Management of material resources, then operational excellence, and finally general strategy

From 2019 Letter by Dan Wang.

Wages of Destruction is an excellent companion to Ben Shepherd’s book on the Wehrmacht, which offers operational details, and Victor David Hanson, who presents systematic comparative data. Each of them presents compelling arguments with carefully-researched arrays of facts. The lesson I draw from these books is something like the following: the most important priorities in war are management of material resources, then operational excellence, and finally general strategy. The Axis batted one out of three—operational excellence—while the Allies did well on each. If a country cannot convince the domestic population to deliver soldiers and industrial output, and if the logistics networks cannot transport these to the front, then strategy matters for little. And if soldiers are poorly trained, then strategy also matters little. Thus in my view, the best minds in wartime ought to be focused on motivating the home population, working on logistics, and improving operational capabilities of troops, all of which expand strategic space. Then one can worry about strategy more directly.

Again, a very good framing. Management of material resources, then operational excellence, and finally general strategy. As a management consultant, I am often asked to assist in solving complex issues of strategy when the real issue is basic blocking-and-tackling business management. Are the invoices going out on time? Are valuable people being effectively retained? Are customer complaints being addressed? Often, the answer is no. Taking care of basic business hygiene is unglamorous but it is the critical predicate to sophisticated strategies.