Conquer Like a Khan
Conquering like Genghis Khan
As many of you know, I am a bit of a military history fan. Since I was a boy, I have been fascinated by Genghis Khan. I recently read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, which takes advantage of detailed documents (called the Secret History of the Mongols written by the royal family) that have only just recently become available that really shed a more full light on the life and accomplishments of Genghis Khan.
The story of Genghis Khan is almost unbelievable. Genghis rose from humble beginnings, an illiterate herder of animals in one of the most remote places on earth, to become, by almost any metric, the most successful conqueror in the History of the World. One day he decides he is tired of his family and tribe being the punching bag of Asia and he doesn’t stop until and he has conquered more peoples and lands in 25 years than the Romans did in 400.[1] He conquered more than 3 billion people with a population of Mongols of less than 1 million and an army that was never more than 150,000.[2] So how did he do it?
He did it through an innovative and disruptive strategy. Genghis Khan’s took the best strategies and tactics from his background on the Steppes and then adapted the best other nations had to offer to create an agile, innovative military that almost never lost a battle. He also created an empire with unparalleled trade, religious toleration, self-rule and fostering incredible prosperity for constituents. Genghis’s achievements in statecraft and empire-building might be more impressive than his military achievements. However I would like to focus on Genghis’s military strategy because I think this has the most interesting application to what we are engaged in with Kickstart.
The Mongols didn’t just conquer armies, they crushed them. A classic example of Mongol battle strategy is their conquest of what is now called Russia. Initially, the Mongols sent 10 ambassadors to an assembled Russian army offering them the opportunity to surrender and become part of the empire. The Russians decided to execute the ambassadors on the spot (bad idea). The Mongol invaders were outnumbered by at least 2 to 1 by an army of heavily armored knights, infantry (peasants) and archers some 1000s of miles from home. The Mongols engaged them in a small skirmish and then began to flee. Feeling that they could achieve a great victory, the Princes of Russia began to follow quickly behind and were carefully led by the Mongols in this way for two exhausting weeks until the Mongols had found a field perfect for the battle. Given the fleetness of the Mongol army they could easily out-distance the plodding supply line and foot soldiers of the Russians so as to be just out of reach. In the eventual engagement, the Mongols charged the line of infantry and then stopped, just out of reach of the weapons of the infantry, and then fired bows at point blank range. As infantry and archers were quickly defeated by the great range and flexibility of the Mongol archers, the armored knights decided to retreat. Deflated but still confident in their suits of heavy plate armor, the princes and knights galloped away on their beautiful warhorses. This is what the Mongols had been waiting for. The heavy horses quickly tired as they were no match for the endurance and range of the Mongol mounted archers. The Russians were quickly cut down in their retreat and only 10% made it back safely. This is a particularly impressive example when one considers the great armies that have failed in conquests of Russia.
How does an illiterate, penniless guy from the frozen Steppes end up conquering nearly the whole world? The quick answer is that this is almost like Moneyball for nations. Genghis recognized that he couldn’t win wars by fighting like everyone else so he utilized the strengths of his culture in such a way to create an unfair advantage.
What Genghis had to work with
First, lets look at what Genghis had to work with at the start of his world empire. Just like our startups, not much. His balance sheet was definitely lacking but he recognized a way to configure his army to create unfair advantage.
The Good
The Mongol warrior had some significant natural advantages by virtue of their culture and upbringing and Genghis exploited these advantages to the upmost by designing an army with mobility at its core. Mongols were incredible horsemen and archers. Generally by age 4, Mongol children had mastered riding and eventually could stand on a horse while riding. Mongols could fire a bow with great accuracy and at high rates of speed and were very adept at using the combination in hunting and other sports from childhood. Traveling great distances for days on end was a way of life. Mongols were also well adapted to the freezing temperatures and inclimate weather of the Steppes. Though not necessarily professional warriors, the warriors of the steppe were brave and hardy.
The Bad
There were also numerous natural disadvantages. The Mongol national was a poor nation with a small population and little to no manufacturing capacity. That is actually pretty bleak if you are going to go to war with the world even in the 13th century. Interestingly, despite their grisly reputation, Mongols had all kinds of cultural taboos about close-quarters combat and would avoid it all costs. The idea of professional army was virtually unknown among them. For centuries, the various steppe tribes had spent the bulk of their time warring amongst themselves over long-standing feuds and reprisals.
The Mongol Military Strategy and How to Conquer Like Genghis (metaphorically)
- Mobility/ Flexibility beats Strength. No infantry. Genghis’s army was 100% cavalry. This was completely unheard of. Genghis’s army was totally different in composition, structure, and discipline than any other army at the time. Every soldier had 2–4 horses that would allow the Mongol army to cross vast deserts and mountains and almost always catch armies by surprise (over 100 miles per day for weeks a time). No commissary or supply train. The warriors would carry flasks of water and dry milk paste and dried meat. The army would bring 3 to 4 herd animals per man that would travel alongside the army for milking and for meat that would be just as mobile as the army. The army would also go to great lengths to reclaim farms and cultivated land in the places that they conquered for pasture so there would be highways with forage for the Mongols to pass through on their rides through Asia.
