Leaders compared -Scott & Amundsen

I tend to believe that most business books are BS, I reckon I learn more lessons of real-world significance from my general reading for interest.

For example, one of the best books on LEADERSHIP that I have read is "The Last Place on Earth" by Roland Huntsford.
This is a detailed and specific comparison and contrast of the preparations, actions and decisions of each of these two leaders.

Amundsen prepared for his assault on the South Pole by researching and learning from Inuit, about how to use sealskins for warmth, how to go faster by simple techniques for laminar-icing of sled runners, how to use DOGS in Arctic conditions. He selected a  shorter, and flatter route across an ice-shelf, and planned and executed a series of food dumps, enhanced with plans to sacrifice dogs for food on the journey, to maximise his team's speed and conservation of energy. He repacked all the bulk supplies in novel Aluminium cans with air-tight lids, in amounts, and in an unpacking sequence, that matched the actual use of the supplies, so that it was less fuss and energy to get food ready, when the teams did stop for their breaks. In short, he gave his men the best chance of making it to the Pole and back, in what was still a high-risk environment. He took into account the human, and group factors, too. During the over-wintering on the ice, he devised a competition to guess the overnight minimum temperature, with chocolate bars as prizes. Each morning, most of the men would jump out of bed, and run outside into the cold to check if they had won. The shock of cold apparently causes an automatic physiological reaction, and they would make yellow holes in the snow, before coming back into the hut. Apparently this also had the effect of  deceasing the grumpiness that is associated with higher levels of uric acid in the blood, as the kidneys got their regular wake up call!

In contrast, Scott opted for ponies and tractors as the beasts of burden. One tractor fell straight through the ice as it was being unloaded, and supplying hay for the ponies severely limited their effectiveness, despite Oates's tender care for them. Under Scott's leadership, there was a distinctly Royal Navy "officers and men" separation of castes, and a carelessly arrogant disregard for detailed planning, replaced by an apparently macho belief in manly British virtues of true grit and the right stuff. Disdain for Norwegian pragmatism and eons of Inuit technological research and knowledge accumulation, and different attitudes to dogs, in the end spelled tragic failure for Scott and his men.