A Call to Conversation

Machiavelli"s The Prince reads like a job application.

Niccolo Machiavelli was at loose ends in 1513 after a (very) hostile takeover of his employer, the Florentine Republic. He wrote The Prince and dedicated it to Lorenzo II de Medici, at least partially in hopes of winning Lorenzo's favor. Scholars are not sure how accurately The Prince represented Machiavelli's actual views; some even suggest he meant it as a satire. But we can be very certain of one thing: Machiavelli believed that what he wrote in The Prince would resonate with Lorenzo's view of the world.

As it was with Machiavelli, so is it today with many business school professors: What they write is intended in large measure to win favor with the Princes of our times, the CEOs of enormous organizations.