Take Command!; Leadership Lessons from the Civil War

Wheeler, Tom

ISBN 10: 0385495196 / ISBN 13: 9780385495196

Published by /Doubleday [A Currency Book], New York, 2001

About this Item

xvii, [3], 233, [1] pages. The book has slight wear. Inscribed by the author on the half title page. The inscription reads "To Ron Nessen-Your Great Idea For A Title Is Finally A Reality! Thank You For Your Inspiration To Do This And For All You Did To Make This A Reality. Tom June '01". Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. He served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November 2013. Prior to working at the FCC, Wheeler worked as a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, whom the FCC is now responsible for regulating, and holding positions including President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA). A veteran business leader shares a compilation of lessons in strategy, leadership, and management based on the great battlefield decisions of the Civil War, presenting such cardinal rules as "If you can't win, change the rules" or "Never fight today's battles with yesterday's tactics." This may have been inscribed to THE RON NESSEN--Ronald Harold Nessen (born May 25, 1934) is an American government official who served as the 15th White House Press Secretary for President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. He replaced Jerald terHorst. As a communications professional it is likely that Nessen and Wheeler were acquainted. From a review found on-line: "War is capitalism with the gloves off", Tom Stoppard smartly notes in his play Travesties. The comparison between business and war is a sentiment expressed not only onstage, of course, but in corporate boardrooms and private offices, at company sales conferences and industry gatherings. Focusing on America's greatest conflict, Tom Wheeler analyzes the decisions of leaders on both sides and offers insights that can make the difference between victory and defeat for people at the front lines of today's highly competitive business world. A business veteran, Tom Wheeler organizes the command strategies of the Civil War into nine specific lessons and illustrates each of them with in-depth descriptions of actual battles. The story of General George McClellan's three devastating encounters with General Robert E. Lee, for example, highlights two very different leadership styles. Had McClellan been courageous enough to employ his advantage in troop size and position, Wheeler argues, he could have handily defeated his opponent. Ready to risk all, Lee achieved stunning victories in every engagement. The results of other battles provide corporate leaders with such pragmatic insights as: -- Never fight today's battles with yesterday's tactics; -- The greatest campaigns are often decided by the smallest skirmishes; -- If you can't win, change the results. In the tradition of books like Leadership Lessons of Attila the Hun; and Cigars, Whiskey, and Winning: Leadership Lessons of Ulysses S. Grant, "Leadership Lessons from the Civil War" turns to great men in history to reveal the qualities that distinguish successful leaders in any field. First Currency Paperback Edition[stated], First Printing[stated].

Seller Inventory # 88868

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Take Command!; Leadership Lessons from the Civil War
• Publisher: /Doubleday [A Currency Book], New York
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385495196
• ISBN 13: 9780385495196
• Binding: Trade paperback
• Illustrator: Peter Grant (Author photograph)
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Tactics

About this title

Synopsis

A veteran business leader shares a compilation of lessons in strategy, leadership, and management based on the great battlefield decisions of the Civil War, presenting such cardinal rules as "If you can't win, change the rules" or "Never fight today's battles with yesterday's tactics." Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

From the Back Cover

Advance acclaim for Leadership Lessons from the Civil War:

"We find, in the echoes of our most defining moment, lessons of almost eternal durability--about freedom, courage, purpose, and of course, leadership. Tom Wheeler knows this in his bones and shares with us much of the positive inheritance of that awful war. There is much to learn here, a primer for being as well as business."
--Ken Burns

"Leadership Lessons from the Civil War is a powerful response to the great challenges that take place in the battlefields of today's corporate culture--The lessons are not only relevant to the massive social and technological change of today's new workplace, they can be applied to any leadership situation, in any era."
--Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute ManagerTM

"An extraordinary book that combines the principles of leadership, war, and business into one highly readable lesson. If you buy only one book on leadership, this is the book."
--Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

"This entertaining look at the parallels between business and military strategy is just what one would expect from a successful leader like Tom Wheeler. His many career achievements provide yet more support for the 'lessons' that are the focus of this book."
--Craig O. McCaw, Chairman and CEO, Eagle River, Inc., and founder of McCaw Communications

"Practical, insightful--and a good read. Tom Wheeler demonstrates convincingly that the principles of leadership transcend the boundaries of time and discipline. This is a book as much about the future as it is about the past."
--Tom Daschle, United States Senate