Four Lessons for Young Strategists and Corporate Executives: Messages from a Japanese Ace Pilot
Mr. Saburo Sakai (1916-2000) was one of Japan’s best pilots during World War II. His book, “SAMURAI”, became very popular around the world. After the war, he founded a printing press and served as CEO. During his service as CEO, he also actively participated as a speaker for young executives and corporate strategy at senior executive seminars. Typically, he gave four lessons on being great strategists and executives based on his own experiences as a leading fighter pilot and as a top executive. In this article, we will review all four lessons.
1: Good fighters never lose their temper.
Mr. Sakai said grand strategies would never work when drivers lost their temper during the fight. Aerial fights require very fine-tuned strategies and must always be directed and coordinated with care. In order to direct and coordinate during real fights, the fighters must be great no matter what is happening. At the same time, pilots must intelligently withdraw to get a second chance when something goes wrong.
So pilots weren’t supposed to do something to lose second chances by doing stupid things. Especially, they were not expected to lose their temper in such undesirable and unexpected situations. He saw many pilots lose their temper and attack Kamikaze. He always forbade the kamikaze attack on his teammates and ordered smarter judgments if something went wrong. His motto was: “Come back alive to fight again.”
Young strategists and executives can learn from this lesson. When they are upset by the unexpected and very poor performance of their strategies, they can do bad deeds, such as continual investments in ineffective strategies to save their faces. This is because they can lose their temper and may not consider (1) if strategies are not appropriate up front, (2) if trading environments have changed dramatically, (3) if they can modify strategies to cope to new environments, or (4) if they have to introduce alternative strategies or develop new strategies. Being able to control your temper under any circumstance is the first qualification for being a good strategist or executive.
2: Good fighters make the best possible strategies and moves within the capabilities of their aircraft.
Mr. Sakai always said that he tried to do everything possible within the capacity of his plane. He also said that the best strategy would always fully consider the capabilities of the aircraft they would use. For example, if your plane can fly 360 miles per hour, it won’t be a good idea to continuously fly 400 miles per hour during combat.
Mr. Sakai said that he didn’t make good plays during fights, even if he could make good plays at any time when he had to. He went on to say that truly excellent pilots would know their aircraft’s capabilities and strategies within capabilities so that they would never put themselves in situations where they had to make good plays.
Young executives and strategies can learn from this lesson. When we do not consider the capacity of their organizations, such as human resources, organizational structure, production capacity, quality standard, financial positions, investors, market share, attractiveness and product positions, band names and other things, we cannot strategize. effective. The worst strategies are designed and implemented based on erroneous assumptions, wishes or ideals due to the lack of information about the real capabilities of organizations.
When you are strategizing, make sure you have all realistic information about your organization’s capabilities. It would also be a good idea to find out how past strategies worked to learn more about capabilities.
3: Good fighters know the time and the ways to retreat.
Mr. Sakai said he became a true ace pilot when he mastered the timing and ways of retiring from aerial fights. So many pilots were shot dead because they wasted time on withdrawals or did not know how to safely withdraw for a second chance.
Young strategists and executives can learn from this lesson. When you notice that your strategy is not working well, you need to know the correct ways to withdraw the strategies in a timely manner. You must first be brave enough to decide to withdraw. Then you need to be able to convince other executives, estimate sunk investment and additional retirement costs, make a retirement schedule, and move on to new strategic planning.
4: Good fighters always respect the idea of ”lower risk with higher return.”
Mr. Sakai would never take unnecessary risks during aerial combat. To reduce risk, he always tried to fight in preferable (safer) positions for better performance. This was their strategic policy to first create a competitive advantage and compete within the advantage.
Young strategists and executives can learn from this lesson. When planning strategies, risk assessments are essential to ensure adequate profitability. While your strategy can be a miracle at generating large returns in very high-risk environments, you can be more strategic and secure when you find lower-risk strategies to generate higher returns. Not bad if you are looking for lower risk strategies to get more returns relative to the level of risk.
Mr. Sakai was a great fighter and aerial strategist during World War II. He has been famous not only as the ace pilot of Zero-fighter, but also as one of the pilots who fought in the last air fight of WWII on August 17, 1945. Just before his death, he worked with former pilots. American ace. for Microsoft’s computer game Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2. If you are interested in the stories of Mr. Saburo Sakai, you can read his book, “SAMURAI”.