Ancient & modern
A spate of books is being published to explain the many useful lessons that businessmen can learn from the great figures of the past. One of the figures is Alexander the Great. Well, yes. But then again, no.
In 334 BC, with a formidable army at his back, Alexander set out to take revenge against the might of the Persian empire for having dared to attack Greece 150 years earlier, By 331 ac he had driven the Persians out of Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Judaea and Egypt; by 330 he had conquered Iraq and Iran (the Persian homeland) and defeated the Persian king Darius. Mission accomplished? Not for Alexander. In 330-27 he pushed on into Afghanistan. central Asia (Hindu Kush, Turkmenistan) and northern India; in 327-5 he moved south into Pakistan and western India. Here his army finally called 'Enough'. In 324-3 he returned to Babylon (Baghdad) with a view to attacking Arabia and then (perhaps) to moving back to the Mediterranean, where (with Egypt already in his pocket) he had his eyes on North Africa, Sicily and southern Italy. In 323 (aged 33) he died — probably of malaria, drink or poison.
It was an amazing performance, as a result of which Alexander became a universal brand, an everyman: he captured the imagination not just of those with whom he came into contact but of people all over the world who had heard of his adventures. Stories of him were told from the Balkans to Ireland, from Ethiopia to Iceland.
Capturing the imagination of those with whom you work and deal, including those you take over, is the great challenge any business faces. Alexander did so because he valued and trusted his men, who responded in kind. They may have known they were scum, but under Alexander they knew they were the creme de la scum. But here the story darkens.
First, like his hero Achilles, Alexander could not endure criticism of any sort (he once killed a close friend for mocking him). Second, he never knew when to stop, ignoring the important Greek business maxim 'know yourself, i.e., know what you can and cannot do. Third, and most damningly, he did not think carefully about the consequences of what he had achieved. When the Roman emperor Augustus was told that Alexander, having conquered the world at 33, had no idea what to do next, he expressed surprise that Alexander thought it was more important to win an empire than to organise it when it had been won, So when he died, there was no successor, no other focus of loyalty, It all just fell apart. Not a persuasive business model.
Peter Jones
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