DISRUPTIVE LEADERSHIP THAT SAVED BRITAIN AND THE WORLD

By Jan-Benedict Steenkamp

?“Big risks bring big success!” - Admiral Jacky Fisher

On the invitation of Col. Todd Woodruff, Director of West Point Leadership Center and Eisenhower Leader Development Program, United States Military Academy, I visited West Point and gave a master class on disruptive leadership, using the life and decisions of British Admiral Jacky Fisher (head of the Royal Navy 1904-1910) as case study, and what we today can learn from his decisions, that had a profound impact on World War I.

Fisher’s most controversial decision was to introduce what we would now call a radical product innovation, viz., H.M.S. Dreadnought. In Fisher’s day and age, the backbone of each major navy was the battleship. Naval strength was assessed by the number of battleships a country had, and Britain had by far the most - almost twice as many of all other navies combined. Until the Dreadnought appeared, standard battleships in all major navies carried four 12-inch guns, supported by various guns of smaller caliber. The Dreadnought carried ten 12-inch guns, and no small guns. This made the Dreadnought the equivalent of two or even three (dependent on the fire line) earlier battleships. Moreover, the Dreadnought could sail 50% faster than existing battleships, which further put existing ships at a serious disadvantage. To achieve this higher speed, the Dreadnought used stream turbine engines, a new, and essentially untried, system.

Fisher was attacked heavily by his naval peers, Parliament, and the press for launching the Dreadnought. Critics regarded it as a horrendous blunder because it threw away the Royal Navy’s overwhelming superiority in existing (quickly dubbed, pre-dreadnought) battleships. Fisher was well aware of this. In his usual direct language, he observed: “Only a congenital idiot with criminal tendencies would permit any tampering with the maintenance of our naval supremacy.” However, unlike his peers (which included former First Sea Lords), Fisher understood that as the leading maritime power of the day, Britain should lead – not follow - in naval innovation. And there were worrisome indications that others were thinking about all-big-gun battleships. In 1903, the chief constructor of the Italian navy wrote an article for Jane’s Fighting Ships in which he proposed an all-big-gun ship. Fisher saw that Britain’s lead in battleships was a short-term advantage.

The Dreadnought sent shockwaves around the world. It was obvious to everybody that the ship was so revolutionary that it made all existing battleships obsolete. But being the first, Britain had a head start, which proved decisive a decade later in the “mother of all sea battles,” the Battle of Jutland (May 31, 1916), where the Royal Navy, with its numerical superiority in dreadnought battleships beat back the challenge of the German High Seas fleet. Without British naval superiority, there is little doubt that Germany would have won the war. In World War II, the Germans did not even make a serious effort to challenge Britain’s naval mastery. It was the Royal Navy alone that stood between Nazi Germany and world domination. These are not my words, but the opinion of president Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is what he said in his fireside chat on December 29, 1940:

“Does anyone seriously believe that we need to fear attack anywhere in the Americas while a free Britain remains our most powerful naval neighbor in the Atlantic? … If Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the high seas—and they will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere.” 

Because of Fisher’s disruptive leadership, the Royal Navy was up to the task. The case study on Fisher is taken from my book, Time to Lead: Lessons for Today’s Leaders from Bold Decisions that Changed History.

Col. Woodruff was also so kind to read the book and wrote the following endorsement, which you will find in the book:

"A masterwork of leadership across history and its application for today’s leaders. J.B. Steenkamp takes us through history’s most decisive leaders and events, identifies the essence of their leadership approach and expertly ties it to well established, contemporary leadership methods. Most importantly, Steenkamp provides us with a framework and method to assess our own leadership and reach our leader development goals. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn and apply the lessons of history’s leaders to their own leader growth." 

Jan-Benedict Steenkamp is C. Knox Massey Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Honorary Professor at EIASM (Brussels), Fellow at Fudan University (Shanghai), and and Executive Director of AiMark.

?His new book Time to Lead: Lessons for Today’s Leaders from Bold Decisions that Changed History is now widely available.