Many people in the world were shocked by how quickly the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

A Taliban leader said to the Americans, “you have the watch (the technology) we have the time (the motivation).” There were several reasons for such shock, including:

1) Expert intelligence was poor: the Afghan population did not like their government and the Taliban was underestimated.
2) The Afghan army were much better equipped in terms of technology and had many more trained soldiers.

This highlights both the risks of relying on remote experts and how important leadership is. Senior officials are saying that the Afghan soldiers were poor, but they were not and have shown great bravery and ability on the battlefield. It was the leadership that was so poor. There is a saying in the military: “there is no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad officers.”

It highlights similar risks in business:
1) Underestimating your competition and not looking after your customers enough.
2) Getting by on low levels of leadership and not creating leadership at all levels, which breeds the motivation necessary to succeed in complex and challenging times.