Bicentenary Memorial Lecture A 21st Century View on Napoleon Bonaparte's Leadership - Ludo Van der Heyden
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Bicentenary Memorial Lecture A 21st Century View on Napoleon Bonaparte’s Leadership Ludo Van der Heyden Chaired Professor in Corporate Governance INSEAD Alumni Association Switzerland Zoom Virtual Session - May 5th 2021
Outline of this talk
๏ Napoleon Bonaparte’s unique impact on the world
๏ Why was this at all possible?
๏ What is so remarkable about General Bonaparte?
๏ What about Emperor Napoleon?
๏ The « middle period » & the Birth of Modern Switzerland
1.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s unique impact on the world
Napoleonic : the savior, entrepreneur, shaper
• Saving the French Revolution:
- Halting the Counter-Revolution inside France
- Stopping the Habsburgs eager for revenge (Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVIII)
- Providing and assuming leadership in turbulence
- Transitioning out of the Revolution
• Structuring the Republic:
- organizes France (as an artillery man might do)
- confirms the main institutions functioning today (Assembly, Senate,
Conseil d’État, Code Civil des Français, Other Codes, Département et
Préfets, Lycées, Grandes Écoles, …)
• Creating a French Empire exporting the Revolution and France
- Italian Republics (Cisalpina, Liguaria, …)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- Modern Swtizerland & Germany( Confederation of Rhine, …)
- Indirectly: Latin America, Brazil, Belgium …
• Psychological: Myth, Leadership, L’État Nation, Liberté et Égalité, France
as a world power, EU on French model … 4
Bonaparte’s secret sauce: « fighting within the lines »
• Redesign of the Army in modular units
- Thanks to the Revolution, they are all French
- They are semi-autonomous (infantry, artillery, cavalry)
- They are agile and light (need to « live of the territory »)
• They move within a V formation
- Three divisions: left, center, right (approx 20,000 strong)
- Reserve back
- But can move and change role at a single order
• They are coordinated by Napoleon’s corporate HQ
- Cavalry officers communicating between generals and N
- from 25 to 120 kms apart (5km/h)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- as soon as one division sees an enemy force they report to N
- might be asked to engage hoping that the others will soon
save them
- in modern language: modularity and time based competition
5
Bonaparte’s legacy: Mémorial de Sainte Hélène
• The Restauration was a disaster
- Châteaubriand: « le néant »
- French becomes nostalgic
- After he dies, Las Cases allowed to publish his notes
- Like Churchill: « will tell the world how to remember
me »
• Writes the way History will remember him (cfr.
Churchill)
- I was great, made perhaps a few mistakes
- Was let down by all
- Was defeated by General Winter, not by the Russians
• Reality
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- Poor treatment by Governor Hudson Lowe
- Everybody who returns complains about Lowe
- Finally, Napoleon died of cancer or poison
6
Why was this success possible?
