Few can hold a candle to Churchill when it comes to strategic understanding, foolhardy inventiveness, whimsical obstinacy, and victorious leadership. He said it himself. He felt he was born to carry out precisely this task in life.
We will travel to London and follow in his footsteps. Churchill and his cabinet operated in a more complicated landscape than most of us will ever experience. Their choices had monumental consequences. Seldom are strategic choices and assessments so mercilessly exposed. Here there are no answer keys, only estimates and gambles. It is seldom we see the psychology and uncertainty of decisions so clearly. And some choices carry with them heavy sources of strain
There is a lesson to be learned for all leaders in these significant historical events. We use history and modern management theory perspectives to illuminate the strategic challenges facing the participants. There is a similarity between what Churchill grappled with and the struggles of all management groups. Discerning this similarity is illuminating and useful and we apply this insight to visits to relevant modern-day organizations and their strategic dilemmas. It is a unique combination of strategy and psychology.
t is hard to overestimate the value of mastery, human achievement and limitations for a company supplying competence-building. At the Ministry of Defence, we have in this sense and for many years benefited enormously from and had the great pleasure of John Steineger’s expertise as an adviser and inspiring lecturer.
Fridthjof Søgaard, director of strategic development, Ministry of Defence.
