earlier and send those tracts as
letters to others in power in the Organization. Everyone ignores you.
You start writing notes on
strategy to the new Boss. Hoping he will re-employ you. He ignores you; so your
notes end up as a little book which you try and publish. It is banned by the
Boss’s Boss.
Five hundred years after you
have anonymously passed away; your book and your other writings and
contributions are recognized as contributions to Statecraft and literature.
Especially your most famous ‘little book’ called ‘The Prince’.
Your name is Niccolo
Machiavelli.
Like other centuries, the
Sixteenth was an exciting age. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, Goswami Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitmanas, Ambroise Pare invented the Artificial Limb;
Zahiruddin Babur laid the foundation of the Mogul Empire; the Microscope was invented and Machiavelli’s fellow Italian created the world’s first ice cream.
Galileo, Da Vinci and Raphael were his contemporaries. He lived in interesting
times.
Machiavelli, or his book’s
purpose was widely reviled. When published, the Pope banned ‘The Prince’. Over the years Statesmen,
Philosophers, Industrialists, Kings have criticized it but have taken its
lessons to heart. In fact, Machiavellian is a synonym for cunning; especially
political cunning.
That is unfortunate, because
at its heart, the book is actually a Practical Handbook for Leaders, in all
walks of life. Especially Managers. How to get and keep strategic advantage.
In an age of
Rulers, Kingdoms and dynasties Machiavelli was a Republican who saw the state
as a secular autonomous structure relying its survival upon human skills and
mass popular support. Consider “A private
citizen who becomes a ruler of a country not through perfidy or intolerable
violence but rather through the aid of his fellow citizens – what ensues is a
civil principality. Neither exceptional ability nor unusual good fortune is
needed to attain it – but only a certain fortunate cunning”. You may
quibble with words like ‘cunning’ but remember what we read is translation. Think
about it. If you replace ‘cunning’ with ‘strategy’ and ‘fortune’ with ‘luck’
you have the basis of all democratic politics laid bare. What do Modi, Cameron,
Merkel and Obama have in common? And remember, all this when the concept of a
‘Republic’ was hundreds of years past and hundreds in the future.
Put yourself in
the position of a Section Head, a Branch Manager or a CEO. You have got there
because your Boss or Board thinks you can lead a group of people. You may have
got this position ahead of others; there will be people who will grudge you
that position; who think themselves or another person better qualified. You may
have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time. You may be the best
qualified – but you have to prove yourself.
Most people believe they got there
because they deserved to. That’s when the trouble starts, unless you have the
wisdom to learn from others who have been there before you.
“One who becomes a Prince with the help of
the people will have to preserve their goodwill – an easy matter – since they
only ask to avoid oppressing them.”
Substitute ‘The Prince’ with yourself; it is advice that will serve you well.
Stay humble, stay grounded and understand exactly how you got to a position of
leadership.
“Therefore these Princes of ours who were
long in possession of their states must not blame fortune rather their own
sluggishness for losing them.” A hundred years later Shakespeare penned “The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars,
but in ourselves that we are underlings”. On reflection, most outcomes are
dependent on the role you played yourself; and the decisions you did or did not
take.
“Success awaits the man whose actions are
in accordance with the times, and failure whose actions are out of harmony with
them.” You may have the
best ideas in the world, but if they don’t find acceptance, you're in trouble.
“Anyone who conquers territories must first
extinguish the ruling family, the second neither alter the laws nor the taxes”. Interpreted for today, when you become the
Boss, analyze your team and remove, as skillfully as possible, members who owe
fealty to the previous one. Thereafter continue life without changing the
essentials too much. In essence, having secured your position, don’t muck
around too much.
Problems will
arise. When you are new on the job you have the golden opportunity to change
some things because you will be forgiven.
For example upgrading delivery time and service standards; no late
working; no overtime etc. You do not yet have the experience to handle these
issues skillfully. As you get more experience, you may figure out a way of
dealing with them, but by then the problem has become embedded and chronic and
thus harder to resolve. “In the beginning
the disease is easier to cure but hard to diagnose; with the passage of time
having gone unrecognized or un-medicated, it becomes easier to diagnose but
harder to cure”.
His advice is
simple. Be focused. Simple yet difficult because as a leader you juggle with so
many things that the urgent often takes precedence over the important. When
Steve Jobs took over Apple for the second time he focused on five products and
threw the rest of the developments into the garbage bin. “A Prince must have no other objective, no other thought, nor take up
any profession but that of war, its methods and its discipline”
Machiavelli was a
great votary for training. “He must never
turn his attention from Military exercises in time of peace even more than in
time of war”. Even in peace, or on a hunt he advised that the Prince must
discuss topography and problems; the Troops would remain fit and strong; thus
when war came the Prince would have more solutions than problems. Mao Zedong
wrote many centuries later “between war
and war is time to prepare for war’.
Most Managers of
today do not read enough “never have enough time” is a famous saying. These
Managers will invariably lose and they won’t know why they lose market share,
profits and eventually their jobs. “A
Prince ought to read history and reflect upon the deeds of outstanding men,
their causes of victories and defeats; learn to emulate the former and avoid
the latter….Alexander imitated Achilles and Caesar imitated Alexander…”
If you are still
wondering why Machiavelli is so privately venerated and publicly reviled – interpret
this – “Let the Prince then conquer a
state and preserve it, the methods employed will always be judged honorable and
everyone will praise them.” Before you get very worked up read some of the
methods employed by your favourite successful companies like Uber, Apple,
Google etc. and you will figure out the genius in these words.
Success is judged
only by results, rarely by how it was achieved.
Machiavelli also
dispenses wisdom on good HR practices “He
must worry about hidden conspiracies against which he will find security by
avoiding hatred and contempt, and by keeping the people satisfied.” As well
as gems such as “A Prince should delegate
unpopular duties to others while dispensing all favours directly himself”
Then he adds “because men are so easily pleased with
their own qualities and so readily deceived in them, they have difficulty in
guarding against these flatterers” advice that should make you emotionally
strong. Followed up with - “A prince
therefore, should seek advice, but only when he, not someone else chooses”.
Towards the end of
this fascinating book he says “the
rest you must do yourself, God is unwilling to do everything to do everything
himself lest he deprive us of our free will and that portion of the glory that
belongs to us.”
We started trying
to understand Machiavelli’s take on ‘fortune’ and its derivative ‘fortunate’.
He is perhaps one of the first writers to have this insight “Since our free will must not be denied, I
estimate that even if fortune is the arbiter of half our actions, she still
allows us to control the other half”. Heed Sam Goldwyn’s statement “I’m a great believer in luck; the harder I
work the luckier I get”.
So how are you
going to arm yourself for success? You cannot simply borrow or take someone
else’s experience. You must judge your strength carefully yourself. Machiavelli
wrote “In the end, the arms of another
will fall from your hand, will weigh you down and restrain you”. If David
had taken the armour of Saul to fight Goliath, he would have been defeated. Do
your own thing. But with skill and judgement!
Finally, here’s
the reality from another experienced strategist of the Indian Army “Good judgement comes from experience and
experience comes from bad judgement”.
Machiavelli would
have applauded.
Rajesh Pant
Pune July 31, 2015
