Matthias Ackeret

Christoph Blocher is one of Switzerland's most successful managers, entrepreneurs and politicians of the last twenty years. "Das Blocher-Prinzip" is part biography, part interview, part management philosophy that does not merit the label "principle", as it lacks a guiding idea. Instead, Blocher develops behavioural rules of the ideal subordinate which are derived from the German military Auftragstaktik and prioritize the task/mission above all. The subordinate should not ask his boss questions but only present options (which prevents backdelegation and sloppy thinking).

Blocher's rules are applicable to all but him. In the biographic sketches it becomes clear that he himself just does not follow his own rules. My favourite example has young Blocher buying goods worth millions in Germany for the company without order, without knowledge and without authority. Knowing when to break the rules and crossing established boundaries (of good behaviour especially in Blocher's politics) is the true Blocher principle (and fits nicely with nomen est omen, Blocher meaning speeder). The book thus offers two contrasting lessons: How to be a leader and how to be a follower.… (altro)