CM: "War is a continuation of politics without a means." Clausewitz said this, correct?"
von Oetinger: Correct. Carl von Clausewitz believed wars should be fought not just for the sake of war, but when a political goal is needed.
CM: Why is Clausewitz's thinking relevant today?
von Oetinger: The times we are in might have some sort of striking similarities to the times he lived in. His time is an interesting one because it spans the period from a few years prior to the French Revolution to the Napoleonic wars of 1805–1814 and beyond, and it's within this period that the world would dramatically change.
He changed the paradigm of how to do war. It was during this period, in which thousands of people died, that Clausewitz began researching 100 wars and examines the decision-making that went on and how people made decisions under highly uncertain high-risk situations. And he comes to the conclusion that theory doesn't help you, and doctoring doesn't help you, any one prescription can't help you. What does help, Clausewitz concludes, is very broad thinking on one hand, and on the other hand strong leadership and what he calls military genius.
The military genius, Clausewitz views as being a person with strong emotions, strength of will, and a personality that's equipped with good strategic thinking. He says good thinking, good analysis, just empower your observation, you see more, by doing this you have more insights into a situation. Second, it helps you improve your judgment and make better decisions. Clausewitz turned to Greek philosophy, and how it argued points of view using polarities. The old Greeks always said you can only discover the day if you know where the night is, and you can only see the light if you know where the darkness is. So they always were arguing in polarities.
CM: So, the advice to business strategists is not to be of one mind?
von Oetinger: Exactly. What you should keep in mind all the time if you make strategic decisions is the extremes — the polarities of the mind. When you go onto the battlefield, have attack on one side and defense on the other. Don't mingle them up. Stay a couple of weeks on the defensive and then quickly go on the attack. By going from attack to defense, from strategy to tactic, in peace and war you always expand your horizons and expand your "opportunity space," as you would say in business terms. And he would say that you would make better use of your field of operations because you see more in the field of operation than just going for one single solution. So for him it's important to not just have one right solution but have very many options. You get the options by just expanding these polarities in several directions.
CM: Options give you room to adapt.
von Oetinger: Yes. In battle as in business, you adjust constantly to the situation. So, he doesn't go from plan A to B and follow it up for three years. Instead, he's very strong that the strategy has to go with the leader, the commander, into the field. And you adjust and you adapt it, but still keeping the purpose of the war in your head — and that's very important to distinguish between goals and purpose. And that's something we might come back in business to, because we confuse these very often.
CM: Do options lead to innovation?
von Oetinger: They're creative thinking. The way Clausewitz thinks about strategy, we would today call it lateral thinking.
CM: The origins of strategy are often said to be war?
von Oetinger: Well, strategy first appears in war. War is basically the context under which many study strategy. Probably in the extreme. I would strongly caution not to confuse war with business, however. Because I think business at the very end is creating some value for business and society, and I think people will engage a business who have an intimate love for the customer. War has basically no value. I think there's a huge difference between war and business and this has always been confused because of some of the language business has borrowed. It was easy to do, but doesn't make sense. It's confusing and not right.
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