The most important factors in war are speed and adaptability; that is, the ability to make decisions and move faster than the enemy.
More so than ever before, we have the ability to access information on an unprecedented level.
But far from it being a good thing, unfortunately, it makes it harder to interpret the situation, and even harder still to come to a decision.
Today, we also have much more people who are much more widely spread.
As a result of these two factors, if people are managed incorrectly, it can quickly lead to confusion and uncertainty.
So learn from the military genius that was Napoleon and understand that speed and adaptability come from a flexible organization.
Learn to loosen your grip on power – split your organization into smaller groups and give them the autonomy they need to survive.
In doing this, and then also infusing them with the spirit of the campaign, your forces will become more elusive, more subtle, and more unstoppable as a result.
Ordered Disorder
By defeating the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in 1800, Napoleon not only took control of northern Italy, he managed to also draw other concessions from his vanquished enemy.
And over the next few years, a fragile peace would hold sway between the two.
During that time, he crowned himself emperor which caused France’s neighbors to think him to be a Corsican upstart with an insatiable ambition (they were mostly right on this point).
As a result, members of Austria’s military such as Karl Mack, an elder and influential member of the military class, began advocating for a pre-emptive strike which would hit Napoleon before he was ready.
From then on, Mack and like-minded officers began to gain influence and were finally given the opportunity to test their theories in 1805 when Austria, Britain, and Russia created an alliance to return France to her pre-Napoleonic borders.
The plan was as thus:
95,000 Austrians would attack French-occupied northern Italy, then another 23,000 would secure Tyrol which was situated between Italy and Austria.
Next, Mack himself would then march 70,000 men along the Danube and into Bavaria to prevent that strategic country from allying with the French.
Once that phase of the plan was completed, they would meet up with an army of 75,000 from Russia, while the British would attack the French at sea.
With this army totaling up to 500,000 (double the French army) and attacking from all sides Napoleon would not know what hit him.
It was in the middle of September when Mack began his phase of the campaign; soon after he reached Ulm, situated at the heart of Bavaria, without a hitch which led him to be well pleased.
Mack, you see, hated uncertainty, and tried to think of everything in advance.
He would come up with a clear plan, and everyone had to stick to it – ‘clockwork warfare’ was what he called it.
This time especially plan was perfect, he thought, and Napoleon wouldn’t stand a chance.
Interestingly, Mack had already been captured once before, and so used his three years in France studying Napoleonic warfare.
A key strategy of Napoleon, he had learned, was to divide his forces, but now the trick was reversed and was being used against him.
With trouble in so many places, Napoleon couldn’t afford to spare more than 70,000 for the attack on Bavaria.
And should he try to cross the Rhine and into Germany and Bavaria, the Austrians would immediately act to slow his march.
In doing this, Napoleon would take two months to reach Ulm and the Danube, and by then the Russians would have arrived, with who’s help Napoleon would be swept back to France.
The plan was as foolproof as a plan could go, and Mack savored the role of becoming the general who defeated Napoleon.
He hated the man and everything he represented – the undisciplined troops, the fomenting of revolution across Europe, the challenging of the status quo.
As far as Mack was concerned, the Russians couldn’t arrive too soon.
By the end of September, however, Mack was beginning to feel something was wrong.
His scouts were telling him that Napoleon was marching his army through the Black Forest.
The Black Forest lay to the west of Ulm, and a little past that was the French border.
Yet Napoleon was choosing this rougher, narrower path rather than crossing the Rhine to the north which would make his approach harder to stop.
Nonetheless, even if this was just a feint, he needed to stop this threat by splitting his army and sending a portion to check the French there.
But Mack still had a hold on the situation, for all he had to do was hold the French back long enough for the Russians to arrive.
Quickly, though, Mack began to become very confused.
As expected, the French were continuing to advance through the Black Forest, and they had come quite far.
Yet, simultaneously, Mack was getting word that a large French army was coming from somewhere to the north of his position.
The reports were contradictory – some said it was coming from Stuttgart (northwest of Ulm) and others said it was coming from even farther to the north, or even to the east, near the Danube.
