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    Machiavellian Management: A Chief Executive's Guide
    Machiavellian Management: A Chief Executive's Guide
    Machiavellian Management: A Chief Executive's Guide
    Ebook161 pages2 hours

    Machiavellian Management: A Chief Executive's Guide

    By Malcolm Coxall

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    About this ebook

    Based on Machiavelli's "The Prince", this modernisation describes what modern capitalists need to know to be able to get and hold onto corporate power.

    Machiavelli's original notorious and amoral guide was written for one of the Medici princes. It was probably one of the world's first management books.

    Following in Machiavelli's steps, this new "chief executive's guide" leads us through all the important skills recommended in acquiring, defending and extending control over your organisation. It deals with many of the subjects which confront the modern manager and executive every day: managing hatred, contempt, and opposition, eliminating your enemies, successful deceit, cruelty, compassion, corporate independence, opportunism, self-reliance, useful management expedients, managing managers and employees, taking and ignoring advice, using consultants, the brokerage of influence and the careful use of brutality.

    Machiavelli's credentials are impeccable: as an advisor to the Borgia and Medici families, his advice, as distilled in "The Prince", was published with the express permission of the Medici pope Clement VII.

    In his time, Machiavelli moved in the most powerful circles in Europe, but he was also a man of great observation and acuteness. He missed very little of what happened in the courts of his powerful employers. This ability to observe became Machiavelli's supreme literary gift to us all.

    Although the light of almost four centuries has been focused on “The Prince”, its problems are still debatable and interesting today, because they are the eternal problems between the ruled and their rulers.

    Such as they are, the ethics of "The Prince" are those of Machiavelli’s contemporaries. And yet these ethical standards cannot be said to be out of date.

    As long as the governments and corporations in the Western world rely on material greed, rather than on moral forces to make their decisions, then Machiavelli is alive and well!

    This modernisation of "The Prince" seeks again to shed some light into the darker corners of the reasoning used by the powerful "corporate princes" of our own generation, in the same way that Machiavelli attempted to enlighten the dark world of power that maintained the ruthless Borgia and Medici families.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMalcolm Coxall
    Release dateDec 10, 2012
    ISBN9788494085307
    Machiavellian Management: A Chief Executive's Guide
    Author

    Malcolm Coxall

    Malcolm Coxall is a management consultant, systems analyst, organic farmer and author, with more than 30 years experience working for many of the world's largest corporate and institutional organisations, starting in the field of dispute arbitration for the ILO. These experiences have provided him a ringside view of the management methodologies used by medium and large businesses in areas as diverse as banking, oil, defence, telecoms, insurance, manufacturing, mining, food, agriculture, aerospace, textiles, and heavy engineering. Malcolm has published articles on political science, sociology, human design, sustainable agriculture, organic food production, technology in organic farming, biodiversity, forest management, environmental protection and environmental economics. He is active in European environmental politics and was a successful private complainant in the European Court of Justice in several cases of national breaches of European environmental law. He now lives in Southern Spain from where he continues his IT and system consultancy work, writing and managing the family's organic olive farm.

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      Book preview

      Machiavellian Management - Malcolm Coxall

      Machiavellian Management - A Chief Executive's Guide

      MACHIAVELLIAN MANAGEMENT

      A Chief Executive's G uide

      Malcolm Coxall

      Edited by Guy Caswell

      Published by M.Coxall - Cornelio Books

      Copyright 1985, 2012 Malcolm Coxall

      First Published in United Kingdom , Spain , 2012

      ISBN: 978-84-940853-0-7

      The Truth shall set you free

      P reface

      Machiavelli, the myth

      For centuries his name has been demonised : a synonym for evil, a master manipulator of the masses and creator of a kind of amoral realism whereby the end s justify the means. His book, The Prince , has been described as a guidebook for tyrants.

      Yet others praise him as the founder of modern politics in the Christian world, the man who really invented the phrase - get real - whilst some view his work as the stirrings of the concept of human rights.

      What was he really like, this personable figure that spent his days drinking and playing cards in the pub with the locals whilst his evenings were dedicated to writing one of the most important books in Western literature? A man who wrote the most popular comedy of his time and yet w r ote a book still fiercely debated today.

      What did he discover that makes him so relevant today? In our 21 st century era of spin doctors, image builders and ‘damage control’ mass media experts, could it be that Machiavelli, 500 years ago, perceived some truths of man’s nature that have lessons for us today?

      Machiavelli, his world

      Machiavelli grew up in a Europe that was fast changing. The Renaissance was revolutionary; man was starting to see the world in a new way. Copernicus displaced the world as the centre of the universe with the sun; Leonardo Da Vinci dissected cadavers to understand the workings of the body.

      Observation, not old doctrines or theory, was the new approach. Awareness that man was the master of his own fate was taking root.

      And in the chaos of a 15 th century Italy , divided into countless city-states and principalities with constant internecine conflict and wars, lived Machiavelli, a loyal civil servant, with a passion for politics and a longing for a united Italy .

      The Prince , the longest job application in history

      In 1494 Florence expelled the Medici family who had ruled for 60 years and restored the republic. Machiavelli, aged only 29, was appointe d to a diplomatic council and f o r 13 years he undertook various diplomatic missions abroad. However the return of the Medici in 1512 saw him thrown out of office, accused of conspi racy, imprisoned and tortured.

      Finally released, he was banned from entering Florence city. To a man who lived and breathed politics this was a cruel sentence, spending his days supervising his family’s farm and estate, he s tarted to write The Discourses , focusing on the desirable attributes of a republic.

      But Machiavelli yearned to return to pol itics so he suddenly abandoned The Discourses and furiously wrote The Prince , a manual on how to obtain and remain in power, in 3 months. He presented it to the Medici family, urging them to become the nation founder of Italy .

