Peter the Great: Management

With an Attitude

By Michael Willard

As a management guru, Peter the Great was a corker: He used the whip, banishment to Siberia and beheading as motivational tools - and that was for the employees he liked.  Others he tortured first.

But I'm being picky. As Kevin Kostner's character in Tin Cup observed, "You  either define the moment, or the moment defines you."  Peter defined an era, and was a manager with an attitude.

Management is a creative process. Some believe it is a dying art, though Tsar Peter took the adjective to the extreme.  He rallied the troops against difficult odds.  We in business in Ukraine must constantly do the same.

I generally prefer a historical take on management.  Today's business books are laced with psycho-babble and economic voodoo. 

The genre of business self-improvement tends toward literary bubblegum.

Indeed, the field of marketing sometimes seems supercilious.  It often is pop culture on steroids.  The drive for competition and reinvention leads to constant romancing the product. Simple branding can become corporate doublespeak.

For example, the term "perception management" as used as a substitute for PR is, in my view, the intellectual equivalent of using "revenue enhancement", as a euphemism for tax increases.

Living in a Slavic land, one might ask what Peter Alekseyevich would do if business problems came his way as fast and as frequently as did the Turkish hordes that vexed his armies.

First, he would not panic. The current recession might have seen an orderly withdrawal merely to fight another day at greater strength. He believed there was opportunity in adversity.

Peter the Great's words after being trounced by the Swedes at Narva in 1700: "Necessity drove away sloth and forced me to work both night and day."

He personally devised the plans that led to Charles XII's embarrassing rout at Poltava in 1709, thereby shocking Western Europe and enhancing both his and Russia's reputation as a pan-European player.

As a manager, Peter realized the virtue of patience. The Northern War against Sweden lasted 21 years before he finally was able to personally negotiate the treaties that ended the fight.

He believed in bonuses for loyalty, courage under fire and plain hard work. Today's rewards come in the form of stock options, but back then, Peter gave land and palaces.

Sometimes, like Internet company stock, they disappeared. Peter gaveth and Peter taketh away, usually for good reason.  Intrigue was rampant in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Peter did "walk-around management" one better. He not only mixed with the troops, but assumed the rank of sergeant. However, due to his height (he was nearly seven feet tall), he was always noticed.

In what became known as the Grand Embassy, he traveled incognito across Europe as Pyotr Mikhaylov, so he could work as a laborer in various shipyards along the way.

He was innovative and creative. From a swampy region of Europe historically belonging to the Swedes, he set out to build a city which he called St. Petersburg. Being an autocr\tic boss, he used forced labor.

When the Turks stymied him at Azov, he built a fleet of small boats and sailed down the Don, thereby bypassing the treacherous Ukrainian steppes. Today's tranquil steppes were often scorched by the Turks, making a supply line difficult.

Finally, he was a stern disciplinarian. When the Kremlin guards revolted for the third time, enough was enough. He executed many of them, letting them die without too much torture if they confessed.

Even his own son, Alexis, a weak and troubled individual by Peter's first marriage, fell victim. He was charged with high treason, and died after torture just prior to a scheduled execution.

As a CEO, Peter, however, never reached the age of becoming a gray-haired retiree. He died at age 52.  Today he would be described as having lived life in the fast lane.

He died ftom what now would be a rather treatable ailment, and, some might say, was the victim of an 18th century version of too many three-martini lunches.