The Corporate Prince
by
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For almost 500 years political leaders throughout the world have obtained invaluable insights into human nature and sage advice on getting and keeping power from Niccolo Machiavelli’s classic handbook on statecraft: The Prince. Unfortunately, The Prince does not get the respect it deserves these days. It is mostly ignored except in academic circles. Most educated people of course have a vague idea of what The Prince is about, but very few actually know what it says. This is probably because modern readers are misled by the title into thinking it is applicable only to renaissance princes. But they are wrong. First of all, the term "prince" had a much broader meaning to Machiavelli than it does to us. To Machiavelli a prince was any autocratic political leader; he could be a king, a military dictator, an elected executive, or even a religious leader. But equally important, The Prince is not applicable just to politics. Rather, it is about how to acquire and exercise power over men in any large organization. Consequently, Machiavelli's advice is timeless and broadly applicable. It deserves to be studied by modern leaders just as it was studied by leaders in the past. One group of modern leaders that would especially profit from studying The Prince are the chief executive officers (CEOs) of large corporations. This is because CEOs are, in many ways, the modern equivalent of Italian renaissance princes. Like princes of old, CEOs live in a highly competitive and ruthless world; they can gain power in a variety of ways, and, once in power, they have great authority within their realms, and they are richly rewarded. However, they are also frequently envied and sometimes hated, and they are tempting targets for usurpers both from without and within their corporations. Indeed, even the titles CEO and prince are similar in that both are generic designations indicating the person on top, the supreme leader, the person with final authority and ultimate responsibility. While The Prince is unquestionably a classic, it is not an easy book to read; in fact, it is somewhat tedious. Although the wisdom is timeless, much of the supporting discussion is decidedly dated because it refers to events and people unfamiliar to modern readers. Similarly, although Machiavelli's insights and advice on leadership are universal, they are expressed in the context of an Italian prince, which sometimes obscures their relevance to modern leaders. Henry Borger has solved these problems in The Corporate Prince by changing the setting to the modern business world and substituting illustrative anecdotes from the world of business for Machiavelli's anecdotes from his era. However, The Corporate Prince faithfully follows the organization of The Prince and includes virtually all of Machiavelli's advice on getting and keeping power as well as his observations on human nature. And, although references to murder and killing have been eliminated from The Corporate Prince, Machiavelli’s cynicism about human nature and his brutal honesty about the ways of the world are still much in evidence. Several other books have been published in the last decade that link Machiavelli and The Prince to the modern business world. While these books all trade on Machiavelli’s name, none of them does what The Corporate Prince does, namely, present the sum and substance of almost all of the recommendations and observations found in The Prince (edited to make them applicable to the business world) and present them in almost the same order Machiavelli presented them. Instead, these books mostly give the personal views of the authors. Although some of their ideas are quite interesting and insightful, they are not Machiavelli’s ideas. In writing The Corporate Prince, Henry Borger has done what Oscar Hammerstein II did when he transformed Bizet’s Carmen into Carmen Jones. He has created a modern version of a classic without losing the flavor or essence of the original. Just as Hammerstein made it easy for ordinary Americans to appreciate the beauty and drama of Bizet’s masterpiece, Henry Borger has made it easy for American businessmen to appreciate the wisdom in Machiavelli’s masterpiece. Thus, by studying Henry Borger’s unique variation on Machiavelli’s masterpiece, CEOs, would-be CEOs, and students and faculty in schools of business will be able to appreciate readily the applicability of Machiavelli’s principles to the corporate realm. The Corporate Prince is divided into 23 chapters similar to those found in The Prince, plus an introduction, an epilogue, a bibliography, and an index. Specifically:
Chapter 1, On Well-Established Corporations, identifies the categories of corporations that will be taken up in the book and discusses the relative difficulties experienced by CEOs of new and well-established corporations. Chapter 2, On Mixed Corporations, discusses the difficulties CEOs experience when they take over a corporation and how such difficulties can be minimized or dealt with. Among the specific issues discussed are the impact of corporate culture on a takeover, the fact that CEOs have less trouble if they make an acquired company a subsidiary instead of trying to integrate it into their own corporation, and how CEOs should proceed when entering a new line of business. Chapter 3, On Avoiding Problems, discusses things a CEO should do to avoid problems, specifically (a) either treat an opponent kindly or crush him completely; (b) try to identify problems early and solve them before they get too big; and (c) never help another leader get too strong. Chapter 4, Why Some Corporations Are Easy To Control After a Takeover, discusses the relative difficulty CEOs experience trying to gain control of centralized and decentralized corporations. Chapter 5, How Acquired Corporations Should Be Managed, discusses three options a CEO has for dealing with a formerly independent corporation after he acquires