Strategy lessons from Alexander the Great
List of Contents
To understand strategy better let’s look at one of the landmark victories in the Ancient world.One of the unforgettable strategists was Alexander the great. Why was Alexander the great so successful in battle? To understand this we will take one of the major victories and analyze the key factors that made him successful.
Defeating the Persian army at the battle of Guagamela
This is the victory that Alexander the Great achieved in the battle of Gaugamela against the Persian King Darius. This was one of the top Alexander the great military achievements. Watch the video below and then we will discuss key aspects of strategy. when watching the video below please also watch out for answers to the questions :
How did Alexander win the war?
What are the factors that we need to essentially consider when devising a successful strategy?
Watch the Video below on the battle strategy used by Alexander the Great
If you watch the video,you will see that both the Armies had strategies.
The strategy of the Persian Army here was to use superior numbers to crush their enemy (Alexander the Great’s Army here) using their larger numbers.
Alexander the Great’s strategy was on using a ploy to confuse the enemy and then remove the Persian king from the equation.
There is some history behind this, as sources suggest that this was not the first encounter between the both. Alexander had earlier ambushed Persian armies and was successful so King Darius chose the plains of Guagamela because it was a level plan field. There was no way a small army could hide anywhere on the battlefield as it was devoid of hills, bushes or any vegetation.
Strategy used by Alexander the Great
By choosing the battlefield of Guagamela, King Darius was confident that his army had a definite advantage.That along with their newest technology that included scythe chariots and elephants that could massacre swathes of infantry seemed undefeatable.
Alexander the Great on the other hand had around 40000 to 50000 soldiers compared to 250,0000 soldiers of King Darius. Alexander the Great,it is said that, before his battle asked generals what their strategy would be to win the battle. His General suggested that he attack in the night, before the battle begins in the day.
Now these generals were inherited by Alexander from his father King Philip who was a great military strategist and had top generals, experienced in the art of war. Alexander listened to them and then it is said that he instructed all his soldiers to get a good sleep before the battle.
Now this may seem puzzling.
Why he did not heed the advice of the generals who are experienced in the art of war?
The reason Alexander did the opposite of what his Generals told him was because he knew that on the side of Persians too there were similar generals who had experience in the art of war. He knew that they would also come up with the same ideas as his own veteran generals suggested. Alexander did not want to go by the regular battle strategy playbook because he knew that that would not help much with his victory. He took an innovative approach to the battle. This was not an accident,in fact he was trained lie that. He was the disciple of the great philosopher Aristotle.
Alexander was not only trained in military arts,he also was trained in thinking creatives and had better thinking tools. (Read more on Alexander the great value and beliefs here )
He knew that going by the existing strategies practiced over the years in battles,he would be playing into the hands of king Darius. Instead through his channels,he found out that the majority of the armies were from the subsidiary kingdoms under the Persian empire who had surrendered because of the fear of Persian forces. They had no choice but to send the soldiers to fight Persian battles when summoned. They also had to pay heavy taxes. Now these soldiers were neither motivated nor patriotic.They mostly wanted to just get back home as they did not consider this their battle. This was a crucial bit of information about Alexander used to his advantage. He knew that regardless of the numbers ,the motivation of the Persian Army was not high and they would easily scatter if in their eyes the leadership was taken out of the picture.
So he devised a plan where the Persian Army would be up all night waiting for the Macedonian army to strike. Staying up all night in anticipation of the ambush made them tired and fatigued the next day for the battle. In contrast his own army would be well-rested and relaxed before battle the next day. It is even said that he came late for the battle, because he slept-in late that day.
The next day when they met for the battle Alexander took his cavalry and started moving parallel to the Persian army, towards the outside of the battle field. This created chaos among the Persian army as it was completely unexpected and they didn’t know what Alexander was up-to. Alexander kept moving in the parallel direction with his cavalry and soon the Persian cavalry sections also started following him to avoid his outflanking them or attacking from behind.
Once a section of the Persian army moved away,there came a gap in the middle of the Persian army which gave direct access to reach King Darius and his immediate bodyguards.
Alexander, as soon as he noticed that, used this opportunity and directly guided his cavalry to the gap as you see in the video and this created fear among the soldiers.As expected, all of them scattered. Alexander knew that regardless of how big an enemy, if you removed the leadership it is useless.Just as a snake- no matter how big a snake is if you cut off the head, the rest of the body becomes useless. Similarly if King Darius is taken out of a picture, no matter what the size of the person’s army it becomes useless and the battle would be won. This was pure genius and a unique strategy that went down in history as one of the most glorious victories of Alexander the Great.
How to devise a winning strategy like Alexander the Great
So, we looked at how Alexander won the war. Now let’s look at ,what are the factors that we need to essentially consider when devising a successful strategy?
Some of the essentials factors to consider and apply while devising effective strategy are:
Innovative thinking
Understanding the environment
Know competitors thoroughly
Utilizing resources to capitalize on opportunities
Let us also analyze an equally important question-
Why did King Darius lose the battle of Guagamela?
Well here are a few major factors that led to his defeat.
Arrogance and complacency
Lack of understanding of competitors
Lack of understanding of the Environment
Traditional Thinking and lack of an innovative approach
Application of strategy lessons to the modern day businesses
The same factors and components that mattered in achieving success for Alexander the Great in Gaugamela are important in the modern corporate world as well. Innovative thinking , knowing the environment and competitors well are the necessary building blocks for successful strategy formulation.
The factors that led to the downfall of the Persian army and eventually the topping of the Empire Are applicable to modern day organization as well.
There is a saying that, “nothing fails as success does”.
Weird, but true.
The reason why this is true is because as organizations encounter continuous success start becoming complacent and begin thinking that things will always remain the same and they have discovered some kind of a winning formula. Company after company, Kodak, Nokia ,Yahoo etc. are examples that this kind of thinking will only lead to any organization’s downfall.
Having humility and fear, is in fact, a good thing because it keeps you alert to the changes in the environment so that you can respond and adapt as the environment changes.
An example is Barnes and nobles the giant bookseller that lost to Amazon.
Why did Barnes and Nobles fail? Read more the reasons for their failure here
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