French Context
• Monarchy is degenerating:
- Louis XIV builds a system that his two successors cannot assume
- Louis XV spends lots of money on foreign wars and empties Treasury
- Louis XVI incompetent and kind (aristocrats maintain their privileges)
• Enlightenment, Mismanagement & Famine
- Philosophers prone individual liberty and religious tolerance
- Descartes: Cogito, Ergo Sum & Kant: Sapere Aude (Dare to Know)
- Jacques Necker (Swiss) is the King’s last hope but mismanaged
- Bad harvests, food prices rise, famine
• King invites the Three Estates (May 1789)
- Clergy, Nobility, Tiers État representing 95% of the population)
- Strange location: Salle des Menus-Plaisirs du Roi at Versailles
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- Losing power he tries to disband the meeting for lack of results
(Necker absent from the meeting)
8
French Context (2)
• Jeu de Paume:
- Tiers État continues meeting at the Jeu de Paume
- joined by 2 other Estates declare themselves Assemblée Nationale
- Serment: pledge not to separate without a new Constitution
• Creation of new Constitution
- King dismisses Jacques Necker, his chief minister (July 11)
- Bastille is taken, symbolic ending of absolute monarchy (July 14)
- Jefferson, Lafayette, … combine to write the Déclarations des Droits
de l’Homme et du Citoyen
- Royals try to escape but bungle completely (June 1791)
- Fête de la Fédération with Royals & Talleyrand says mass (July 14+1)
• Chaos reigns …
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- Brunswick Manifesto antagonizes Revolutionaries (July 1792)
- Girondins take power and start exporting the Revolution (1792)
- Initial victories (Valmy, Jemappes) before disastrous defeats
- Montagnards take power and Robespierre starts reign of Terror
- Major towns in South and West turn against Paris … 9
French Context (3)
• Tremendous Energies created by the Revolution
- État Nation: the nation is sovereign, belongs to its people, who
themselves are free and equal in front of the law
- Revolution creates an Army of the Nation
- Army is benchmarking on the agility of Tyroler border guards
- Great scientific and industrial progress
• Corsica, Paoli, the French & the English
- Paoli declares first European Republic, free Genoa Republic (1755)
- Sovereign nation, with constitution, universal suffrage, legislative assembly
separate from executive powers
- Treaty of Versailles (1767) sells Corsica to the French Kingdom
- French Army defeated at Borgo (1768), defeated at Porto-Novo (1769)
- Mother fights at Porto Novo while pregnant from Napoleon
- Corsica becomes French province & Paoli escapes to England
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
- French Revolution allows Paoli to return as a hero (1790)
- Enthusiast of the Revolution, revulsed by the reign of Terror
- Bonaparte family chooses French side, Paoli the English side
- Bonapartes estate set on fire & flee, English-Corsican kingdom created
10What was remarkable about General Bonaparte?
Bonaparte’s education
• Royal Military College
- Thanks to his mother’s network (Governor of Corsica)
- Reads a lot & lonely (Cesar, Hannibal, Alexander …)
- Assigned to Navy, which mother refuses
• Early ventures
- Disgusted by the killing of the Swiss Guards in
Tuileries
- Offers services to Sultan & Russia (turned down 2x)
- Organizes National Guards in Corsica
- Tries a landing in Sardegna, narrowly escapes
- Joins family in Toulon
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
• Friends with Robespierre, the Younger
- Appointed to as Captain of the Artillery in Siège of
Toulon
12Bonaparte’s remarkable early achievements as general
Arcole (1796)
Montenotte (1796)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Siège de Toulon (1793) 13Bonaparte’s remarkable later achievements as general
Iena -
Auerstadt (1806)
Friedland (1807)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Austerlitz (1805)
14What about Emperor Napoleon?
Napoleon’s major errors as Emperor
Bordino & Russian Campaign (1812)
Invasion of Spain (1807)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
German Campaign (1813)
16Thesis: CEO vs Chairman duality
Emperor Napoleon:
How effective as« Owner »
& Executive Chairman/PDG?
