Score Management at Work AIB Meet Admired Strategist of the Twentieth Century we must be prepared for [dangers and getculties] like men in business who do not them like men in business who do not waste energy in win ute energy in vain talk and idle action." talk and idle action." By 1961, he had helped in form an underground military -NELSON MANDELA wing of the ANC, which carried out it first minions-bomb attacks on government installation-In December of that g a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) year. Mandela embraced violence in a tactic for two reasons. First, he deemed it the only effective response to escalating A Nebon Mandela played a significant role in planning the strategy of the organization, which was dedicated government violence againat peaceful resi istance. Second, hin her overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa. was convinced that more radical young people outside the northend -a systematic policy of racial segregation-was ANC were ready to take up arms; if the ANC failed to pro- wide them with leadership, it risked becoming irrelevant and Minced in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 through legisla- forfeiting any claim to leadership in post-apartheid South can policing, and the often violent suppression of resistance. African society. Mandela was prominent among the leaders who called Mandela was arrested on charges of treason in 1962 and apriles, boycotts, and other acts of defiance, including vio- imprisoned in 1964. In 1985, after nearly two decades of hand ever, as a legitimate timate defense against the increasing violence labor and confinement in an eight-foot-by-eight-foot cell, of government repress Mandela made a decision that Paul Schoemaker, probeisor "Given that he was sentenced to life in prison in 1964, of strategic decision making at the University of Perryha Mandela was forced to embrace a long-term strategy in mia's Wharton School of Business, regards as one of several contributing to the cause of ANC. Fortunately, he never "crucial judgments that cemented his greatness." In August jubted the eventual collapse of apartheid of that year, South African president P.W. Botha offered to partheid, and because he release Mandela from prison on the condition that he re- regarded himself and his fellow political prisoners as lead- as of a government in waiting. The never ceased pursuing nounce violence as a tactic of resistance. "Let him renounce malegies designed to ensure not only the fall of the current violence," replied Mandela. "... I am not prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free." In refusing the govern- wetime but the success of the new one in which he hoped ment's offer of freedom, Mandela not only underscored his mplay a part ) Norman Chorn, founder of the Australia-based Centre commitment to the long-term objective that justified the use of violence, but also established himself as a leader who for Strategic Development, considers Mandela (who died placed the long-term objective of reforming South African in 2013) a prime example of a strategist who understood the society above his own personal sacrifice. "Mandela's remark- relationship between long-term thinking and flexible tactics. able story," contends Schoemaker, Over time, says Chom, leaders find themselves caught up in cycles of opportunities and challenges, but "the more worth- holds valuable lessons for other leaders involved in while the goal," the easier it is to accept the need to adjust deep struggles, foremost among which are the impor one's strategy. It helps, Chorn adds, if you can explain how tance of holding firm to a morally just vision and the every step you take ultimately gets you closer to your final ability to influence a sequence of key strategic deci- sions over time ... in order to bring about truly remark objective. Consider, for example, Mandela's evolving stance toward able results. the role of violence as a tactic in civil resistance. In the early Schoemaker hastens to add that Mandela's strategic 1950s, the ANC espoused a program of nonviolence, consist- decision to decline release from prison reflected his ing mostly of strikes and protests, but by 1953, Mandela had "keen situational awareness" - namely, his conviction concluded that the strategy wasn't working. In September of fat year, he delivered a speech that was to become famous that political change was both inevitable and imminent And in this, Madela was right: In the same year, Botha, as his "No Easy Walk to Freedom" address:("Dangers and difficulties," he declared, "have not deterred us in the past. under intense international political and economic They will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for pressure, indicated a willingness to seek a resolution