No Strategy Can Survive Flawed Team
… or how to turn greatest strategy and plan into complete disaster and loss if you do not follow the rule of “First Who, Then What”
Introduction
It is a warm September day in Egypt. It is 48 BC and one man rides into sunset. He is running into the dusk of the Roman Republic and into the dawn of the Empire.
Even more important, he is running away from his yesterday’s friends, from his family, from his fellow countrymen. He is running from people whom he dedicated his whole life. Now he is running for his life. He knows that probably he will not see the end of that day. He is being chased by assassins sent by those very same people whom he dedicated his entire life.
He is Pompey the Great. And he is asking himself: how did it come to this?
Who Was Pompey?
Pompey the Great (as his name suggests so) was one of the greatest Roman generals and a statesman. He was one of the youngest elected to the role of consul (executive ruler of the Roman Republic). He was the one who conquered: Syria, Judea and Pontus (today Northern Turkey). Made Armenia and today’s Azerbaijan clients states and brought Rome wealth and riches for its elites.
So how has Pompey brought himself to this destiny.
Prelude to War with Caesar
After Pompey effectively retired as a general, and has settled comfortably in Rome in civil and political life, the new chain of events was about to happen. Another man, Pompey’s ally and friend: Caesar, decided he wanted to change the history. Caesar was not content with the current setup of Roman Republic and wanted to change that. He wanted much more for himself. He wanted to become effectively an Emperor.
After Caesar’s conquering of Gaul (today’s France), Senate saw the danger in Caesar as his intentions became more obvious. They order him to abandon the army and to come to Rome as a civilian and face the trial.
Caesar did not like that “invitation” and instead decided to come to Rome with the army and take absolute power. Effectively declare himself an Emperor.
Roman senators hearing of this news and Caesar’s intentions, panicked. They wanted to save the Republic (as their powers in the republican setup were much more than they would have been in an Empire, hence their wealth would probably decrease as well). They did not like it and they wanted to stop Caesar in his intentions.
They called the only general who was Caesar’s equal and whom they thought can stop Caesar. They called Pompey.
Pompey agreed to lead the fight against Caesar so he came out of his “military retirement”. He started to draft the strategy and plan for defeating Caesar.
Pompey’s Strategy and Plan
So, what did Pompey do? What were the steps he has taken to defeat Caesar?
As every good leader, he assessed the situation, he has consulted everyone relevant, he gathered all the information available, conducted his simulations and then proceeded in proposing the solution.
He knew Caesar, as they fought together and were allies for more than 10 years. Pompey knew Caesar’s strengths and weaknesses. He simulated Caesar’s situation and presumed what Caesar’s army expects: quick win and riches they can take in Rome.
He did not know the exact size of Caesar’s army. Lack of that information combined with a probable high motivation of Caesars’s army made Pompey decide on a strategy that will lead him to retreat from Rome. He decided to go East where he will persuade Eastern governors and armies stationed in the East of the Republic to support him. His plan was to build a large army and to tire out Caesar as well as wait for the morale of Caesar’s soldiers to eventually flatten out.
Pompey wanted to fight Caesar only when Caesar’s strengths are weakened and his own would be ready.
Once he had his plan ready, he told senators what they are to do: to retreat from Rome and head towards the East.
Senators were furious and they did not like his plan a bit. They did not want to leave their riches in Rome and they did not want to leave the comfort of Rome.
Difference in Goals: Grave Danger on the Horizon
Although senators did want to preserve the Republic, they were not willing to sacrifice much for that goal. They just wanted quick and easy solution. But there was no such thing. Complex situations rarely offer easy solutions. Simple, yes, but easy — rarely. Especially there was no easy way against genius as Caesar was. Pompey knew that.
It was difficult for Pompey to persuade senators to go along with his plan. It took some persuasions. But fearing Caesar and his retributions, they finally agreed to go along with Pompey’s plan.
However, this should have been a big red flag for Pompey in the very beginning.
Red flag: having at one’s side people who did not completely buy into the vision. Problems were on the horizon and inevitable.