General Bonaparte:
«Owner » &
a very innovative Executive
manager rising to the top! Chairman
a. 1804
Army of Minister of
Egypt War 1st Consul
a. 1800 CEO/MD
a. 1798
Interior Foreign
Army of Affairs
Army of the North
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2021
2019
the South
Justice …
a. 1796
Interior
Army
17The rise and fall of Napoleon… and of the
French Empire: the external view
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Lodi Marengo Austerlitz Russia Waterloo
Scorecard in history textbooks
(Russia or France) 18The rise and fall of Napoleon… and of the
French Empire: the FPL argument
Internal External
(Mgt) (Markets)
POWER
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Lodi Marengo Austerlitz Russia Waterloo
Explanation behind FPL analysis:
Fair Process + Delay due to Organizational inertia
19The rise and fall of Napoleon… and of the
French Empire: the FPL conclusion
Internal TOTAL External
(Mgt) (int & ext) (Markets)
POWER ORGANIZATIONAL INERTIA/
ROUTINE
Tapez pour saisir le texte
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Lodi Marengo Austerlitz Russia Waterloo
Explanation behind FPL analysis:
Breakdown of FPL as the root cause
20The middle period and the birth of modern Switzerland
Switzerland before the “République Helvétique” (1798)
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
The "Thirteen-Canton Confederation" of the Old Swiss Confederacy (1513–1798) 22The march to the “République Helvétique” (1798)
• 1792: invasion of Basel by French Revolutionary troops (Habsburg ally)
• Revolutionary ideas have plenty of followers in Switzerland
• Many push for a new order hoping for fairer cantonal constitutions
• Geneva becomes a Republic
• Bern increases the number of owning families by 30 …
• Swiss refugees in Paris ask for exporting « revolution » to CH
• Laharpe (Vaud) and Ochs (Basel) preach the end of Bern domination
• 1797 : Bonaparte takes Valteline and gives it to the Cisalpine Republic
• Bonaparte crosses Switzerland on his way to Congress of Rastadt:
- discovers weakness of the Swiss central power
- impressed by its diversity
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
• 1797: Vaud declares independence of the République Lémanique
• Bern defends itself but is defeated at Neuenegg, Fraubrunnen, Grauholz
• Discussions of splitting Switzerland in 3 parts (East, West, Center) 23The march to the “République Helvétique” (1798) (2)
• 12 April 1798: extraordinary Tagsatzung (Diète) of
cantonal representatives is held in Aarau and adopts
Switzerland's first constitution
• Swiss becomes a state on the French centralist model
• The Helvetic Republic comprises 18 cantons governed by
a shared legal, economic and monetary system.
• The central government consists of a parliament and a
directorate and supported by Ministries of the Interior, Arts
and Science, Justice and Police, Finance, War and the
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Exterior
• Prefects wield central power in each canton
24Problems in the “République Helvétique” (1798-1802)
• Cantons in center and east never apply the new constitution
• Rebellion starts in Schwyz and other small cantons soon join Aloïs Reding
• Rebellious cantons are abolished, new bigger cantons created (Saentis, Linth, Waldstatten)
• Representatives are reduced from 96 to 35
• Haut Valais rebels on religious grounds
• Masséna tries to save his army from Souvarov and Archduke Charles’s Austrians
• Retreats to Zurich, beaten he has to retreat further beyond the Aar
• French-leaning patriots are now attacked and hunted
• « Liberated regions » take up arms and Civil War starts
• Government leaves Aarau to Lucerne, then Bern, then Lausanne
• Masséna finally defeats Korsakov in Zurich
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
• Representatives resolve to go to Paris in 1800 and appeal to Bonaparte for mediation
• «Federalists » win
• Bonaparte sends in Rapp and Ney to save the Republic (October 1802)
• Mediation starts with Bonaparte inviting the cantons to send representatives to Paris
25Acte de Médiation (1803): Taken from Original
« Fait par le premier Consul de la République française, entre les partis qui divisent la
Suisse. Bonaparte, premier Consul de la République ; Président de la République italienne, aux
SUISSES.
L'HELVÉTIE, en proie aux dissensions, était menacée de sa dissolution : elle ne pouvait trouver
en elle-même les moyens de se reconstituer … nous ont fait un devoir d'interposer notre
médiation entre les partis qui le divisent.
Les sénateurs Barthelemy, Roederer, Fouché et Démeunier, ont été par nous chargés de
conférer avec cinquante-six députés du sénat helvétique, et des villes et cantons, réunis à Paris.
