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    Winning Elections: Strategies and Principles for Victory in the War for Votes
    Winning Elections: Strategies and Principles for Victory in the War for Votes
    Winning Elections: Strategies and Principles for Victory in the War for Votes
    Ebook179 pages2 hours

    Winning Elections: Strategies and Principles for Victory in the War for Votes

    By Raimond Kaljulaid

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    About this ebook

    Since planning this book I’ve had the singular goal of writing a book that any political candidate, anywhere in the democratic world, could pick up and find it useful, practical. I want to help them realize their political ambitions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateApr 4, 2015
    ISBN9781483552934
    Winning Elections: Strategies and Principles for Victory in the War for Votes

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      Book preview

      Winning Elections - Raimond Kaljulaid

      Conclusion

      Introduction

      "First they ignore you,

      then they laugh at you,

      then they fight you,

      then you win."

      Mahatma Gandhi

      If my memory serves me right, Ernest Hemingway wrote that the hardest thing, when starting a book, is to write the first sentence. So his remedy was to keep it as simple as possible.

      By coincidence one of my favorite books about management and leadership is The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout. It’s about cutting through the nonsense and the clutter that any executive faces each and every day of his working life. Figure out what is truly essential and discard everything else.

      Steve Jobs, when he came back to Apple (and I wish he could come back once more!) went on a rampage to delete, delete, delete all the dysfunctional products that Apple was producing and trying to sell at the time. Most of these projects were still-borne, at a terrible loss to both Apple’s balance sheet and reputation.

      Jobs narrowed it down to four product categories - a desktop for regular people, a desktop for professionals, a laptop for regular people and a laptop for professionals.

      Most politicians I have met over the course of my career as a political consultant have way too many plans and ideas and issues whirring around in their heads. And their teams tend to make things even more complicated.

      Everything is important, everything is a priority!

      A good friend of mine, a university professor, pointed this out to me when I was in my early twenties and going though a list of my personal goals and priorities. It was this and that and more.

      He said there could only be one priority. Not many. If there are many, there is no priority - it’s a list of random thoughts. It’s a good start to have a list, but then you have strike all but the few ideas that are most aligned with your goals.

      I believe in this very strongly.

      Every 6 months or so, I write down what it is that I actually want to get done in the next quarter, year, three years, five years. And then I figure out what on that list is truly essential. Everything else must go.

      As anyone in politics would tell you – there are a million distractions.

      Everyone is pulling a politician in a different direction. Their advisors, the media, the bureaucrats, the opposition, the polling, the man on the street. It’s much worse than what any corporate CEO experiences.

      This book of course is not about how to manage your time and achieve results, once elected. It’s about getting elected in the first place. But getting elected and staying in office are both about having a strategy and maintaining its focus.

      If I preach simplicity, I must also practice simplicity.

      So let me be very clear about what I want to do for my readers with this book.

      Since planning this book I’ve had the singular goal of writing a book that any political candidate, anywhere in the democratic world, could pick up and find it useful, practical. I want to help them realize their political ambitions.

      It makes no difference if they are running for office for the first time, or they’re seasoned professionals, career politicians. If they are just starting out or have reached high office as a government minister or – in the U.S. – a cabinet secretary.

      It should not matter what level of politics – local or national – they are on at the time. It could be someone just entering politics, or someone trying to take it to the next level. This book has to be a page-turner for all of these people.

      I make two omissions.

      This is not a book for Presidents or Prime Ministers or candidates for the highest possible offices.

      That is a different ball game. My audience is someone running for parliament, the local legislature, or a political office of any kind except the very top job.

      It shouldn’t matter if they are from Europe, the Americas, Asia or Africa or the Middle East.

      There is however a second caveat, which is that they have to be a candidate in a democratic country with free and fair elections. If this is not the case, I can’t help them.

      I have scant knowledge of what it takes to thrive in North Korean politics or in Iran or in China, in places where other forces and not the will of the people decide the present and future of the state.

      That said, I want this to be the first book that you would pick up as a political candidate. Or the first one recommended to a political candidate: the definitive book about running for elections anywhere in the democratic world.

      The following chapters cover the strategy and the tactics that drive the main elements in a bid for political office and the election campaign. From evaluating if you have what it takes to run in the first place; to planning the campaign and executing everything from campaigning in the streets, building a database of voters, political advertising, internet marketing, public relations, political events and time management.

      It’s a delicate matter to offer advice to such a wide audience. Of course I have no means to know what works in any given country, any given election. And unfortunately this is something that no one can tell you – but I can give you an almost complete list of options and the knowledge to decide which path will most likely lead to victory.

      This is not a how to book because the how to books are always a fraud, they offer you a shortcut – in the wrong direction. If you want to become a political leader you have to study the art of decision-making. Don’t let anyone else make up your mind for you, just inform you of the choices. You have to decide.

      My closest competition is How to Win an Election (Commentariolum Petitionis or Little handbook on electioneering) by Quintus Tullius Cicero 65-64 B.C.

      It is unclear and disputed if it was in fact written by Cicero or at a later date and by someone else altogether.