      Machiavelli’s relevance today

      In his diplomatic missions abroad Machiavelli met many princes and leaders gaining and losing power in the fractious and constantly changing political landscape. He witnessed the ‘functional’ use of violence by the Borgias, he learned what new leaders had to do to assert themselves. In this jungle and anarchy of shifting alliances and disloyalty, he analyzed and dissected the methods and psychology necessary for survival of the leaders and the city-state.

      The Song Remains the Same.

      5 centuries have rolled by, but the human condition hasn’t changed, only the surroundings.

      Power broking, stand-offs, bluffs and promises, rhetoric and hard talk, nothing has altered in the human psyche since Machiavelli penned his masterpiece, whether it be in the Italian courts or the boardrooms of London .

      An essential understanding of The Prince will reveal to the rulers and ruled the hard facts of human politics, both then and now.

      An apology to female chief executives: Ladies, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for constantly referring to the executive as a male in this book.

      I assure you i t is simply for convenience, to save space and maintain readability . Faced with a choice, we decided to stick to Machiavelli's original choice of gender.

      I am fully aware of the tremendous and rising number of female managers and executives in our world today and the vital role they play. No slight or disrespect is intended in the use of the masculine gender in this modernisation.

      If the English language gave me an opportunity I would gladly neuter our executive but that could possibly undermine his or her authority and prestige, and we can't have that, can we?

      ---o0o---

      The Executive Prince : An open letter to all chief executives

      It's always a pleasure to pay tribute to those whom we respect in the political or business arena. What better way to do that than with my small contribution to our knowledge of good executive management practice, based on my understanding of the deeds of great and successful executives of the past and my extensive analysis of the methods of contemporary politics in business and commerce?

      I have summarized my conclusions here and I now offer this little book to chief executives everywhere. I know this is not the definitive work on the subject, but it is the sum total o f many years of experience, observation and consideration. It is a simple and straightforward document , focusing on a serious subject.

      I hope that it will not be considered presumptuous (given that the author has never been a chief executive) to give advice to those elevated to the heights of corporate management. But I speak as one who has always been an unquestioning and loyal adviser to senior executives for many years.

      I t is often easier , I believe, from this humble position as an adviser, to define how a chief executive ought to behave, and to understand how to mana ge the affairs of his employees and company.

      So, ladies and gentlemen, take this offering in the spirit in which it is intended, read it and consider it carefully.

      I hope y ou will discover here my earnest hope that you will ultimately get what you undoubtedly deserve.

      Adapted from Niccolo Machiavelli's letter of dedication to the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici - The Prince .

      ---o0o---

      Companies and how to acquire them

      Types of Companies

      Virtually all organisation s, in which a hierarchical management exists, fall into one of the following categories . All are discussed in this text :

      - I ndependent private companies

      - Large P ublic companies (national-multinational)

      - S ubsidiaries of large public companies

      - S emi-state companies

      - C ivil service departments

      - C ooperatives

      Independent companies and their subsidiaries have p rivate managements and a group of private shareholders. Public companies and their subsidiaries have managements notionally responsible to public shareholders, but within certain limits they are independent. Semi-state bodies / companies are ultimately responsible to government, as is the civil service. Cooperatives are responsible to their members.

      Types of executive control

      All these organisation s are controlled by chief executives , of one kind or another, though they do not always hold this title or enjoy exactly the same powers in all types of organisation . All companies may be long established or new ventures. They may employ their own acquired or inherited capit al, or that invested by others.

      Executive control of any company may be achieved in one of five ways:

      - Inheritance

      - Personal a bility

      - O pportunism

      - E lection

      - C rime.

      ---o0o---

      Independent Family companies - The personal touch

      Preamble

      Gaining control of a family company is n't usually a matter for much discus sion or conflict because the decision as to who becomes chief ex ecutive is normally preordained. F or example the eldest son of the family or some other method of inheritance is usually how control is passed from generation to generation.

      The risks and defences of the family company

      The crux is how to hold onto your company. I n this dangerous world of corporate take-overs, buy-outs, dawn raiders and aggressive acquisitions , it can be hard to maintain control of a small family company. In this world, a chief executive is judged by his ability to fend off external predator s .

      However, there are some lines of defence in old established companies against these kinds of external risks. And the most powerful of these defences is to maintain the old, nostalgic, feudal respect and support of the middle ma nagement and workforce towards the family and the traditional alliances with long standing customers. The company's ancient retainers are the most potent defenders of the family company. They are capable of extraordinary sacrifices to maintain their status quo - for example, being talked into working for little or no pay in appalling conditions during difficult economic times simply to defend the old company.

      Advantages of old family companies

      Examples abound in the old ind ustries of family companies which pay their employees a poor wage for long hours in archaic working conditions with draconian company rules. And yet, incredibly, these organisation s still have many employees, at all levels, who have served the ir company and its owner family for decades and who wouldn't dream of question ing their management ability or their right s as employees .

      Thus is the depth of sentimentality between employee and employer in these old dynastic companies. This extraordinary phenomenon gives a chief executive an excellent opportunity to prosper personally and to protect his position as CEO. He is surrounded by employees who are personally, emotionally involved with the ethos of the company and they will sacrifice a great deal to defend it and him at almost any cost to themselves.

      But to be successful, a chief executive of this kind of company needs to apply some basic rules if he wants to resist unwanted change : Firstly, he must not neglect the traditional institutions of the company, however trivial they may seem, especially those founded by his ancestors and most cherished by his employees . He must, of course, be aware of the threat of unwanted acquisition, adapt his policies and

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