Déterminer si la Suisse, constituée fédérale par la nature, pouvait être retenue sous un
gouvernement central autrement que par la force ;
reconnaître le genre de constitution qui était le plus conforme au vœu de chaque canton ;
distinguer ce qui répond le mieux aux idées que les cantons nouveaux se sont faites de la liberté
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
et du bonheur ; concilier dans les cantons anciens les institutions consacrées par le temps
avec les droits restitués à la masse des citoyens :
tels étaient les objets qu'il fallait soumettre à l'examen et à la discussion. »
26Peacefully acquiring modern habits (1803-1813)
• Swiss submit, many enthusiastically
• French speaking cantons gain identity and benefit
• 6 cantons are Napoleonic children: Aargau, Sankt-Gallen, Ticino,
Thurgau, Vaud
• Haller supplies the Army of Italy
• Bourgeois gain strength
• Roads and commerce develop
• Swiss grow inward and rely on themselves
• Swiss provide 16,000 soldiers to the Empire
• Total of 32,000 soldiers sent over 10 years
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
• 5,000 present at Berezina crossing, 1,000 return
• Jomini (Payerne) becomes baron, general and friend of Emperor
27What is so remarkable about this?
• Continuity with the past : autonomy of the cantons (each writing their
own chapter)
• Revolutionary injection (final chapter): Égalité des Citoyens, free
travel, commerce and residence
• Napoleonic needs: soldiers, money to pay them, passage to Italy,
neutrality guaranteed
• Tyrannical side: no democratic ratification, no possibility of revision,
no possibility to act outside of CH, no alliance amongst cantons who
commit to jointly enforce the Act
• Great example of FAIR LEADERSHIP by Napoleon …
• … because he had little time and patience, Empire was enjoying
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
Peace of Amiens (1802), he knew what he wanted, he was impressed
by CH diversity and realized that it was too complex for him to meddle
• Never will he achieve such a great and durable diplomatic result 28The angle taken: Fair Process Leadership
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
29FPL Scoring (Wisdom of Small Teams):
Take Average Team Assessments (0=Fail to 5=Excellent)
Overall FPL Score = 4.2 Overall FPL Score =
out of 5.0 2.0 out of 5.0
3.25 4.25 1.40 1.50
4.50 4.00 2.75 2.25
4.75 2.00
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019Napoleon Bonaparte: Conclusions
Conclusions - Napoleon Bonaparte (NB)
• NB was remarkably « bienveillant » for Switzerland can make the claim to
being the father of modern Switzerland
• N stopped the Civil War that ended the République Helvétique
• Was a remarkable Fair Statesman on this occasion
• Uncharacteristic and unique : no longer B, not yet N …
• Context was peace on the continent (Peace of Amiens Peace, 1802)
• He was a poor Statesman
• All that is fair (institutions, Code Civil, …) has endured
• All that is unfair has not endured
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
• He remains unique in his contribution and impact on the world
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SUISSE | IDÉES
Publié le 05 mai 2021, 05:50. ModiNé le 05 mai 2021, 14:18.
Further Reading Le meilleur coup diplomatique de Napoléon? La fondation (en
passant) de la Suisse moderne
Working Paper
2021/18/TOM
par Ludo Van der Heyden
Ludo Van der Heyden, titulaire de la chaire en gouvernance d’entreprise à l’INSEAD, que
les premiers lecteurs de Heidi.news ont déjà croisé dans un contexte fromager (il saluait
History Lessons: The Case of Napoleon Bonaparte l’intelligence intuitive de la coopérative de l’Etivaz) est fasciné par la façon dont Napoléon
a su façonner la Suisse grâce à l’Acte de Médiation. Un talent, une capacité d’écoute et
Reflections on the Bicentenary of his Death d’apprentissage qui lui a manqué sur bien d’autres fronts, lesquels allaient finalement
Ludo Van der Heyden causer sa perte et celle de son Empire. Reste un mystère: comment un despote a-t-il pu
INSEAD, ludo.van-der-heyden@insead.edu créer une démocratie exemplaire?
April 26, 2021
Mais revenons à ce début d’année 1797. La République a ses admirateurs, en Suisse
In this article we reassess the myth of Napoleon Bonaparte, not so much from the standpoint of battles and comme en Angleterre, dont le Vaudois Laharpe et le Bâlois Ochs. Ils proposent des
conquests, but more from the point of view of justice, particularly procedural justice. This approach allows us to
réformes jacobines, qui ne passeront pas. Le nombre de réfugiés suisses à Paris grandit,
define the righteous leader as one who applies procedural justice.
