Clausewitz.org is about putting the principles of  history's greatest leaders and organizational developers to work in the modern workplace. Levinson Productivity Systems, P.C. offers management consulting services that can make these principles work for your organization.

The idea of quality management systems, or mutually supporting and synergistic activities that make sure "things go right," is but a few decades old. The ISO 9000 standard for quality systems is, as of 2000, less than a decade old. The harshest possible environment, one in which not only natural forces but the opponent is trying to cause an organizational system to fail, drove the evolution of military organizational systems. Many aspects of these systems are adaptable to civilian activities.

History's greatest generals may or may not have been outstanding strategists and tacticians but they were always outstanding organizational developers. Two of the greatest commanders who ever lived, Alexander the Great and the Russian field marshal Alexander V. Suvorov (1729-1800), created or improved outstanding organizations.

Alexander's father Philip II developed the Macedonian Army into a highly professional fighting organization. Philip's innovations included drills, logistics for rapid movement, and equal discipline for officers and enlisted troops. Alexander maintained this system, and his personal behavior earned the commitment of his troops.

• Frederick William I left his son, Frederick the Great, a superbly-trained army. As these soldiers suffered attrition through battle or retirement, Frederick's ability to win declined. Although Frederick was a skilled tactician and strategist, he was not a great organization-builder.

Suvorov encouraged self-direction and innovation by enlisted soldiers in an era when commanders relied on tight control: Taylorism before Frederick Winslow Taylor. Suvorov's leadership, like Alexander the Great's, promoted outstanding commitment, morale, and enthusiasm.

Quoted in the Preface to Levinson, 2002, Henry Ford's Lean Vision: Enduring Principles from the First Ford Motor Plant (Productivity Press).

Through the travail of the ages, Midst the pomp and toil of war Have I fought and strove and perished Countless times upon this star. In the forms of many peoples In all panoplies of time Have I seen the luring vision Of the victory Maid, sublime. I have known the call to battle In each changeless changing shape From the high souled voice of conscience To the beastly lust for rape. I have sinned and I have suffered, Played the hero and the knave; Fought for belly, shame, or country And for each have found a grave. I cannot name my battles For the visions are not clear, Yet I see the twisted faces And I feel the rending spear.  Perhaps I stabbed our Savior In His sacred helpless side. Yet I've called His name in blessing When in after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows Where we hairy heathens warred I can taste in thought the life blood– We used teeth before the sword. While in later clearer vision I can sense the coppery sweat Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery When our phalanx Cyrus met. [1] Hear the rattle on the harness Where the Persian darts bounced clear, See their chariots wheel in panic From the hoplite's leveled spear. See the goal grow monthly longer, Reaching for the walls of Tyre. Hear the crash of tons of granite, Smell the quenchless Eastern fire. [2] Still more clearly as a Roman, Can I see the legion close, As our third rank moved in forward And the short sword found our foes. Once again I feel the anguish Of that blistering treeless plain When the Parthian showered death bolts, And our discipline was vain. [3]

I remember all the suffering Of those arrows in my neck, Yet I stabbed a grinning savage As I died upon my back. Once again I smell the heat sparks When my Flemish plate gave way And the lance ripped through my entrails As on Crecy's field I lay. In the windless blinding stillness Of the glittering tropic sea I can see the bubbles rising Where we set the captives free. Midst the spume of half a tempest I have heard the bulwarks go When the crashing, point-blank round shot Sent destruction to our foe I have fought with gun and cutlass On the red and slippery deck With all Hell aflame within me And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a general Have I galloped with Murat When we laughed at death and numbers Trusting in the Emperor's star Till at last our star had faded, And we shouted to our doom Where the sunken road of Ohein Closed us in its quivering gloom So but now with tanks a clatter Have I waddled on the foe Belching death at twenty paces By the starshell's ghastly glow. So as through a glass and darkly The age-long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names— but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought. But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter But to die again once more.

Through a Glass, Darkly, by George S. Patton, Jr. (22 May 1922, believed to be in the public domain)
[1] Greco-Persian wars
[2] Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great
[3] Carrhae, at which Roman infantry was caught in the open by Parthian mounted archers

I don't know if I share Henry Ford's and George S. Patton's belief in reincarnation but I am absolutely sure that timeless and changeless principles of leadership and organizational behavior can live again through anyone who chooses to learn them. "Learn these principles and look in the mirror. You are the Eternal Champion." Then again, Henry Ford had to come back as somebody and Henry Ford's Lean Vision is indeed the first reconstruction of his entire business system... :-)

The Way of Strategy applies the principles of von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi, and others to business management. Order William A. Levinson's The Way of Strategy

Carl von Clausewitz Business is War "Rather than comparing [war] to art we could more accurately compare it to commerce, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities; and it is still closer to politics, which in turn may be considered as a kind of commerce on a larger scale." On War, Book I, Ch. 3

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