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Global strategy lessons from Alexander the Great
By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff, 6/15/2003hat strategist is best positioned to advise and inspire the emerging leaders of the new global economy? Partha Bose thinks he has the answer: Alexander the Great.''Strategy isn't that complicated,'' he told me last week. ''Pretty much everything you need to know about global strategy you can learn from Alexander.'' Bose is not naive on matters of management theory. He has been a partner at two of the world's most prominent strategy advisory firms: the Monitor Group, where he was chief marketing officer, and McKinsey & Co., where he was editor in chief of The McKinsey Quarterly. But working with the best in the business has only strengthened Bose's conviction that everything you need to know about strategy can be learned from the short life of Alexander (356-323 BC). This is not the first time that a historical figure has been packaged as a leadership, management, or corporate strategy guru. In the early 1990s, ''The Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun'' made a hero of a fifth century barbarian. Political strategist Machiavelli (1469-1527), Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603), and the explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) have all been put on pedestals as business leaders before their times. Even Jesus has been packaged as a corporate leader, in ''Jesus, CEO.''So why Alexander the Great, and why now?Bose answers the question in detail in his new book, ''Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy.'' The gist of his argument is that Alexander, who by the time of his death at age 32 had conquered a vast empire extending from Mediterranean Europe into the Indian subcontinent, essentially defined the basics of strategy.''It really comes down to just three questions: where to compete, when to compete, and how to compete,'' Bose said. ''Before Alexander, armies basically just charged into battle and fought strength against strength. Alexander strategized around those issues and made them work for him.''As an example, Bose mentions the battle of Chaeronea, between Macedonia and the Greek city-states of Thebes and Athens. In this battle, Alexander picked exactly the right place to engage the enemy, and waited nine months for the perfect time to attack. Then he baffled his opponents by attacking aggressively and then falling back into retreat. When his opponents emerged from their superior defensive positions in pursuit, Alexander quickly turned aggre

In this battle, Alexander picked exactly the right place to engage the enemy, and waited nine months for the perfect time to attack. Then he baffled his opponents by attacking aggressively and then falling back into retreat. When his opponents emerged from their superior defensive positions in pursuit, Alexander quickly turned aggressive again, crashing through their suddenly vulnerable defenses.And the business parallel? Bose holds out the case of Honda, which entered the US market quietly and strategically in 1959 by opening a single shop in Los Angeles selling a small moped, the Honda 50 SuperCub. In a 10-minute discourse he describes how Honda's ''where, when, and how'' were carefully planned to create a beachhead in the United States that would eventually allow the marketing of bigger motorcycles, automobiles, lawn mowers, snowblowers, jet skis, and other products.That's the way a conversation with Bose goes: an enthusiastic telling of a strategically brilliant conquest by Alexander followed by a series of significantly less bloody echoes rippling across the business landscape many centuries later.Bose, who was born in India and who spent part of his youth in Kuwait, freely admits to a lifelong fascination with Alexander.''Alexander is a much bigger figure in Europe and the East,'' Bose said, ''because his influence is all around you there.''Talking to Bose, it's hard not to notice the parallels between military and business strategy: the critical importance of supply chains, the need to communicate and motivate, the often dire consequences of failure.What's particularly relevant today, Bose contends, is the way that Alexander expanded his empire and incorporated the territories he conquered.''The interesting thing was that Alexander was a world unifier, but he did it without imposing his culture on everyone else,'' Bose said. ''He was able to bring new territories under his rule without forcing them into the one mold. . . . Most of the time he won the hearts and minds of the people he conquered.''At times, in both conversation and in his book, Bose tends to gloss over Alexander's glaring faults. He could be impulsively, savagely cruel, for example, and he failed to leave any succession plan when he died, a mistake that severely truncated his legacy.Nevertheless, Bose's admiration of Alexander could turn out to be perfectly tuned to popular culture. Both Oliver Stone and Baz Luhrmann are said to be working on major

Nevertheless, Bose's admiration of Alexander could turn out to be perfectly tuned to popular culture. Both Oliver Stone and Baz Luhrmann are said to be working on major Alexander the Great movies; Mel Gibson has an Alexander project in the works with HBO. Furthermore, many of Alexander's most prominent conquests, like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine, remain the center of the world's attention.And as long as he resists pushing the parallels too hard, it is interesting to view an achievement like Alexander's through the lens of a business strategist like Bose. Why should military strategists have all the fun, poring over the battle plans of the great generals? At a time when many management books tend to focus on the same six 20th-century companies (Wal-Mart! Southwest Airlines!), maybe it's time to expand the territory by a few continents and a few millennia.

Well well, Tre, you did get excited about that, didn't you? Double posting like crazy!I had a flick through Bose's book the other day, when I saw it in the bookshop. I had seen that it was published, and was hesitant about whether I wanted it.It seems OK, but it really is a business book - reading about Alexander's leadership style was all very well, but when Bose started making reference to various CEOs of Xerox, Nestle etc. my eyes glazed over.So I still haven't made up my mind whether it's a book I ought to bother with. But if anyone can be bothered to read it and recommend it, it might help me to decide.All the bestMarcus

This isn't the first book using Alexander for business purposes. I rather doubt I'd read it myself, but the article was interesting.Alexander's delegational skills were not the best anyway

That's true, Tre, it certainly isn't the first. I remember there was a glut of books in the early(ish) eighties that revealed the leadership secrets of various historical characters - Attila the Hun was my favourite!You're right about his delegation skills. His discipline procedures were a bit poor, too - I doubt many HR Directors would advocate running difficult employees through with long sharp sticks :-)All the bestMarcus

Mmmm, I don't know Markus. I work for HR and sometimes I have such tendencies! Since we're talkind about management books, has enyone ever read the "Mafia Manager"?
It's been written by an ex-mafia officer...

Oh, I know what you mean, Yiannis - I was very close to running my chairman through with a pointy stick today......and I might still do so if she's not careful!:-)

The value of his Alexander pieces is surely demonstrated by the fact that he thinks Alexander was the general responsible for Chaironea! What would dear old Kleitos say?

Completely agree, Karl.Cleitus must be spinning like a top in his proverbial grave.