Course of Events
Pompey, his army and senators left towards the East. Caesar decided that he would not follow, but instead go West to subdue forces loyal to the Republic there. He managed to do so. Pompey did not waste time and he did raise large army from the allies on the East.
Now, it was time for Caesar (his troops still waiting for the final victory getting more and more impatient) to chase Pompey and take over the Republic (and make it an Empire). He sailed across the Adriatic towards Durres, in today’s Albania.
Senators on Pompei’s side were equally impatient and were pushing Pompey to attack so they can go back to Rome to their comfortable life. Back to their riches and power.
Senators kept being pushy and pushy (as they had short term goals in their mind: get to Rome, back to their wealth and comfortable life). But Pompey kept on resisting and executing his strategy: to wore our Caesar and to win without a fight.
Clearly, Pompey’s goal and senators’ short termism were in conflict.
But Pompey resisted and stayed. He waited for Caesar to come.
Finally, when Caesar reached Albania, Pompey attacked. Having more rested and larger army, having logistical supply lines resolved he defeated Caser in the Battle of Dyrrhachium (modern day Durres). But Pompey did not finish Caesar as he was afraid of trap. He was still unsure of Caesar’s army strength.
Caesar fled and had no many places to go, as East was all loyal to Pompey. Caesar was stuck. No supply lines and his army getting more and more weary. He was going more and more inlands trying to find support, but he found none. His army was losing morale and supplies were running dry. They even lacked water.
Caesar had no choice but to: surrender or attack and lose it all.
Pompey’s strategy seemed to work. Pompey was just one step towards complete victory. All he had to do is wait.
How It All Went Wrong: Victory Turned Complete Defeat
Caesar decided to go for a final fight. The one he was likely to lose. Pompey was well entrenched, well supplied, he needed not to move, just wait.
Caesar came close to Pompey’s camp and tried to provoke Pompey to attack. But Pompey knew better and knew all he needed to do is to wait and Caesar’s army, weary, hungry and thirsty, would fall apart.
But Pompey had a great problem that he fought against from the very beginning: impatient senators right next to him, pushing him constantly to rush and to finish the war and attack Caesar.
They kept pushing him and provoking him. The greatest enemies of Pompey were actually right next to him, in his camp, in his tent.
Each day, they were pushing him to attack.
No matter how strong you are, if temptation is close, you will succumb to it sooner or later.
And as Seneca said: “What can happen anytime, it can happen today.”
The fact that Pompey had a ticking bomb (impatient senators) in his camp, was just a matter of time when it will “explode”.
From all the pushing, finally Pompey succumbed to the pressure from senators and attacked.
Caesar was more cunning in the battle itself and Pompey fell into trap Caesar planted.
Pompey’s army suffered complete defeat.
Large number of Pompey’s soldiers were killed, most surrendered and Pompey fled into the dusk of his life.
Lessons Learnt: First Who, Then What
No matter how prepared, smart and experienced Pompey was, he made a grave mistake at the very beginning. He allowed himself to have the wrong people at his side. People whose goals were not aligned with a greater goal. People thinking short term and only about themselves.
Lesson: have the right people on the right places. First decide who you have in your team and what they are to do, then decided what (the strategy, the plan and the execution).
This was the rule Pompey did not follow. He did not resolve “Who”, before going to “What”. And no matter how “What” was good, “Who” ruined it all.
Because Pompey did not assemble his team rightly in the first place, but left impatient and nonaligned senators at his side, on key positions, he turned perfect strategy (that seemed to work almost until the end) into disastrous defeat.
Conclusion
Our team needs to have aligned goals. In the organization we cannot have people not understanding company goal. We cannot have incentives that are pulling in some other direction than the companies’ goals are. We cannot have the incentives that are short term and not aligned with the greater goal.
If we have such inconsistences in our team or in our organization, no matter how brilliant strategy, no matter how it seems it is working, sooner or later we will run out of luck and all will crumble like it happened to Pompey.
“What can happen anytime, can happen today” Seneca (65 AD, 80 years after the events described in the article)
