MONGOL AND ROMAN PRACTICES, SUPPLY CHAINS, AND CULTURE: A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

At the outset it may seem as if fields of business and history are two irreconcilable fields. However, careful study of both reveals that the two are far from dissimilar. After all, one cannot expect to conquer the world without impeccable logistics, and no organization succeeds without a competent culture. Two great civilizations rose to prominence because their supply chains and methodologies outstripped their contemporaries. The first is the Romans. Once a small village situated on the Italian Peninsula, Rome’s empire grew to encompass the entirety of the Mediterranean world during the first century CE. The second is the Mongols, nomadic horseman who formed the largest contiguous empire in history roughly twelve hundred years later. At its height, the Mongol civilization spanned from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the forests of Europe in the west.
Both great civilizations achieved their empires due to their innovative supply chains, organizational tactics, and culture. Each, however, presented their own unique solutions to the problem of world conquest by capitalizing on their respective strengths. For the Romans, this meant placing an emphasis on infrastructure, adopting and modifying the technologies of other peoples, and instituting a culture that emphasized achievement and resilience among an aristocratic elite. The Mongol’s, however, focused on their force’s mobility rather than infrastructure, emphasized recruiting of outsiders to supplement their weakness, and developed a meritocratic system largely free of aristocratic structure. Both empires, however, emphasized the importance of each soldier as a self-sufficient unit to ease the strain of the overall supply chain.
These two civilizations therefore provide valuable insight for two diametrically opposed business environments. The first being manufacturing companies, with the need for rigid processes and investments in infrastructure not unlike the Romans. The second being startups with their need for speed and flexibility much like the Mongols. Thus, by examining the past modern companies gain valuable insights in how to structure their organizations for the future.