MWSA Review

Strategy exists separately in two worlds: one in the military establishment and the other with corporations or businesses. As Athena's Bridge: Essays on Strategy and Leadership author Professor Michael Hennelly points out, strategic and tactical planning with the necessary leadership has similar roles in military and civilian organizations. Dr. Hennelly, as a military strategist and academic instructor at United States Military Academy, West Point, and a corporate advisor on leadership and strategy reveals in nine essays through contrasting examples, unnecessary gaps exist between military and civilian approaches to strategy and leadership. Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Melville, von Clausewitz, Pixar, McDonald's, The Godfather, Kmart, Trafalgar, and Iliad are diverse examples used to compare and contrast models of successful and not-so-successful strategic planning. Brief assessments of General George C. Marshall's wartime and civilian successes and France's failures at Dien Bien Phu represent potent examples of leadership applied to strategic planning. Important and time-tested lessons for today's business entrepreneurs are not new. For example, the author notes Sun Tzu's fifth-century B.C. themes for achieving success on battlefields can also work in corporate boardrooms. Essays from Athens's Bridge present enlightening crossover themes designed to close these two worlds with time-proven objectives.

Review by Tom Beard (March 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Most people don’t know that General George Marshall is a valuable and relevant model for 21st century entrepreneurs. That is because there are two worlds of strategy and most people are only aware of one. There are two worlds of leadership and most people are only aware of one. One is the military world, thousands of years old but studied by very few. The other is the corporate world, astonishingly new but studied by millions. Both of these worlds have developed valuable insights into strategy and leadership. The problem is that MBA students rarely study the military world and soldiers rarely study the corporate world. Learning from both worlds deepens one’s understanding and provides a richer and more diverse perspective on strategy and leadership. This book is designed to be a bridge between these two worlds.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—How to/Business

Number of Pages: 398

Word Count: 89,282