      In any case, if there’s any other book - written directly on electioneering - I would encourage you to read, this is it. But keep in mind, it is an old manuscript, written nearly two thousand years ago.

      The principles it advocates are solid, though. In some ways my book is an updated version for the 21st century politician.

      Another political book I also encourage you to read is Machiavelli’s The Prince, a more recent work, written in the 16th century by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli.

      The reputation of Machiavelli’s actual work is somewhat tarnished by the term Machiavellian, meaning cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics or in advancing one's career. The term Machiavellian does not represent Machiavelli’s subtly nuanced writings fairly. What Machiavelli wrote and the adjective derived from it are two separate things.

      That said, I want this to be the first book that you would pick up as a political candidate. Or the first one recommended to a political candidate: the definitive book about running for elections anywhere in the democratic world.

      Being in the beginning of a book waiting to be written is like facing a task which is colossal endless like a marathon. 

      It’s encouraging that I’m writing this book just a stone’s throw from The Alcazaba, in Malaga, Spain. The Alcazaba (meaning citadel, in Spanish) is a palatial fortification (basically an elaborate fortress on a hill overlooking the town of Malaga) that was built by the Hammudid dynasty in the early 11th century. 

      Malaga is also the birthplace and hometown of Pablo Picasso, whose fame and work may last as long as the Alcazaba has stood there – brooding and menacing - over the city of his birth.

      If Picasso, an artist of global reach and fame, started his journey to become one of the most influential artists and personalities of the 20th century from this little coastal town in Spain, then perhaps others can do as well, accomplishing great works that transcend their origins. 

      There are books like these in other fields – definitive books. Let me mention the ones I encourage you to read.

      I mentioned The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout already but of course Jack Trout with co-author Al Ries is best known for Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

      If the latter is The Holy Bible of marketing strategy, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by the same authors is the catechism: the shorter, how to version of marketing strategy.

      It doesn’t matter which one aspiring politicians pick up – they will know all there is to know about marketing strategy after they finish either one of these books.

      While Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind will give you a deeper understanding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing will give you the how to of marketing strategy.

      Many other works on marketing and communications will only cloud and clutter your understanding of marketing with complicated models that are absolutely unnecessary in the real world.

      The concept of Positioning, coined by Mr. Trout and Mr. Ries, is based on a simple idea, that – in order to be successful – a brand has to be the first or second in its category. If a category is taken, create a new one.

      And that is absolutely true for political brands as well. If you’re not first or second in your category, you’re nothing.

      It’s better to be one of the opinion leaders in a more obscure field (for instance environmental issues, immigration) than the 57th in line for prominence as a speaker on national security issues or taxation.

      Consider how Barack Obama is so often referred to as The First Black President. He will always be the first black president. No one can take that away from him.

      Another lesson of positioning, vital to understand in politics as well, is that marketing battles take place in the minds of the consumers. It’s not what you think about yourself or know about yourself that matters – it’s what the voters know and think that is important.

      Another vital skill for any politician is networking.

      And there is no better book on networking than Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz.

      If I were to sum up his work, it’s that networking is the art of building real relationships, not handing out business cards. One more valuable insight from his book is the concept of building lists.

      It’s been rumored that Bill and Hillary Clinton keep an updated list of their enemies – people who have crossed them, betrayed them. A Black List.

      Could be true, could be fiction. In any case, I’m sure Bill and Hillary have a list of people that they send Christmas Cards to, a list of possible donors and many other databases with people they need to keep in touch with. That’s just common sense.

      So do I. When I started going to London, UK for business I had just two or three names in a file called London Calling. I expand that list every time that I am in town. As I am building my network I’m making sure that when I spot opportunities for the people on my list, to work together, to collaborate, I will connect them. And I don’t expect anything for it. I really don’t.

      If I were running for office, I’d build my campaign around building a list of my constituents and having a way to contact them directly, either by phone, e-mail or traditional mail. Some way I would get around the media, to have instant access to them. That would be my greatest asset.

      I’d be extremely reluctant to budget anything in my campaign that would not contribute new data to my list. Just sending out a letter, without any encouragement to get back to me, would be a waste of my money.

      Even knowing someone’s e-mail address and having the possibility to filter them according to which e-mails they’ve opened from you (for instance, do they read your e-mails about national security or social security?), is a great asset.

      It’s essential in 21st century politics, and I will go into more depth about that later.

      One more book I suggest to anyone, working in any field, is Rich Dad Poor Dad, by the American author Robert Kiyosaki – about managing your personal finances and wealth.

      The message of that book, in short, is that you should invest in assets that produce cash flow (like stocks, real estate) instead of liabilities, which only generate costs (like a big house or an expensive car).

      There are people who call this approach simplistic, but most of the critics have not sold 26 million books.

      By the way, if after reading Kiyosaki, you are wondering how to invest, then there’s a book called The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham that comes highly recommended by Warren Buffet. I don’t think you can get a better endorsement than that in the world of investing.

      Graham’s book, originally published in 1949, is the greatest book about investing because of its absolutely timeless principles. As long as we have a stock market, as we know it today, Ben Graham is our wisest counsel in navigating

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