Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945

“Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945” by Field Marshal Viscount Slim

I have often said that military history books are the best business books. They tend to be a study of overcoming failure. “Defeat Into Victory” was written by British General Field Marshall Slim. It recounts the battles for Burma during WWII, with the eventual Ally victory. It is a great book on leadership. In the preface, Slim says, “This book is not an attempt to give the history of a campaign, but to show how, on the anvil of defeat and difficulty, some men hammered out for themselves and applied those principles of leadership and morale that are basic to success in any great enterprise.”

Here are some of the important points that book “shows,” rather than tells.

In Defeat ... Sometimes the best leadership is to retreat under fire. Leaders should wallow in their mistakes or as a way to learn. The best leaders can keep morale high, even without success.

The Rebuild ... Ultimately, confidence requires a spiritual component ... an intellectual foundation ... but, most importantly, real capability. The team has to understand the “Pattern for Victory” before they achieve actual victory. The best leaders can see both today and tomorrow ...with the most important decisions being “when to act,” not “what to do.”

Victory ... Military victory was achieved through leadership that was “clear and flexible” ... through small and empowered teams. They defeated an enemy that was brave, but too bold and rigid. The army was unified by a culture of mutual accountability, not boundaries or rank.

I tend to learn the most from seeing something in action, not just reading about abstract frameworks. Many business books tell, don’t show. With military history you can see decisions in real time. In that you can learn a lot.