it, namely, destroy it, take up residence there, or operate it as a subsidiary. Chapter 6, Regarding New Corporations, discusses the difficulties a CEO will experience when starting a new corporation or undertaking a new venture. Chapter 7, Regarding New Corporations Acquired Through Good Luck Or With the Aid of Others, discusses the special problems experienced by CEOs who come to power too quickly, too easily, or with the help of others. Chapter 8, On Those Who Become CEO by Crime, discusses how CEOs who gain power through dishonorable means can avoid being stigmatized for life, and the circumstances in which CEOs can be forgiven for using harsh measures. Chapter 9, On Representative CEOs, discusses the dangers faced by a CEO who comes to power with the backing of either employees or major stockholders if the group he is not allied with feels it is being discriminated against. Chapter 10, How To Measure the Strength of a Corporation, discusses the factors that make a corporation strong and identifies actions CEOs of weak corporations can take to compensate for their weaknesses when they are attacked. Chapter 11, On Relying on Consultants and Outside Contractors, discusses the importance of well-trained employees to the success of a corporation and the dangers involved in relying too heavily on consultants and outside contractors. Formats Book Details For almost 500 years, political leaders throughout the world have obtained invaluable insights into human nature and sage advice on getting and keeping power from Niccolo Machiavelli’s classic handbook on statecraft: The Prince. Now, in The Corporate Prince, Machiavelli’s timeless wisdom is adapted for our modern business leaders. The Corporate Prince faithfully follows the organization of The Prince and includes virtually all of Machiavelli's controversial advice and observations. However, the setting has been changed to the modern business world, and illustrative anecdotes from the world of business have been substituted for Machiavelli's anecdotes about princes of old. Prior
to my retirement in 1995, I was a staff officer at the National Research
Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a
congressionally chartered, private, nonprofit corporation located in
Washington, D.C. During
most of my 33 years with the research council I managed a federally funded
program that helped federal agencies solve problems related to their
construction activities. As director of
that program, I coordinated a wide variety of studies that dealt with various
aspects of building technology and construction management and published more
than 150 technical reports. Before
joining the research council, I worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation in
Baltimore and elsewhere as a manufacturing engineer, and prior to that, I
served three years in the U.S. Air Force as a navigator. My
decision to write The Corporate Prince
was prompted by my dual interests in Niccolo Machiavelli and business
management. My interest in Machiavelli
was stimulated more than 25 years ago when I read Robert Crichton’s
best-selling novel, The Secret of Santa
Vittoria, in which the hero uses his knowledge of Machiavelli to thwart the
efforts of the Germans to confiscate his village’s wine during World War
II. Prompted by the novel, I began
reading Machiavelli, and I soon concluded that he is misunderstood and
underappreciated by the modern world.
In fact, I became convinced that Machiavelli is not the personification
of evil, as many believe, but rather is one of the true geniuses of the Italian
renaissance and that his books, and especially his masterpiece, The Prince, are packed with priceless
wisdom and timeless insights into human nature that are as valid today as when
they were written almost 500 years ago. My
interest in business management dates back even further than my interest in
Machiavelli. Although I was trained as
an engineer, I learned early in my career that engineering is not where the
real action is and that engineers, even brilliant engineers, have no impact
unless their work is organized and focused on a commercial or societal
goal. I discovered that while engineers
are often crucial to the success of an enterprise, they are, inevitably, just
one member of a team. The really
important players are the people who organize and direct the team in other
words, CEOs and senior managers. My
appreciation of the overriding importance of top management to the success of
an organization was reinforced during my three decades on the staff of the National
Research Council. Although the studies
we undertook dealt mostly with scientific or technical concerns of the federal
agencies, I usually discovered, after analyzing a problem, that the root cause
of the difficulty was not technical at all, but rather could be traced either
to a statutory requirement imposed by Congress or an administrative policy
adopted by agency administrators. Thus,
out of necessity as well as fascination with the subject, I became an avid, if
informal, student of business management and the administration of large organizations. (I have probably attended as many courses
and seminars and read as many books on the subject as most masters of business
administration.) And, as a result of my
study, I developed great sympathy and respect for the people who accept responsibility
for leading large enterprises. Following
my retirement it occurred to me that I could combine my dual interests in
Machiavelli and business management and contribute to the literature by
adapting The Prince for business
leaders. The Corporate Prince is the result. I hold a bachelor of mechanical engineering
degree from The Catholic University of America. While employed I was a registered professional engineer in the
District of Columbia and a member of two engineering societies. I have served on many professional
committees and have given numerous talks on construction-related matters.
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