Nor could Nack get any better information, the force coming from the Black Forest had blocked his access to the north.
Suddenly, Mack was facing the devil he feared most – uncertainty.
And as a result, he began to lose the ability to think straight.
Mack ordered all his forces back to Ulm for a final showdown.
It was only later in early October that the Austrians figured out what was going on, and it was a nightmare.
A French army had crossed the Danube to the east of Ulm and had blocked a possible retreat back to Austria and cut off the Russians.
Another army had appeared to the south blocking the way to Italy.
How on earth could 70,000 French soldiers appear in so many places?
And how could they move so fast?
As panic started setting in, Mack began to send probes to test the weak points of the French encirclement to find a way out.
The Austrians soon found a weak point to the northwest through which they could push through and escape.
But less than 48 hours later, before the Austrians had even begun the retreat, another report came that a large force had appeared there overnight, blocking the northeastern route as well.
And so, on 20 October 1805, Mack surrendered after finding out that the Russians had decided not to come to his rescue.
Over 60,000 Austrians surrendered without even a single engagement taking place, and it became one of the most exceptional bloodless victories to ever take place.
In the next few months, Napoleon would turn his attention eastwards where he would deal a devastating defeat to the Russians and the remaining Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz.
For his part, Mack was sentenced to two years in prison for his part in the humiliating defeat.
And during his time in prison, he would rack his brain trying to figure out just how he could lose in such a manner.
In the process he would, according to some, lose his sanity as well.
Analysis
We should not judge General Mack too harshly, for the French army he faced in 1805 represented a revolution in military doctrine.
Up until then, a commander would lead an army that was both unified and large.
He would never break his armies up as that violated the principle of keeping your forces concentrated, nor would it be a good idea as a general could easily lose control of the battle as a result.
Suddenly, however, Napoleon changed everything.
Between 1800 and 1805 he reformed the French military when he brought together many smaller armies to form the 210,000-strong Grande Armée.
He divided the army into corps, with each headed by a marshal general, usually a young officer who had distinguished himself in previous campaigns.
Each corps had its own cavalry, its own infantry, and its own general staff.
It was, in effect, a miniature army (between 15,000 – 30,000 each) headed by a miniature Napoleon.
Speed was a crucial part of the corps system.
Napoleon would give each corps their mission and they would carry it out; little time was wasted with the constant back and forth of orders.
Since they were smaller armies with less baggage, they would move at a greater speed in contrast to a large army slowly trudging forward in a straight line.
Due to this flexibility, Napoleon could send his corps hither and thither in limitless patterns and permutations, which to the outside observer seemed chaotic and undisciplined.
This was the beast Napoleon had unleashed upon Europe in 1805.
He had sent a few corps to northern Italy in anticipation of Mack’s planned invasion there, while seven more were sent into Germany in scattered array.
A reserve force was sent through the Black Forest comprising mostly of cavalry so it could move faster and draw Mack to the west.
This allowed them to cut off Mack’s access to the north, making it harder for him to understand what was going on and therefore easier to entrap.
And whilst this was taking place, the other corps had slowly but surely begun to close off his various escape routes.
You may have wondered earlier why that northeastern side had suddenly overnight become better fortified.
Well, one corps commander had heard that side was weakly defended, so, without waiting for Napoleon’s order, he simply sped up and covered it on his own.
Wherever Mack turned, he met a corps large enough to hold him until the rest of the French army could tighten the encirclement.
It was really like a pack of wolves slowly converging on their prey.
Being nonlinear, being fluid, being fast – that’s where the advantage lies.
Your tendency naturally as a leader may be to centralize and dominate power in the army, but that will only condemn you to the dustbin of history as it did to all the slow-moving, inflexible leaders and armies of the past.
It takes strength of character to realize that allowing for more uncertainty and decentralization will bequeath greater mobility and speed in return.
It will allow you to disperse your troops when needed and concentrate them when that is required.
And rather than being reduced to the ability to use rigid formations and single lines of advance, you are now able to move and assemble your army in an unlimited number of ways.
So divide your army and give each subcommander a mission that they can complete as they see fit.
Smaller teams are more innovative, more adaptable, and faster.
