User:Mike Cline/Books/Stay Out of the Balkans/Introduction

Stay Out of The Balkans is a concept to help organizations stay strategically focused.

Spend some time thinking about the projects on which you are working or have worked that have little or no real connection with the strategic objectives of your company. The first step in withdrawing from these projects is recognizing them for what they are--good in themselves perhaps and with people working very hard on them, but simply not relevant when measured against organization strategy and resources. Stay out of the Balkans! (And if you are already in them, get out!)

Historical overview

The Russian winter came especially early and hard in December 1941. When it struck, it found the Germans on the outskirts of Moscow instead of in control of the city that had been a crucial part of their plan. Although it would be another year before the German defeat at Stalingrad, the tide was beginning to turn just six months after the initial German victories against an apparently demoralized and beaten enemy. What happened? Like many historical events, the causes for the German military failure are many. One that clearly had an impact, however, was the German decision to become involved in the Balkans. The Germans had defeated France and had driven the British back to the British Isles by mid- summer, 1940. Desirous of invading Britain, they launched a furious air attack against Britain--but lost a decisive air battle on 14 September 1940. After their loss, Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union--a project of some risk and magnitude. In fact, the risk and complexity were such that it would have seemed reasonable for the Germans to concentrate on this task. Instead, they allowed themselves to become involved in the Balkans after partisans there had attacked German supply lines associated with the rescue of the Italians in Greece.

The Germans in the Balkans were understandably upset about being attacked and killed by Balkan guerillas, so they called back to Berlin for help and reinforcements. Berlin answered the call: by the end of the war, the Germans had devoted extensive command (read management) time to this enterprise and had committed nearly a million men and associated supplies to the area (the shaded area on the east side of the Adriatic Sea). The Germans managed to protect their position in the Balkans until 1945 when the war ended. The Germans had succeeded in the Balkans (or at least had not failed), but they lost the war in the east to the Russians and they lost the war on the western front and the war overhead in Germany to the Americans and British. One of the contributors to their loss on the eastern front was the delay in launching the invasion that was in part driven by the first stage of their Balkan adventure.

Know What Is Strategically Important

Why the extensive history review? Because many--most--organizations are much like the Germans in that they involve themselves in operations that are not strategically important and in the process either lose strategically important contests or fail to do as well as they could. Think about it: if the Germans had won in the Balkans, their chances of winning World War II would hardly have improved; conversely, if they had been beaten in the Balkans and been forced to withdraw, the strategic implications would have been minor at best. So why would a nation spend so much effort in a place of no strategic value when clear strategic opportunity and danger lay elsewhere. Remember that to the Germans in the Balkans, operations there seemed proper and essential. It was up to headquarters to recognize where strategic opportunity and risk lay.

Too many times, organizations are like the Germans and become mesmerized with projects or operations which in themselves are fine, but which have no true connection with the strategic aims of the enterprise.