Smart POWER

Soft power

Europe, in a world where hard power rules, must quickly shift from soft power to smart power to maintain its standard of living and, above all, its security.

Since the USA became the dominant force in the world after WWII, Europe has suited itself in the role of soft power. Soft power is the power that comes with the fact that people from all over the world take Europe’s cultural wealth, products and lifestyle as an example. Based on this power, Europe could, through diplomacy or soft coercion, get other countries to do things they would otherwise not have done [i]. This European power is out for now.

Hard power

In today’s world, hard power prevails. Hard power is the military and economic power base on which countries can do politics and impose their will.  All in accordance with the credo ‘might is right’. The USA, China and Russia use hard power to enforce claims to territories and resources.

In this new reality, Europe can no longer rely as a matter of course on the protection of the USA. Europe stands alone and must defend its position against Russia, China AND the USA. In both trade wars and conventional wars, as well as in ‘subtle’ warfare like cyber attacks and active interference in democratic processes.

The fact that The Economist calls it a realistic scenario that Russia will be ready and willing to launch an attack on central Europe in five years’ time illustrates the gravity of the situation.

Europe is left with no other option but also to demonstrate hard power: that is, a military response to the threats from Russia and the USA (trade wars and claims to European territory, Greenland for example).

Ursula von der Leyen spoke the language of hard power at her key note at Davos 2025. The European commission chairwoman called on Europe to shift into a higher gear and invest in military and economic power.

What do you have to do with that?

Ursula von der Leyen’s motto to ‘shift into a higher gear’ is exactly what our clients are doing. HIL GmbH calls the effects of Flow techniques with which it completes renovations of Leopard tanks in almost half the time ‘mind-blowing’. The Province of Zeeland can complete the preparation of infrastructure projects much faster. And ABB e-Mobility could complete the roll-out for a European network of installation partners for charging stations much faster. You can read their stories on our Why page.

Part of the secret behind the successes of these organisations is the concept of the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the factor that most limits an organisation’s productivity. As such, it is the one point where improvement leads to improvement in the productivity of the organisation as a whole. The power of this concept becomes even clearer when you realise that this means that any change that does NOT target the bottleneck CANNOT have any effect on the productivity of the organisation as a whole.

The organisations we are fortunate to work with innovate and increase their productivity. In doing so, they contribute to strengthening European economies, thus laying the foundations for hard power. This also applies to our clients in government. They contribute because tax money can now be spent much more efficiently, giving governments more leeway.

Smart power

Joseph Nye calls the combination of hard power + soft power: smart power. Hard power and soft power are then said to be conditional for exercising smart power. I see this differently. The beauty of smart power is that, as the saying goes, you don’t have to be strong to be smart.

The concept of the bottleneck is an example of smart power that you can start using right away. You don’t have to be strong to do so. By shifting into a higher gear with knowledge of the bottleneck, we can quickly build economic and military power

This way, we can defend our continent and sustain its attractiveness.

If you would like to exchange views with me on ways to use smart power to increase your organisation’s productivity, I would be happy to meet with you. You can make an appointment. Or respond with an e-mail.

By Willem de Wit, 6th March 2025
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[i] Joseph Nye, a professor at Harvard, introduced the concepts of hard power (military and economic coercion) and soft power (influence through culture, diplomacy and values). He later combined soft power and hard power into the concept of smart power. This means that a country or region cleverly combines both strategies to achieve geopolitical goals.