Steve Forbes as Hannibal

This blog tries to find nice things to say about most dabblers in the classical world, but occasionally I come across articles that are so asinine, so far beyond common sense, so painfully written that the only answer is ridicule. Last week I mentioned a silly piece in the FT, but this from Forbes magazine redefines trite. In a special section, plugging his own book, Steve Forbes writes:

As I reviewed the book [John Prevas' Hannibal Crosses the Alps] in Forbes magazine, two thoughts occurred to me about leadership: (1) Anyone who accomplishes something great, something unique, whether in business or in politics, often does so by defying the conventional thinking of his time. (2) Even though more than two thousand years have passed since Hannibal crossed those Alps, the elements of what it takes to be a successful leader have not changed. They are simple and obvious, or should be: motivating those who follow you to share your vision; inspiring through example; a sense of duty and responsibility to those who trust and depend on you; the capacity to see a problem and the skill to fix it; developing and maintaining a proper perspective on yourself in the face of success or adversity; setting and achieving goals; understanding people's limits and knowing when to drive hard and when to ease up on both subordinates and competitors.

Really? Thanks for the fabulous insight. I could quote more, but it is too painful. I was planning to spill bile over Forbes' leaden prose at some point... but found that the excellent The AWL had done so already - elegantly and in great detail:

Unfortunately, as readers plod on, Hannibal-like, atop the elephantine course of Forbes’ pedagogy, the principles become as fuzzy as our narrator’s historical vision. Take the sermonette on “Ego and Ambition.” Here the antique model is Julius Caesar — who we learn would be “a highly effective CEO” in “today’s communication age”; “an amazingly capable executive, who successfully undertook enormous endeavors fraught with risk.”

Hey, just like Steve Forbes! But politics proved the Great Man’s undoing — again, just like Steve Forbes! The impression that Caesar was a clued-in leader “mutated into an imperious arrogance that cost him his life.”

Now, you’d think, our author’s c.v. aside, the contemporary business scene doesn’t lack for similar “parallels,” with the flameouts, the bailouts, the market seizures and the AIG bonuses and whatnot. But Forbes and coauthor Prevas decide that the best “recent example of an executive who let ambition warp his sense of judgment and perspective is Edward Finkelstein, a highly respected and successful retailer who shocked the corporate world by presiding over Macy’s bankruptcy in 1992.”

That’s right: the perfect specimen of rudderless ambition and hubris in the American economy isn’t a credit-default swapper or hedge fund manager, but a retail executive who got the heave-ho 15 years ago. It’s a bit like the record industry blaming its present woes on that Macarena craze now sweeping the nation.

Absolutely spot on. One of his closing lines - "Rome’s fall doesn’t really offer that many hard-and-fast axioms of history, for carmakers or bondholders or anyone else" - should be beaten into every management writer. Oh yes, and take time to read the comments: both fun and often pertinent. Thanks to Davos Newbies for the hat tip.