by Richard Guha
This means the ancient Romans, who were as different from the image of today’s Italians as can be imagined. When the Roman Empire built roads, they were completely straight. They made no concessions to hills, rivers, or people’s houses. They simply went in a straight line because that was most efficient. Even today in Europe, you can tell which roads were Roman in origin because of the precision of the straight line they follow.
In most large organizations, it takes too long to make anything happen. Yet, some of these same organizations let people such as traders, oil drillers, and sales people make decisions with little time and less thought. We can talk about having the right processes but this is only part of the problem. People tend to do what is in their best immediate interests.
Business could learn a lot from a Roman Empire for whom the shortest distance between two points was always a straight line, both physically and metaphorically. Where the Athenians were thoughtful, introspective, and democratic, the Romans were more the heirs of Sparta. Even at sea, where the Romans were not good sailors, the only goal of a sea battle was to close on the enemies’ ships, drop huge boarding bridges on the enemy ships, turning it into a land battle where the Romans were supreme. They knew their strengths and weaknesses and converted any situation into one where their strengths were used and their weaknesses irrelevant.
They were unsentimental, fiercely practical, and abhorred bureaucracy. There were few layers of command, and, given the same level of technology as military foes, they were completely dominant in any battle they fought because of superior discipline over tactics. Yet they had a repertoire of tactics and a rule book which enabled centurions in a far-off land – where no one spoke their language – to completely dominate even when vastly outnumbered.
It was a cliché at the time that if Athenians wanted to find out how many teeth a horse had, they would discuss it whereas the Romans would simply count the teeth!
As a marketer and beyond business in general, the Romans also had a lot to teach us. They had no interest in anything other than results. They were very straightforward communicators. While ancient Greek literature was elegant and florid, Roman writing was generally punchy and forthright. Politics was simple, and ruling was very direct.
Yet only when the Roman Empire became more cultured did it fall. Being a Roman citizen had privileges, yet the Empire was very open to foreigners of talent becoming citizens. New ideas were welcomed as long as they achieved results. Promotion was rapid for those who delivered results. Ancient Rome was an extremely meritocratic society. We might well wonder what a Roman website would look like.
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Richard Guha Richard Guha provides coaching and consulting for his clients that enable them to leverage technology for marketing and innovation. He is President of Max Brand Equity and can be found at www.maxbrandequity.com and on Twitter via @RichGuha. |
