About the Book
What can today's business managers learn from the past? A great deal, according to Richard Luecke, and in Scuttle Your Ships, he advances the premise that many of the challenges faced by management today have been confronted before by major figures in history. Drawing parallels with Admiral Yamamoto's defeat at Midway, Hernan Cortes's gamble for the Aztec Empire, Hadrian's consolidation of the Roman Empire, and the English victory at Agincourt, the book examines rapid revolutionary change, the risks of decision making, institutional cycles of rise and decline, the power of new ideas, and many other challenges faced by modern business leaders. Making clear connections between historical facts and the recent experiences of major companies, this is the ideal book for all who would manage and lead in the 1990s and beyond.
About the Author :
About the Author:
Richard Luecke is a freelance business writer and former editor of books on management, finance, and innovation.
Review :
"Luecke's unusual approach makes this a noteworthy addition to business and management collections."--Booklist
"Clearly written...presents historical lessons on leadership that can be applied to today's dynamic business environment. [Luecke] cites a variety of historical episodes that take the reader from ancient Rome to postwar Japan and feature the likes of Emperor Hadrian, Louis XI, Cortes, and Admiral Yamamoto....Underlines ways we can learn from past successes and failures and illustrates how history can indeed provide insight into the future. It will appeal to
business executives, government leaders, and students."--Library Journal
"Most of those who use the days of yore to catechize or instruct corporate executives go no further than military history. But business writer Luecke--while cognizant of the hard business lessons that may be learned from war--draws on a wider selection of events from the classical era to the present; among other results, his erudite but accessible commentaries afford a more engaging and effective guide for managers, aspiring or otherwise....Perceptive, low-key
perspectives on how thoroughly modern organization men and women could, with a bit of thought, profit from the past."--Kirkus Reviews
"With library shelves bowing under the weight of faddish how-to and fact books, Luecke provides the eye-sore reader exciting and historical insights in the knowledge and wisdom necessary to cause change and effectively lead."--Vincent Barabba, Executive in Charge, Marketing Research and Planning, General Motors Corporation
"Reads like an exciting novel but delivers more practical business lessons than any MBA case study oriented policy course. Managers who successfully internalize the lessons of history will be able to compete with foreign adversaries who have a deep understanding of and appreciation for history's lessons. 'Rules of Thumb' drawn from history provide insights into human nature under competitive stress and are infinitely more enduring and useful in strategy
formulation than any set of financial ratios. Our business experiences are narrow and occurred in a less competitive environment. As business becomes more like war, the great historical epochs should become even more instructive and meaningful to managers."--Bill DeGenaro, Managing Director, Midwest
Operations, The Futures Group
"This timely exploration of leadership in adversity illustrates strategies of transformational leaders and, not incidentally, the failures of the defensive or complacent in the face of the day's challenges. Thoughtfully written and wonderfully entertaining, one reaches the end wishing for more. The book is a welcome antidote to the many naive and narrowly-argued panaceas offered in much of today's management literature."--James M. Utterback, MIT, Sloan School
of Management
"Richard Luecke has made history come alive for contemporary managers. He incorporates both strategic and managerial lessons for the twenty-first century decision maker by dissecting history via the case method! The historical leaders on which he draws truly come alive in this well-written book."--Samuel L. Hayes, III, Jacoph H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard University
"At a time when business and political leaders alike give voice to or are employed by others to seek change, go global, be entrepreneurial, Richard Luecke's work adds the imperative that each action have as its foundation for success ideas, timeliness, human drive, and conviction, then documents his thinking through a series of exceptionally well-chosen historical accounts, each fascinating in its own right."--Harold T. Miller, Retired Chairman of the Board,
Houghton Mifflin Company
"When my colleagues and I teach performance improvement in these complex times, we stress dimensional thinking. Richard Luecke's work is an important addition to managerial literature because the lessons emphasize this kind of dimensional perspective. In dramatizing the dimension of time, he crystallizes some of the most crucial managerial behaviors, those that endure."--William H. Sandy, Chairman, CEO, Sandy Corporation
"History was never more enlightening and leadership was never more historical....Luecke's book entertains, informs, and challenges....A must read experience to broaden managers."--Gregory H. Watson, former Vice President, Xerox Corporation
"Richard Luecke has pulled together a crisply written collection of historical vignettes which make fascinating reading in their own right. The lessons Luecke draws from them are especially relevant to leaders in today's turbulent world. A fine book to carry along for reading on airline flights."--John F. Magee, Chairman of the Board, Arthur D. Little, Inc.
