Offensive action is the most effective and decisive way to attain a clearly defined common objective while maintaining freedom of action and achieving decisive results. Offensive – Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative. An example: Amazon's vision is to be “earth's most customer centric company to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.'Ģ. No business has ever emerged from infancy of a notion to realization of growth without a clear and decisive statement of purpose. Objective – This is the ultimate purpose of war, to destroy the enemy's ability and will to fight, by directing every military operation toward a clearly defined, decisive and attainable end. Below is a brief description and a crosswalk of each principle of war to business it’s not surprising to see the similarities and overlap.ġ. They are objective, offensive, mass, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, security, surprise, and simplicity. Military and business leadership arguably are two sides of the same coin. What Clausewitz did for the study of war, Drucker did for business. By comparison, Peter Drucker, the brilliant and prolific (over 25 books) author who studied and established the guiding principles of business, shares many of Clausewitz’s views. The Principles of War, codified by Carl Von Clausewitz, a Prussian who fought in the Russian Army in the early 19 th century against Napoleon, guides our study of warfare and military leadership in war today. Not unlike other theoretical fields of study or practical professions, the art of war is rooted in a doctrine, a set of principles. The art of war has been practiced and studied for millennia. Certainly, this does not place anyone at physical risk, but a negative outcome in business is personally damaging and the effects lasting. Similarly, a business may fail and drag its employees down with it. Sadly but inevitably, soldiers may die in combat and their units may suffer loss nothing in life is more tragic or permanent. The “missions” of business are not dissimilar from the military…defining the purpose, describing the necessary tasks, designing the organization, building the team, and achieving open and precise communications. It is quite common to view military leadership through a much broader lens and ascribe its characteristics and principles to business.

Battle feild two sirds