In regard to our last reading The Prince and Machiavelli, I have to say that I was somewhat put off by his writings during the first round of reading his discourse. It was with my second reading that I started putting the pieces together and appreciating at least some of his thoughts. When I first opened the book, I thought he appeared tyrannical and as cold as metal. During the second reading I resisted putting more into his words than what was already there.
Considering yesterday’s class and my team’s assignment about building a business utilizing the Machiavellian perspective, I wanted to think about it a little further. Would the Machiavelli approach work in building a business? He does have some good advice and makes valid observations. He does use strategy void of any morality or ethics in advising how to lead and/or move up the ladder. Out of curiosity I googled “Machiavellian Business” and found an amazing amount of ideas and concepts that incorporates his strategy and/or makes comparisons. For instance it is quite common for the third generation of any family business to make decisions which results in the folding of the company. Machiavelli states something very similar when discussing hereditary principalities, “From cobbler to cobbler it is success that kills the family business. The more successful each generation is, the less each one will want to work”. It may be the 3rd generation is spoiled, pampered and weak thus lacks the fortitude to work and succeed. In order to get a business loan one is required to formulate a business plan which requires product and consumer knowledge. In chapter 14 of his discourse, Machiavelli recommends preparation by “thinking and doing”, “spare no effort to become acquainted” with your territory (product).
In regard to moving up the ladder in the corporate world, Machiavelli mentions hard work in chapter 8, “If you consider Agathocles’s bold achievements, you will not find much that can be attributed to luck; for as I have said, he did not come to power because he had help from above, but because he worked his way up from below, climbing rank to rank…." Modern businesses do not engage themselves with the moral or ethic values of employees or customers nor do they focus on the general well-being of the community. And they usually pass on the unpleasant duties to insubordinates such as Machiavelli suggests in Chapter 19: Rulers should delegate responsibility for unpopular actions, while taking personal responsibility for those that will win favor.
Truly, there are many quotes and ideas that Machiavelli discussed that could be used in initiating a business plan or in operating a modern day business. For that matter, I wonder if this discourse is required reading for military officers in training, sort of like the “Art of War” by an Asian author that fellow students were talking about yesterday.
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Modern businesses do not engage themselves with the moral or ethic values of employees or customers nor do they focus on the general well-being of the community.
ReplyDeleteThis is an important issue, e.g. for accounting firms that do not want to go bankrupt because they fall into unethical practices. In military parlance there is the expression "blowback," i.e. to what extent do your operatives bring home the destructive practices they learned abroad. In what ways does a corportation that has fostered unethical practices toward clients and competitors become a victim itself--by those agents practicing the same things in the internal decision processes of the company?
In small businesses, honesty and integrity really do seem to matter, and very often lead to a set of workers who are productive and proud to work together, as well as very good relations with the clients and the community.
Might something like this also be important in a larger business setting, especially one where the competition is not too distant and perhaps culturally different?