They also tend to be more engaged and motivated as they feel more valued.
In the end, fluidity will gain you far more power than a centralized structure could ever bring.
Practical Steps
Everywhere you look, you will find people who are looking for some secret formula to success and power.
They don’t want to think for themselves, rather they want to follow a step-by-step guide.
They are attracted to the idea of strategy for that very reason.
To them, strategy is a recipe to be followed in pursuit of a goal.
Believing in the power of imitation, they want everything to be spelled out for them so they can do exactly as some great person of the past did once upon a time.
But this rigid thinking is exactly the problem, for it shows a lack of fluidity and flexibility.
The essence of strategy is not to follow a step-by-step recipe, rather it is to put yourself in a position where you have more options than your opponents.
Rather than A being the single correct answer that you aim for, true strategic thinking is the ability to apply A, B, C, or even D depending on the situation you are in.
And when those fail to apply, it is also the ability to make up the answer E on the fly.
That is true strategic depth of thinking as opposed to formulaic thinking.
Chi / Potential Energy
For Sun Tzu, the aim of the strategy is maximizing what he called chi, or the potential energy of the situation.
He compared it to a bowstring stretched taut or a boulder perched precariously at the top of a cliff.
With one tap that boulder would come crashing down and, by releasing that bow, an arrow would come shooting out.
So, Sun Tzu argues, that by placing an army in a position where chi is maximized, the damage the army can do to the enemy is maximized.
So what matters for Sun Tzu in strategy is not following a series of steps, rather it is placing yourself in a position of great chi and giving yourself the options needed to deal the maximum damage to the enemy.
Although he was likely unaware of Sun Tzu’s concept of chi, Napoleon probably had the greatest understanding of it.
When he sent his seven corps against Mack, he exploited the potential energy of the situation by choosing a strategy that was most fitting for the scenario he was in and was most effective at destroying the enemy.
As a result, he surrounded the enemy and forced Mack to surrender with barely a shot fired.
Napoleon had also given himself the ability to exploit chi to the maximum through the organization of his army.
He had always obsessed with structure and organization and so created the corps system.
And in doing so he actually baked fluidity into the structure of the system itself.
Due to that same fluidity, he gained the ability to exploit the potential energy of the situation and come up with creative strategies that his army could now also implement.
The lesson is simple – a rigid, centralized organization will only lock you into linear, uncreative strategies.
So pour your creative energy into the structure of the organization and make fluidity the goal.
In doing so, you will be following in the footsteps of Napoleon and other extraordinary military leaders.
Prussia’s Superior Army
Shortly after their own humiliating defeat at Jena in 1806, Prussian leaders were forced to do some soul-searching.
They realized that they had become too rigid and too stuck in the past.
And so military reformers were given power, men like Carl von Clausewitz.
What they came up with was unprecedented – they would ensure success for generations to come by designing a superior army structure.
At the core of this reform was the creation of the general staff.
A king, a prime minister, or even a general may be incompetent, but this group of brilliant officers who were well-versed in military history, strategy, tactics, and leadership could easily compensate.
And after each campaign and training exercise the general staff would rigorously examine its own performance and learn from its own mistakes and those of others.
It was hence a system designed to continuously improve itself.
Officers were first trained on the German philosophy of warfare, with speed and the need to go on the offensive emphasized.
Then they were put through a series of exercises to allow them to think for themselves and make decisions which met the overall philosophy but also responded well to the circumstances they were presented with.
Like Napoleon’s marshals they were given the equivalent of a corps and given missions to accomplish and then let loose.
They were to be judged on the results of their actions, not on how those results were achieved.
The general staff was in place from 1808 until WWII.
And during that time they would devastate and outfight many armies across Europe.
Their success culminated in the most devastating victory ever recorded in European military history.
In May 1940, Germany would start their astonishing blitzkrieg campaign in western Europe which would lead to the conquering and overrunning of France and the Low Countries in just six weeks.
And it was the structure of the army and the freedom with which its commanders operated that gave them more options and the ability to exploit chi better than their opponents.
Like the Prussians and later the Germans, you must write mobility, fluidity, and improvement into your system.
