No Substitute for Victory: Lessons in Strategy and Leadership from General Douglas Macarthur

Chapter 29. Invest in Training

Leaders are responsible for the preparedness of their followers, and training is a foundational element of preparedness. Although training is essential to the successful execution of strategy, leaders often mistakenly treat it as an ancillary activity: one that can be reduced when budgets are tight and ignored when its need is not obvious. Ironically, those are exactly the times when training is most important.

In the midst of the Depression in the early 1930s, military preparedness was not high on the list of priorities of the nation's leaders. In contrast, Chief of Staff MacArthur was relentless in his pursuit of training. He warned:

From the beginning of warfare, professional skill and discipline have invariably ...