On war and strategies

Abstract

The way we talk about the fight for market share, price wars, and discounting battles suggests that military metaphors are ideal for explaining management strategies. Even the term strategy is a military one. It is derived from the Greek word strategos, meaning a military leader or general. The French general and war historian Jacques-AntoineHippolyte, Comte de Guibert introduced the term stratégie into contemporary parlance in the eighteenth century. His work entitled Défense du Système de Guerre Moderne described Prussia’s military tactics. The term subsequently became better known thanks to the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. In 1806, he fought in the Napoleonic Wars as a Prussian staff captain and adjutant. Following the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt on October 14, 1806, he spent a year in France as a prisoner of war. During this time, in his Historische Briefe über die Kriegsereignisse im Oktober 1806, he analyzed both the Prussian army’s defeat and Napoleon’s tactics. When Clausewitz returned home in 1809, the Prussian general Gerhard von Scharnhorst recruited him, and one year later made him his chief clerk.