PLANNING 1. Administration in peace and war.—Tho one ad ministrator may be concerned with the conduct of some vast industrial enterprise, another may direct the operations of a city or state, while a third may be in trusted with military operations vital to the life or prosperity of his country ; these tasks are essentially similar. To seek maxims for the conduct of business from the exploits and methods of great military com manders might seem at first blush incongruous. If we refer to military information for the principles un derlying administration in general, it is because all administration is akin and because the records of war are far more complete than those of peace. In recounting the story of national strife no detail escapes attention. No phase of human activity is so well known down to the last order arid report as the manner in which the great struggles of history have been carried on. Around them cluster a vast mass of official record and personal reminiscence, from which the student of a later day can vividly recon struct the events of the past.
Perhaps the most picturesque figure of military his tory is Napoleon, and we shall draw largely upon his methods and experience to illustrate the general prin ciples of administration.- In war the first element of success is a well-concerted plan of action, and that this is fundamental for business administration is ob vious.
2. Napoleon's success due to administrative plan ning.—"The Emperor," says a biographer of Napo leon, "spent his life in his study. . . . One may say that all the other circumstances of his life were merely digressions." This is putting it strongly to those who think only of the Man on Horseback, but herein undoubtedly lay the secret of Napoleon's success a.s a military administrator. To his military and civil ad ministration his study was what the planning depart ment of the General Electric Company at Schenec tady is to the managers of that corporation.
Planning preceded everything in the work of Na poleon. In the midst of his campagn or in directing the destinies of France from his palace of the Tuil eries we find him planning. While allies and ene mies slept at midnight, the Emperor was found bend ing over his maps "illuminated by twenty candles," meditating, deciding, dictating orders.
3. Napoleon, planner as Y.vell as dictator.—Na poleon did not observe the conventional methods of his day, nor was his brilliant success merely the result of the inspiration of genius without careful fore thought. Those who admire his brilliancy, those who
counsel others to ride rough-shod, like him, to their goal, think of him as the great commander, the dic tator. They too often forget that planning was one of the factors responsible for Napoleon's success. Many persons in administrative positions believe themselves to be real leaders, when they are only dic tators, leaving it to others to originate measures while they merely criticize.
Modern administrators often seek to prove by citing Napoleon's example, that great administrators have a genius for details. This false conclusion rests upon the failure to distinguish between what Napoleon was compelled to do, and what he would have done had he been surrounded by men to whoi;n he could intrust the execution of details. The genius of a leader lies in his ability to distinguish between the de tails which as manager he must handle himself, and those of the routine class which belong to operation and not to administration. The importance of details is not measured by the size of the units which are in volved.
4. Planning adjusts details to principles.—To plan is to separate the essential from the non-essential, but to make this separation the administrator must have a few indestructible principles which act as crucibles for dissolving details. Napoleon's fundamental rule was simple. "The most difficult thing," he said, "is to discover the enemy's plans, and to detect the truth in all the reports one receives; the rest requires only common sense." When he had analyzed all details and decided upon a line of action, the execution of his plans was as sim ple in outline as his method of planning. First, he stated, "I converged all my forces on the point I wished to force"; secondly, it was his principle, "to begin the fight and get in as many blows as possibleLI the offensive in. dead earnest along the whole line," and finally his rule provided that "at the weak point and at the moment chosen by- him, the General-in chief should give the formidable and decisive blow which overthrows his adversary." 5. Collaboration in planning.—The strength of Napoleon lay in his planning; his weakness, in the effort to do his planning without aid. The German General Staff has learned to overcome this weakness in war. American business men are learning to over come it in industry and commerce.