Lead Like Ike: Ten Business Strategies from the CEO of D-Day

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to switch places with someone else and walk in their shoes for a day or a week or a year?

Geoff Loftus makes the switch for us by naming Dwight D. Eisenhower the CEO of D-Day, Inc., the most important corporation of the 20th century.

FDR and Winston Churchill become leaders on Eisenhower’s Board of Directors.  Ike becomes an upper-level middle manager.

It’s an odd and interesting twist on a familiar story that begins with a great deal of promise but weakens and tires as the book progresses.

The book is well-researched and, as the title promises, analyzes Eisenhower’s leadership and gleans 10 strategies for today’s leader:

1. Determine Your Mission
2. Plan for Success
3. Stay Focused
4. Prioritize
5. Plan to Implement
6. Communicate
7. Motivate Your People
8. Manage Your People
9. Avoid Project Creep
10. Be Honest

As Salvatore J. Vitale notes on the cover jacket, “[I]t’s the simplest management principles that we often forget,” and it’s this simplicity that makes the book so promising and so disappointing.

If you’re a history buff and want stories to flesh out the 10 strategies, I highly recommend this book.  Otherwise, I’d suggest reading Eisenhower’s own Crusade in Europe (1948) instead.

[Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review.]