Empower your officers and inculcate this philosophy through training and exercises, then, like the Prussian general staff, identify mistakes that must be improved upon.
And in doing so you will be able to unleash your corps and trust that they will be able to make good decisions and gain results.
Genghis Khan’s Great Hunt
The Mongol hordes led by Genghis Khan during the thirteenth century were the closest precursors to Napoleon’s method of warfare.
They were so agile and flexible that they could disperse and concentrate in complicated patterns.
To their enemies, they seemed so chaotic that the only explanation they could muster was that they were possessed by the devil.
In actual fact though, this was due to the rigorous training they had received.
Every winter during peacetime Genghis Khan would hold the great hunt in the steps of central Asia and in Mongolia.
And during that hunt, they would train in a range of intricate movements, the ability to coordinate movements, the ability to move as an individual group or as part of a larger group using signals, and individual bravery.
So through hunting (which also served as a form of play), Genghis Khan would instill in his men cohesion, trust, and discipline.
Unify your own hordes through exercises to increase communication, trust, and institution.
This will make your force more effective and cut out unnecessary relaying of messages and orders which your subordinates can now carry out using their own expertise.
And if these exercises can be made enjoyable like the Great Hunt, then all the better.
Don’t Pamper Your Troops, Make Them Disciplined
Throughout the 40s and 50s, two great baseball teams did battle – they were the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
However, their respective owners had very different relationships with their teams.
The owner of the Red Sox believed in pampering his players, whether that be drinking with them, playing cards with them, or checking them into nice hotels.
A comfortable and happy team would bring results, he thought.
He would also meddle in managerial decisions with the aim of making the team as happy as possible.
The Yankees, on the other hand, were totally different.
Discipline was the order of the day and the different parts of the organization stayed out of each other’s business.
They understood the team ethos and judged each other based on their results.
During those twenty years, the Red Sox team constantly complained, whined, and fell into factions, and in that time, they managed to win only one pennant.
The Yankees on the other hand won 13 pennants and won ten World Series titles.
Don’t confuse comfortability and chumminess with team spirit.
Coddling your troops and acting as though everyone is equal will only ruin the team spirit and create factions.
Victory is what creates strong bonds and victory comes from discipline, training, and high standards.
Play to Strengths and Weaknesses
Lastly, you must structure the group according to the strengths and weaknesses of the soldiers you have.
To do that you must understand the human side of the army – you must understand your troops and you must understand the spirit of the times inside out.
During the American Civil War, the Union generals had struggled with the undisciplined and ragtag nature of their armies.
In contrast, the Confederate soldiers were united and disciplined.
This was because the Union soldiers were conscripted last minute and were mostly rugged and fiercely independent frontiersmen who didn’t respond well to rigid authority.
Some generals tried desperately to instill discipline in these men while others ignored the issue and instead focused on strategy even though their armies performed badly.
But quite unlike them, General William Tecumseh Sherman played to the weaknesses and strengths of his army.
He loosened outward discipline requirements and let them wear their own clothes which helped foster morale and team spirit.
He also made his army more democratic and encouraged initiative.
And since these frontiersmen were generally more nomadic, he utilized their mobility to keep the army in perpetual motion and move much faster than his enemies ever could.
As a result of these measures, of all the Union armies not only was his army the most effective, but they also became the most feared.
Like Sherman, do not fight the current, do not struggle against the quirks of your army, use them to your advantage.
Be creative in your group structure and keep your mind as fluid and adaptable as you’d like your army to be.
Last Words
Keep in mind that since the structure of the army must be suited to the shortcomings and strengths of those in the army, decentralization can also be flexibly applied.
Some armies and troops respond better to more rigidity and a centralized command.
And even if you generally favor more decentralized forms of command, there are times when you’ll have to tighten it and give officers less freedom.
There is nothing set in stone, that is the wisdom that the true strategist keeps in mind when he organizes his army.
For at the end of the day, you as the commander must retain the ability to reorganize the army to fit the needs of the times and the situation.
Footnotes & Further Reading
Greene, Robert. The 33 Strategies of War. Millionaire, 2006
