Genghis Khan built one of the greatest empires from scarcity.

His homeland of Mongolia is a harsh environment; freezing cold, arid, isolated, treeless and with little in the way of natural resources. The Mongols developed a lifestyle matched to this environment and flourished. Every man had three horses and with a few chunks of cheese and blood from his horses he could survive for 16 days. When he fired a shot, he never missed because arrows were scare.  Russia by comparison was an easy environment with food, trees, water and infrastructure – even the Russian winter the Mongols took in their stride.

Building a business in a recession is not for the fainthearted but then that depends what you are use to. If you have developed an appetite for abundance then you will hunker down and with the rest of your bushiness sector wait for the good times to return. If however you are used scarcity you will see big wide open spaces of opportunity. Your ability to do great things with little will leave your intimidated opposition far behind as you reap in fields of little competition and great opportunity.

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The Mongols under Genghis Khan were a small nation yet they dominated Asia in the 12th century. They chose to project big. Each man led two spare horses. From a distance it was therefore impossible to know the size of the army, division or battalion.

In your jeans, T-shirt and casual manner you project small. Without a decent website, no land line and no marketing material it is easy to dismiss you. No FaceBook page, no Twitter account, no blog and no personal listing on LinkedIn and you are small-fry – even if you are not.

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Business rules – Break them.

Entrepreneurs . . . Business is War  . . . . . . you are in business to win, to excel and to dominate. Study your competitors, understand the rules of your industry and then break them decisively and deliberately. Move quickly to get a 6 month advantage in a matter of weeks.

Genghis Khan understood the rules of warfare i.e. the army that retreats is beaten, don’t attack in winter, do not attack at night.

He retreated across a deep river leaving his enemy on the other side. Under cover of darkness and using inflated sheep carcasses he floated 100 000 men over the river and attacked at night.

This was not tokenism. He employed his whole army. He knew that all 100000 of his men were needed to defeat 300000 even in the dead of night.

In business we study the competitors. We take all the resources we have to swamp their numerical advantage and their entrenched position. Then we move quickly and decisively.  This is not the time to be subtle.

Business rules are not rules at all. They are the guide lines that have come to be accepted by a particular industry over a period of time. These same rules are often to the detriment of the consumer and are used by bigger brands to entrench their dominance. These rules are often self-serving and lead to complacency. This is why breaking them can lead to a six month advantage in a matter of weeks.

Re-create the industry. Re-create the rules. Revolutionize the industry and gain the advantage formerly  held by your competitors.

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Genghis Khan surrounded himself with people that had two characteristics i.e. they were brilliant in their own right and they were loyal . . . . . . . . .

Loyalty is not a strategy. If people continually do business with you you cannot give them a customer card and call it a ‘loyalty card’ – rewards and loyalty are not the same thing.

Loyalty

Loyalty is a fundamental principle or value. It is a two way relationship and includes trust, honesty, transparency and credibility. When things go wrong, as they do, clients, friends and staff who leave are functioning at the level of reward. Those that don’t, who function at the deeper level of loyalty do not abandon ship; both parties have a long term commitment to the other regardless of the cost.

Setbacks affect people who are rewards orientated but not people who are loyal . Building your team with people who are loyal to your cause is a critical part of leadership.

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In business people want to be led; they appreciated and value leadership . . . . . . . . . They will buy into being led if the leader is confident and has a clear direction and strategy; it is better to be led (and make some personal and probably superficial compromises) than not to be led at all.

Leadership

Being led by a confident bold leader with a clear direction means one less thing to worry about; you can get on with your own issues when you know that your country, your business, your club is in the hands of a bold leader with a transparent plan. The only era of peace that the Arab world has known  was the 400 years when they are ruled by Genghis Khan; being ruled by a Mongolian dictator was not ideal but it did bring its own rewards.

People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Contrary to Pink Floyd lyrics we want to be ‘another brick in the wall’ as long as the wall recognizes, values and rewards each brick’s uniqueness.

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Management Structure

Genghis Khan had a unique chain of command  . . . . .  every man was an officer who could make a decision. Unlike his enemies who had a centralized command system of ‘do, stop, wait’, his army was broken into hierarchical groups of units who independently could exploit any opportunity that came their way as long as it tied into the overall master plan of ‘defeat and destroy’.

His army was made up of 80 000 fighting men . . .

• The fighting men were actually 8 independent armies working to a common objective.
• Each army was actually 80 independent groups of 1000 each working to a common objective.
• Each group was actually 800 groups of 100 working together.

Therefore it was impossible to neutralize his attack. Down to the last man they had a mandate to do whatever was needed for the good of the whole regardless of the size of their group or whether Genghis Khan was in immediate command or not. This empowered his troops to exploit an opportunity in the environment before his enemies could even recognize it was a potential weakness.

LIVEOUTLOUD concurs with this empowering view of business management and leadership. The ‘do, stop, wait’ model of centralized command is redundant in today’s business environment.

Every person needs to believe in the common vision. Every person is mandated to think on their feet either on their own or within a small group. Every person must value and exploit the advantage that speed and opportunity offers.

At LIVEOUTLOUD we don’t have minions. Every person is a fighting officer.

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