Can History Help Us Develop Better Plans?
To be truly effective, a strategic plan has to embody certain key elements. First, and foremost, the plan has to be based on a vision — that is, a vision what success looks like. This element is the cornerstone of an effective plan, and it applies to the military as well as to business. In Barry Ritholtz’ book “The Bailout Nation,” he quotes Bob Algern, the former counsel for BP Amoco regarding a “key lesson from history: We should pay head to the sheer number of empires that became overstretched militarily and then sunk under their own weight. We need a military and intelligence system structured for the next century, not the last one. And just as important, we need to be able to size these endeavors at a level we can afford. We can’t continue to subsidize the entire free world by acting as the globe’s policeman.” By the same token, if we decide to get involved anywhere in the world, it would appear that the military strategy would need to be predicated on “winning” in the sense of t
