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Lord Hornblower by C.S. Forester Recommendation: •••
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Taking Risks While I’ve seen (but rarely read) books like “Management Principles of Attila the Hun,” I was re-reading one of the books in the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester, Lord Hornblower, recently, and was reminded of the fine leadership skills of the protagonist. How’s this for executive demeanor: “He had not the remotest idea how he was going to deal with this problem of recovering a vessel which had only to drop two miles to leeward to be irrecoverable, but his pride made him assume an appearance of self-confidence. He caught himself wondering if all men were like himself, putting on a brave show of moral courage when actually they felt weak and helpless … Here he was, committing himself to a difficult – maybe an impossible – enterprise without any attempt to leave himself an avenue of retreat, neglecting utterly to sow any seed of future excuses which might be reaped to advantage in case of failure. It was utterly reckless of him, but that ridiculous pride of his, he knew, was preventing him. He could not use ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ to men like St. Vincent or to any man at all for that matter.” I always like a boss who accepts accountability with no excuses. The best executives take calculated risks. Here’s Hornblower’s: “The risk he had run had been enormous. Not merely the physical danger, but the danger to his reputation. Had he failed, had the Porta Coeli been disabled and captured, men would not have stopped to think about his real motive, which was to make the French authorities believe that the Flame’s mutiny was merely a ruse to enable the brig to enter the harbour. No; men would have said that Hornblower had tried to take advantage of the mutiny to feather his own nest, had thrown away the Porta Coeli and had left the mutineers unmolested merely to grab at an opportunity to acquire prize money. That was what they would have said – and all the appearances would have borne out the assumption – and Hornblower’s reputation would have been eternally tarnished. He had risked his honour as well as his life and liberty. He had gambled everything in harebrained fashion, thrown colossal stakes on he board for a meager prize, like the fool he was. Then the wave of black reaction ebbed away. He had taken a calculated risk, and his calculation had proved exact.” When you’re looking for some light reading, the naval tales from the Napoleonic wars are great reading, and Hornblower is the best character of them all. Let’s just hope nobody writes a management book about him. Steve Hopkins, January 23, 2002
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