Napoleon’s Innovations

Lessons on innovation from Vincent Cronin’s excellent biography of Napoleon:

Napoleon’s first major victories came in the first Italian campaign of 1795. The campaign began with 4 victories against four opposing armies in 4 days, with Napoleon marching his army from battle to battle, and devising tactics that his opponents had never before encountered.

One of his many innovations involved communication. Because his tactics required unprecedented coordination among his forces, he instructed his officers to record not just the date, but also the hour on all their messages.

Following the battles Napoleon happened upon a straggling Austrian officer. Without revealing his identity, Napoleon asked how it was going, to which the Austrian replied, “Badly. They’ve sent a young madman who attacks right and left, front and rear. It’s an intolerable way of waging war!” Such is the impact of innovation.

In the battle of Leipzig in 1813, Napoleon saw his opponents copying his own artillery tactics, to which he remarked, “At last they have learned something!” Napoleon lost the battle, and he was exiled to Elba soon thereafter. The innovator had been copied.

But he escaped Elba and returned to France, only to meet Wellington at Waterloo after a reign of 136 days. At Waterloo, Wellington anticipated Napoleon’s tactics and countered them effectively. The innovator, now middle aged, was surpassed.

This story, of course, is striking for its resemblence to today's global economy. How many companies have we seen proceed from dynamic innovator who is met with incomprehension, to the icon everyone copies, to the one who is then surpassed. It is the story of once-great nations as it is of once-great companies.

Napoleon by Vincent Cronin. 1971.