Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:10
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
A Review of “A Global Lesson: Success Through
Cooperation and Compassionate Leadership
(trans. H. Schier)”
Brenda Sheets
To cite this article: Brenda Sheets (2011) A Review of “A Global Lesson: Success Through Cooperation and Compassionate Leadership (trans. H. Schier)”, Journal of Education for Business, 86:1, 56-57, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2010.505968
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2010.505968
Published online: 20 Oct 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 36
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 86: 56–57, 2011 CopyrightC Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0883-2323
DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2010.505968
Book Review
Mohn, Reinhard with Andrea Stoll.A Global Lesson: Suc-cess Through Cooperation and Compassionate Leadership
(trans. H. Schier). New York, NY: Crown Publishers. (2009). 189 pp. ISBN: 978-0-307-58768-8.$24.
In one of his most recent publications,A Global Lesson: Suc-cess Through Cooperation and Compassionate Leadership, Reinhard Mohn, a world-renown businessman of the media giant Bertelsmann Corporation, describes his personal expe-riences and their impact on his leadership development.
As the son of parents whose lives centered around the Protestant faith and the management of the Bertelsmann Pub-lishing House, Mohn acquired many of their basic spiritual and business-minded values, including respect, personal re-sponsibility, and motivation. When he rebelled against his parents’ devout religious practices, he also realized his nat-ural affinity for questioning the status quo and maintain-ing independence. All the values mentioned thus far eventu-ally would evolve into the basic principles that characterize Mohn’s leadership style.
Mohn was influenced by his family providing social ser-vices for the community, as well as benefits, pension, and health plans for the employees—a responsibility that Mohn would come to honor during his time at Bertelsmann.
Mohn references several stories from which he learned valuable lessons that he would later apply to his democratic leadership style. He recalls when he was a child how he betrayed his teacher’s trust and vowed never to shirk respon-sibility in the future.
Mohn also recalls the time he served as second lieutenant in the German Army and learned about leading men, keep-ing them motivated, and makkeep-ing difficult decisions. One of his stories concerns him having to make a decision to ei-ther ignore a soldier’s impropriety or acknowledge it, with the latter resulting in the soldier being banished to a penal colony. Realizing that if he ignores the soldier’s act, he will lose credibility among the other men, he decides to rule for banishment. However, before the order is relayed to the sol-dier, the man commits suicide. Although the German military supports Mohn’s action, he still feels he has failed the human spirit in some undefined way.
Mohn recalls another story that occurred while he was scouting the mountains near Tunis where he was shot in the leg, forcing him to cancel further field work, only to find himself alone and face-to-face with an American soldier,
whom he knew could have killed him. Instead, the American helps him to a hospital. Mohn writes, “This experience had a great impact upon me. The decency of this man has been an example of humanity to me—one that I would summon up in many difficult situations to come” (p. 30).
At a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Kansas, Mohn first learned about the existence of concentration camps. He sadly notes, “the ideals of his youth were shattered” (p. 31). In later years, Mohn reflects upon how an evil military power could temporarily hamper a cooperative, global coexistence; but inevitably, the people in need of freedom and a sense of self-worth would overthrow it.
During his stay as a POW, Mohn met Captain Strong, camp headmaster who, according to Mohn, treats his POWs with respect and always tries to do the right thing. Mohn learns from observing Strong’s leadership behavior that “compassion and exemplary behavior are the indispens-able tools of a successful leader” (p. 128), a principle that Mohn would later apply to his own leadership management style.
While at the camp, Mohn worked for American farmers, whom he soon learned to admire for their strong work ethic, hospitality, and cooperative spirit. Mohn’s interaction with the farmers, along with the education he is able to acquire at the prison’s university, are instrumental in his learning the true meaning of democracy. For him, democracy is similar to a farmer’s way of life: working to improve one’s standard of living, treating others with mutual respect, establishing open dialogue for all to accomplish a common set of goals, and working cooperatively to solve problems in everyone’s best interest. Mohn is so pleased with the practice of democracy that he wants to remain in the States and become an American citizen—but due to the Geneva Convention, all POWs have to return to their homeland at the war’s end.