Using this concept, we aim to demonstrate that General Bonaparte could be considered as a just leader, although, dont Laharpe et Ochs, et harcèlent le gouvernement révolutionnaire pour qu’il s’intéresse
in the guise of Emperor, he will be qualified here as the antithesis of that. The inevitable conclusion is that the à la Suisse. Laharpe obtient la protection de la France pour le pays de Vaud, «esclaves des
Empire came to an end as a predictable consequence of Emperor Napoleon's unjust leadership.
oligarques de Fribourg et Berne». Les Vaudois demandent la tenue d’Etats-Généraux. Les
We recognize that the revolutionary aspirations of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité were in themselves noble, but that
they required for their implementation a system of procedural justice central to the resolution of the inevitable patriciens des villes ne se sentent pas trop inquiétés et se contentent d’élargir un peu leur
tensions and contradictions that these precepts would generate. pouvoir. Trente nouvelles familles, surtout vaudoises, sont invitées à rejoindre le «livre de
We conclude by highlighting and examining how the notion of procedural justice is vital to the proper functioning la bourgeoisie» bernoise. Ochs rédige un projet de constitution helvétique, fondée sur le
of the modern European Union. In contrast, the difficulties presented by Brexit, or the Trump presidency, can be
seen as the tragic, but also predictable consequences of an unjust leadership. droit constitutionnel français, définissant une nation unitaire sans fédéralisme.
We revisit the urgent need for fair management and debate; debate that can only take place when guided by
righteous leaders. The imperial failure was a consequence of the drift towards injustice in the management of
Empire. The violation of the three fundamental principles of the Republic was not the primary cause of the Empire's Le Directoire, rassuré par la victoire de Rivoli, peut maintenant s’occuper de la Suisse
demise, but the consequence of a leadership and rule that had become unjust. voisine. Elle envoie mi-janvier 1797 une armée sous les ordres du Général Brune. Berne ne
résistera pas, la richesse «injuste» de la Confédération est partiellement saisie et servira
Keywords: Napoleon; Bonaparte; 1st Empire; Procedurial Justice; Fair Leadership
© Ludo Van der Heyden 2019
au financement de la Campagne d’Orient. La République Helvétique «une et indivisible»
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3835675 est née, sous modèle français, les cantons faisant place à des unités administratives de
type préfectoral, recevant leurs ordres du Directoire à Berne. Les con!its européens
Our most grateful thanks go Jean-Marie Le Guévellou for his major comments on a first version of this paper, and s’étendent à la Suisse, la neutralité n’est pas respectée. Masséna, lors des batailles de
for his insights and collaboration on an earlier manuscript exploring fair leadership in greater detail. We also wish
to acknowledge Isabelle Cormeraie and Marie-Thérèse Desmette for their edits. Zurich (1799), tient tête aux Autrichiens et ensuite aux Russes, envoyés par Paul Ier pour
soutenir les coalisés européens contre la France révolutionnaire.
Translated from the French by Ellen Bernfeld, who we also warmly thank.
Note: The manuscript La Justice dans la Gestion des Hommes: sur les traces de Bonaparte et Napoléon, by Ludo La République Helvétique est une rupture trop grande et donnera lieu, comme aux Etats-
Van der Heyden and Jean-Marie Le Guévellou (July 2008) presents a detailed assessment of the General and Unis, à une guerre civile entre unitaires et confédéralistes. Les Suisses vont voir Napoléon
Emperor from the standpoint of justice in management. It is available on request from the authors.
à la Malmaison (mai 1801) qui leur propose une constitution «de compromis», laquelle ne 33
Working Paper is the author’s intellectual property. It is intended as a means to promote research to interested
readers. Its content should not be copied or hosted on any server without written permission from
publications.fb@insead.eduEurope | Asia | Middle East
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