Strategos is a Greek word meaning “the thinking and action of a general.” What it means to be strategic is epitomized by the greatest of Greek generals, Alexander. He conducted his first independent military operation in northern Macedonia at age 16. He became the rule of Macedonia after his father, Philip, was assassinated in 336 BCE. Two years later, he embarked on an invasion of Persia and conquest of the known world. In the Battle of Arbela, he decisively defeated Darius III, king of kings of the Persian Empire, despite being outnumbered five to one (2,50,000 Persians against Alexander and fewer than 50,000 Greeks).
Alexander’s military conquests are legendary. What is less
known and little appreciated is that his battlefield victories depended on
in-depth knowledge of military leaders in the opposing armies. He included in
his military intelligence information about the beliefs, worldviews,
motivations, and patterns of behavior of those he faced. Moreover, his
conquests and subsequent rule were more economic and political in nature than
military. He used what we would now understand to be psychological, sociological,
and anthropological insights. He understood that lasting victory depended on
the goodwill of and alliances with non-Greek peoples. He carefully studies the
customs and conditions of the people he conquered and adapted his policies –
politically, economically, and culturally – to promote good conditions in each
locale, so that the people were reasonably well disposed toward his rule
(Garcia, 1989).
In this approach, Alexander had to overcome the arrogance
and ethnocentrism of his own training, his culture, and Greek philosophy.
Historian C.A. Robinson Jr. (1949) explained that Alexander was brought up on
Plato’s theory that all non-Greeks were barbarians, enemies of the Greeks by nature;
and Aristotle taught that all barbarians (non-Greeks) were slaves by nature.
But “Alexander had been able to test the snugness of the Greeks by actual
contact with the barbarians, … and experience had apparently convinced him of
the essential sameness of all people” (p.136).
In addition to being a great general and an enlightened ruler,
Alexander appears to have been an enlightened ruler, Alexander appears to have
been an extraordinary ethnographer, a qualitative inquirer par excellence,
using observations and firsthand experience to systemically study and
understand the peoples he encountered and to challenge his own culture’s
prejudices.
Thinking strategically, enhancing your powers of
observation, becoming an ever more astute interviewer – these are not just
research methods but life skills and competencies for more deeply experiencing
and understanding the world and for engaging effectively in it.
Organization that we work for is a world in itself. Hence, these
I think are also the skills for an effective manager who happens to scale
challenges and conquer task/project completions, similar to what Alexander, the
great demonstrated. In addition to our business, functional and process
capabilities, it is also essential that we develop workable approaches to
working with our people, teams and organizations in the realms of psychology,
sociology and anthropology.
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