What can today's business managers learn from the past? A great deal, according to Richard Luecke, and in Scuttle Your Ships, he advances the premise that many of the challenges faced by management today have been confronted before by major figures in history. Drawing parallels with Admiral Yamamoto's defeat at Midway, Hernan Cortes's gamble for the Aztec Empire, Hadrian's consolidation of the Roman Empire, and the English victory at Agincourt, the book examines rapid revolutionary change, the risks of decision making, institutional cycles of rise and decline, the power of new ideas, and many other challenges faced by modern business leaders. Making clear connections between historical facts and the recent experiences of major companies, this is the ideal book for all who would manage and lead in the 1990s and beyond.