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Why Men Think of the Roman Empire: A Business Operations Perspective
The recent TikTok trend of women asking the men in their lives how often they think of the Roman Empire bemuses me. Wait! So, it isn’t common knowledge that most men think of the Roman Empire often? Apparently not, as this topic has become “news.” Responses to this social media question have confirmed that many men think about ancient Rome regularly, and in some cases, obsessively. One TikTok video captures the moment when a woman posed the question to her fiancé, who promptly responded with, “Three times a day.” He went on to explain that there’s a plethora of intriguing aspects to contemplate, leaving his soon-to-be spouse baffled. Another man defended himself passionately to a woman, saying, “They constructed an entire world-dominating society.” This wave of social media “breaking news” has been followed by subsequent waves that have deeply examined why men do this. The reasons have ranged from the sexist (Gladiator complex) to the lazy (to escape reality) to the plausible (its success, and the lasting legacy). My professional interest has veered toward the lasting-legacy explanation. I think there are lessons to be learned from the Roman Empire on the importance of building lasting business operations. To be clear, there are other fascinating lessons here (e.g., do men really think deep thoughts?), but let’s move on.
How the Roman Empire Built Enduring Efficiencies
The Roman Empire, renowned for its engineering marvels, provides several examples of operational excellence. While the more visible signs of Rome’s “build to last” philosophy may be in its monuments and infrastructure like roads and aqueducts, its administrative and process excellence may have been the hidden secret to success. While writing the book “Revolutionizing Business Operations,” Filippo Passerini and I researched examples of excellence in operations from dozens of sources – companies, governmental agencies, current society, and history. Several ancient Roman examples, including the Roman administrative processes, Roman legion logistics, and the famous Roman postal services, stood out. However, while editing the book, most of these were dropped. It is worth sharing one of these examples – the Roman post – to illustrate their operational excellence.How Rome Created the Most Developed Postal System in the Ancient World
While the credit for implementing the most developed postal system in the ancient world goes to the Roman Empire, formal postal services existed for centuries before that. The Persian empire had post-houses and mounted messengers in the 6th century BCE, Egypt had postal services in 2000 BCE, and China in 1000 BCE at the latest. These services were essential to governing far-flung regions of the larger empires and were thus a critical backbone of the administrative and security infrastructure.The Roman Empire simply took this to the next level of efficiency and effectiveness. In 20 BCE, Emperor Augustus created the Cursus publicus, the courier service of the Roman Empire, to transport messages, officials, and tax revenues from one province to another. It was an information management and decision-making tool, which would be labeled a disruptive technology in today’s parlance. The infrastructure included roads, forts, and stations connecting Rome to the provinces. The government supervised the functioning and maintenance of the network of change stations, repair facilities, and lodging for couriers. It was a marvel of communications infrastructure in its day. The idea of postal services as information technology tools for the ruling empires had existed for centuries before the Roman Empire. The Roman version took it to the next level of operational excellence.
The Roman postal service was operated and controlled by the Roman government, making it highly centralized. This centralization allowed for uniformity in service standards, regulations, and infrastructure. In contrast, many other ancient postal systems were fragmented, with various city-states or regions operating their own independent postal services. This is one of several lessons on designing resilient business operations offered by ancient Rome.
What Ancient Rome Can Teach Leaders About Business Operations Excellence
Let’s unveil a few lessons concealed within the Roman Empire, lessons that hold substantial relevance for constructing a formidable business operating model:
1. Build Legacy-Building Work Processes Along with Great Products: To use a business analogy, Rome’s competitive advantage against rival societies came via superior “products” (i.e., superior military and administrative services). However, those were built upon excellent work processes of military supplies, information technology, and governing standards. It was these work processes that made the Roman Empire last longer.
2. Operations Infrastructure Investment Is Not Just a Cost of Doing Business: Roman infrastructure, while expensive, was not just an afterthought to military might. It was designed to provide adaptability and agility. It served both the military and the citizenry. Most businesses build operational processes for efficiency. Build them also for competitive advantage.
3. Build for a Lasting Culture: The only way that a few thousand, to perhaps some tens of thousands of Roman officials could manage a vast global empire of 60-70 million citizens was by assimilating different cultures. The Roman Empire smoothly adapted to diverse cultures and challenges. This is true for leaders who want to have their employees adapt to agile operating processes too. Build an adaptable culture.Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day. What’s further evident is that in building the empire, there were many well-constructed work processes – military logistics, empire governance, citizen engagement, etc. – that underpinned Rome’s lasting legacy. And so, as you journey on your quest for enduring business success, may you find inspiration in the age-old sagas of Rome. Even if some of those stories happen to come to light thanks to strange TikTok trends.
Keep disrupting!
Tony
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