What has Genghis Khan ever done for us?

I recently had a discussion about Genghis Khan, who I think of as some ancestral tyrant dictator who sowed his seed so far and wide that most of the modern world has his DNA. However, he also had another side called leadership. A friend of mine decided to use Khan’s leadership model to frame digital transformation. It was interesting to hear the thoughts so, here goes:

1) Genghis Khan started with a problem that needed to be solved.

As the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond USA reports:

A fundamental problem Genghis faced was the growing numerical mismatch between the conquerors and the conquered. "He had an army of 100,000 and he ruled over hundreds of millions of people," says Weatherford. "There is no way you could rule over that many people solely by force with such a relatively small army. It's just not possible." To complement his military power, he relied on non-Mongol advisers to provide the know-how and manpower to administer his expanding empire. As a means of countering local sources of power in conquered territories, Genghis and his successors frequently brought in advisers from other lands. Such was the case in China, where Khubilai relied heavily on Muslim advisers from central Asia out of distrust for the indigenous Chinese Mandarin class.

The key here, and I use it today in digital transformation, is that you need to identify a burning platform issue. Here, the issue was how to unite disparate peoples. Today, it is how to convert an analogue bank into a digital bank.

2) You need a vision to solve the problem

There’s no point in having a problem if you have no solution. Genghis Khan had a clear mission: to unite the world into one empire.

It’s interesting as I see this in play in all the banks I talk to about digital transformation journeys: where are you going? Some have wishy-washy statements about digital is key because it is the way that customers want to deal with the bank. That’s baloney. Most customers don’t want to deal with the bank digitally. It is the bank that wants customers to deal with the bank digitally, to save costs and overheads.

So, when we come to a vision, it needs to be more around making customers comfortable with digital money and finance. Digital is key because it is the future, but there should be consideration for the past and the speed of change.

In fact, a notable aspect of Genghis Khan’s approach to change was to make it evolutionary wherever possible, rather than making people uncomfortable with revolutionary change.

3) Death to the Distractors

Having said that change should be gradual, for those who resist change, get rid of them. We all know that Genghis Khan was a formidable foe and that you were likely to die if you confronted him. In business today, the same is true, except that you are more likely to face redundancy than death, thank goodness.

The interesting idea here, which I didn’t know, is that it was punishable by death if you refused to use money and, more importantly, if you tried to use counterfeit money. In fact, if you tried to pay with gold or silver in the old Khan empire, you would face execution. Weird, huh?

4) Technology

The fact that Khan enforced the use of a new technology – paper money or cash, if you prefer – changed the dynamics of his empire and allowed it to grow. As Marco Polo noted in his “Travels”… “All merchants arriving from India or other countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems and pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs; these appraise the articles, and the emperor then pays a liberal price for them in those pieces of paper. The merchants accept his price readily, for in the first place they would not get so good an one from anybody else, and secondly they are paid without any delay. And with this paper money they can buy what they like anywhere over the empire.”   

This is the key – a universal currency that is trusted by the people because it is backed by the master, in this case Genghis Khan. This was transformative and created the Mongol Empire, and its future prosperity.

Bringing those all together, I guess we face similar things today.

1) A problem that needed to be solved: change from physical to digital

2) A vision to solve the problem: reinvent, reconstruct, rebuild, renew

3) Death to the Distractors: if you are not on the train, get off

4) Technology: a continuum of movement forward as we move to quantum AI

Oh, meantime, here’s a few other learnings from Genghis Khan:

Adaptability: Khan was quick to adapt to new environments, learn from different cultures, and use new technologies to gain an advantage. In a rapidly changing world, this ability to adapt can be inspiring and instructive.

Meritocracy: Khan believed in meritocracy and promoted soldiers based on their performance in battle, not their birth.

Humility: Khan was humble and distributed the spoils of his first raid to his followers, keeping only a minimal amount for himself and his family.

Consideration: Khan considered everyone regardless of their rank, which meant he didn't have to worry about betrayal from within his army.

Embrace change: Khan's military strategies were not bound by convention, and he constantly sought new tactics and techniques.

Learn from diverse cultures: Khan learned from diverse cultures and leveraged technological advancements to gain an advantage.