Creative Execution: What Great Leaders Do to Unleash Bold Thinking and Innovation

Violent Roots

I mention Admiral Nelson for a good reason. For roughly three thousand years of our tumultuous history, the only institution organized in a way that would resonate with our concept of modern business organizations was the military. From Ramses and Alexander the Great to Julius Caesar, Kublai Khan, William the Conqueror, and Napoleon, the chief preoccupation of organized society was to field superior armies and navies that could hold at bay potential invaders, or be used as a blunt instrument of conquest. This preoccupation drew some of the best minds from East and West and resulted in a primitive—and highly destructive—form of Creative Execution: the ability to achieve total victory against larger opponents using a combination of ...