After the war, Mohn, at age 25, accepted the role of leader-ship at Bertelsmann. For the business to survive, Mohn begins by setting new goals and transforming Bertelsmann from a patriarchal management style to one of democratic cooper-ation. Just as Mohn wanted satisfied employees, increased sales, and a more prominent position for Bertelsmann in the business world, he also understood his employees wanted a higher standard of living and a personal sense of impor-tance. If the employees could acquire what they wanted, then, Mohn believed, they would work to achieve the goals of Bertelsmann, if they understood the goals and could relate to
BOOK REVIEW 57
them. Thus, he sets forth to convince his employees of the integrity of the company’s new goals, to explain how these goals are in their best interests, and to lay out the means for them to reasonably reach the goals. The strategy is effective: employees respond favorably and are motivated to accom-plish the goals; and they, in turn, are awarded an improved standard of living.
To meet forthcoming, unexpected financial problems, Mohn thought outside the box and introduced a profit shar-ing model, by which employees received profit shares when they lent money to the company with 2% interest. It is an “economic miracle” of a win-win model for all, and serves as a model that Mohn continues to refine for his employees. With the mindset of partnership and cooperation, Mohn also began laying the foundation for a corporate culture and documented its principles in the Bertelsmann Constitution. The pillars of the Constitution are fairness and compassion for humankind, as noted when Mohn writes: “The center of all our corporate considerations is the human being. The first and most important task of any corporation is to serve the individual. Therefore, we evaluate our work based on the value it has for our fellow man” (p. 54).
Other principles include freedom of thought, open dia-logue, delegation of responsibility, and motivation—all of which are values serving to motivate stakeholders to think outside the box, freely share ideas, readily accept tasks in a non-threatening environment, look for agreement and com-mon interests, and search for better ways to make business operations more efficient and effective.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Mohn extended Bertelsmann’s global reach by setting up international book clubs in many parts of the world and diversifying into film, television production, and newspapers. Most all these transactions are successful due to Mohn applying the principles of the Bertelsmann Constitution to businesses and their leaders op-erating in diverse world cultures.
In 1976 Bertelsmann’s headquarters housed 11 publish-ing houses, an encyclopedia publishpublish-ing house, and several reference publishers. The phenomenal growth of the 1970s transition Bertelsmann from a medium-sized corporation to a multi-media giant.
In 1981, at the age of 60, Mohn stepped down as CEO of Bertelsmann and moved to chair the supervisory board, which gave him more time to reflect on corporate culture, promote his philosophy on the global coexistence of world nations, and author publications.
In the latter part of the book, Mohn promotes his philo-sophical theme that world leaders can be instrumental in bringing about a cooperative, global coexistence when they harmonize the powers of economic thinking and democratic leadership behavior.
To explain the process, Mohn notes that a unified Europe had been an elusive idea for centuries. However, as economic leaders argued that once European countries united, they each could enjoy mutual benefits—namely, international peace, free movement of goods and services, and adoption of a common currency. Eventually, the economic thinking won, and the European Union was formalized.
However, the benefit of peace is still being tested. Ac-cording to Mohn, since the power of economics alone is insufficient in attaining peace, leaders must act upon demo-cratic principles of fairness, dialogue, and common interests, along with others. Mohn is fearful that many countries are at a crossroads in attaining global coexistence; but he is also hopeful in his dream. He writes, “personal motivation and in-dividual commitment [to a cooperative world] are our great untapped reserves of strength that will lead us into the future” (p. 132).
The book has many strengths: clear and legitimate lessons of leadership; vivid detailed description of events and how they crafted Mohn’s leadership style; an easy secondary school reading level; and the inclusion of photographs of Mohn and acquaintances which help enrich the reader’s un-derstanding the man.
There are only a few minor weaknesses. First, Mohn overemphasizes his principles of leadership to the extent that when a reader comes upon a reference to a repeated principle, he or she will most likely skip that section. Secondly, Mohn spends too much time detailing personal experiences that at-tributed to his leadership development and not enough time to his philosophy concerning global coexistence. A balance between the two is preferred.
This very short book is an excellent reading for college educators and students of business management and leader-ship for most disciplines. Managers and negotiators in the workplace, employees aspiring to management/leadership positions, and international leaders alike can benefit from the author’s well-defined principles of leadership.
Brenda Sheets
Murray State University Murray, Kentucky, USA