Implications for Kickstart. Amazingly the empires of Asia, Europe and the Middle East were all beaten by the same Mongol tactics as their neighbors but were powerless to defend against them because all their infrastructure and cultural inertia was built toward fighting high density/ close combat wars. Large incumbents in industry are often the same way. The Mobility/ Flexibility of our companies is their greatest advantage. As Clayton Christensen famously points out in his classic Innovator’s Dilemma, it is really hard for innovators (now fat and happy) to turn around the battleship and attack small competitors that are thriving until it is too late. Especially if it means cannibalizing their core businesses.
- Choose the time and the place for the showdown. As nomads, the Mongols cared little for territory. If they found the battle not to their advantage they would quickly retreat and reengage when they had the advantage. They would routinely send an army 5,000 miles to attack a target. (The Mongols would be the inspiration for the German Blitzkrieg of WWII.) Given their adaptation to the harsh climate of the Steppes, the Mongols actually preferred to attack in winter (which never ceased to amaze their enemies) when they would use the frozen rivers of the Steppes as highways to reign terror on Asia. In addition, the Mongols did most of their damage with ranged weapons such as bows from horseback or catapults — this is the primary reason for the completely one-sided casualty totals in the battles. Unlike other great generals and conquerors of history, Alexander the Great and Julius Ceaser, Genghis did his utmost to preserve the lives of his soldiers. This is in turn bought him enormous loyalty from them.
Implication for Kickstart — Like the Mongols, all of our startups are going to battle with entrenched, powerful competitors. We can’t beat these big companies or even other highly funded startups by playing by their rules. We have to change the game. One of the most important choices that are our nimble startups make is how to engage with the competition in the marketplace. This is one of the reasons that we put such a huge emphasis on the Lean Startup methodology and the importance of validation and testing before building a full-blown product. This allows you to choose a point of engagement where you have an unfair advantage.
- Talent makes a difference. The Mongols could be brutal. For example, if you were an aristocrat and you were conquered by the Mongols, you were likely out of luck. However, one group that the Mongols were eager to give great opportunities were engineers, priests, craftsman etc… that could be of benefit to the empire. Thanks to Chinese and Muslim engineers who were initially captured and eventually treated with liberal salaries and perks, the Mongols were able to weaponize gunpowder in a way that gave them an incredible advantage in siege warfare.
Implication for Kickstart — It is interesting that China and many Muslim nations had gunpowder long before the Mongols. However, it took the Mongols “hiring” these individuals to create siege weapons that became so powerful that they nearly made walls obsolete. Startups can create the same kind of outlet for the right talent. One key hire can be company-defining for a startup. Increasingly, once our startups reach a certain scale (often this is ramping revenue, headed to cash flow positive or large Series A) we are going to the extra expense of doing a protracted search or hiring a firm to find the right executive (VP of Sales, Marketing, Engineering etc…) — often by taking them from a prominent competitor. This can be a difficult process particularly for founders as these folks often require higher cash comp than the existing team and come with their own set of assumptions. There is definitely a balance as we really value the thriftiness and resourcefulness of the founding teams.
- Use your opponents strengths against them. The massive populations of the cities that the Mongols were going up against posed a tremendous problem for them. The walled cities could only be conquered with a direct attack of the kind that the Mongols wanted to avoid. The Mongols prior to laying siege would frighten all surrounding villagers to flee to the stronghold to clog the gates, consume resources and just cause general panic inside which greatly decreased the ability of a city to resist siege.
Implication for Kickstart — One downside of the “sunny” environment that we are now is that valuations are getting a bit out of whack. The days of the multi-million valuation pre-revenue company are back. Hence, many of our startups have competitors who have a “strength” of having raised a great deal of money. This can definitely be an advantage but we believe that if this happens early in the life of a company before product/ market fit has been established and culture created it can be very detrimental. Today I had a great conversation with a serial entrepreneur that has had a $100MM+ exit about why taking a lower valuation on a startup is actually a good idea. The important thing to recognize is that raising money is part of the journey (often a long and challenging journey) and not a destination. Most companies require follow-on funding and hence the VC/entrepreneur relationship is a multi-round negotiation thus if you can structure your fundraising a way that investors are making money as you go you tend to have a much more excited, loyal and supportive investor base.
- Reward your top performers and look out for all your people. It took Genghis Khan until his 50s to unity the feuding tribes of the Steppes. He established several rules that created a meritocracy and fierce loyalty among his supporters. Individual looting was outlawed and all division of loot was controlled centrally by Genghis according to performance. This served to break the influence of the traditional aristocratic families. In addition, as a welfare system every fallen soldier’s family received their share to ensure that the widows and orphans were taken care of.
Implication for Kickstart — One of the key tests of any entrepreneur is recruiting — being able to get other talented people believe in the vision and to be a fellow traveler. Great startup leaders know how to get incredible amounts of raw work and effort from team members while preserving their dedication and loyalty. Much of the loyalty comes from the perceived equitable and meritocratic distribution of tangible and intangible “loot” or rewards. Much of the current research on motivation points to the importance of the intangible rewards as more important over time to the more tangible cash and equity compensation.
