Maginot Line Diagram

It was post World War I.  France still needed to protect its borders, but it was outnumbered.    Its birthrate was down since the war, and Germany had almost twice the people.  So France built the Maginot Line, and with it, a business lesson that could fortify your company’s bottom line today.

André Maginot was the French Minister of Defense at the time.  He was also a World War I veteran.  France ran defense in World War I somewhat successfully, so Maginot decided to do it again.  He embedded 3 billion francs worth of artillery casemates, machine guns, tanks, and cement into the earth along the borders between Germany and Italy.  Machines could rise out of the ground, shoot 360°, and lower back into place.  Electric power.  Diesel redundancy.  Even underground trains.  The Maginot Line was two hundred miles of engineered brilliance.

But the Germans went around it.  They attacked near neutral Belgium, glided overhead, bombed the Maginot Line, and broke through within five days.  They called it Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.”

André Maginot

I feel bad for Maginot.   I keep quietly mumbling “no fair.”  Mustaches like his deserve better.  It took nine years for the French to build the Maginot Line, but only five days to for the Germans to defeat it.  Perhaps a few more tons of cement would have tipped things in his favor?

No time to lick wounds though.  There’s a bottom line to defend.  Will you hide in your physical office?  Bury your advertising budget under ads that nobody sees?  Demand eight hours a day regardless of results?  Dismiss social media because its hard to protect your message?  You’ll be blitzkrieg’d out of your habitual breeches.

Fight a lightning war! Hire linchpins.  Telework.  Play offense.  No Maginot Line will save you in this economy.

images: wikipedia