Alexander The Asset Manager

Written by Oscar O’Neill, reviewed by Garry Tiscovschi and Sean Butler

At the height of Alexander The Great’s ascent, his empire spanned across modern Greece, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, stopping only at India after a 14-year conquest. As we’ve seen already, this resulted in his acquisition of many new cultures and languages, but he also acquired an untold amount of physical assets: People, weapons, food, property, and money, to name a few. Keeping track of all these newfound resources would have been a great struggle in Alexander’s time, especially across such a vast empire. Had he had access to the information systems of the 21st century however, he could have utilised the power of modern asset management tools.

Asset management systems come in many forms, but they essentially allow organisations to track their assets. Though organisations can operate fine without one, without optimally allocating their resources, they are no doubt needlessly losing money and time. In the recent past, spreadsheets would have been the standard, but now inventory can be tracked 24 hours a day, from anywhere, with a mobile device, with products such as Asset Panda (Asset Panda, n.d.) and Freshservice (Freshservice.com, n.d.). So how would Alexander have utilised such a system?

People

Both in battle and across his major cities, Alexander would have found it useful to know who he had at disposal and where. Knowing how many soldiers, doctors, clerics, and builders he had across his empire, and sending them where he knew they were needed most could have saved lives, helped to control disorderly public, create needed defences, and much more. His asset management system could keep track of the numbers of these people, as well as storing their contact details, addresses, and whatever else was needed to get them where they were needed most, either in the cities or at the frontline.

In battle

Past his people assets, Alexander would have benefitted from tracking any number of other supplies. Knowledge of his available weapons, food, tents, building supplies, and travel equipment, as well as knowing where more of these could be sourced, would have allowed him to optimally utilise these resources. He could have also planned in advance; Knowing he would meet Darius III in the coming weeks, say at Gaugamela or Issus, he could have assessed his inventory and made arrangements for orders to be sent to nearby cities to begin producing any assets which he lacked.

Conclusion

With each battle won and city conquered, Alexander acquired a huge amount of new resources. Without tracking these newfound assets, he was left operating at a much-diminished efficiency and effectiveness, potentially having cost his empire many lives. Perhaps his army would have been ready to take on India had their battles so far not been without so much turmoil. With the aid of a 21st century asset management system, he could have orchestrated the allocation of his assets like a fine symphony.

References

Asset Panda. n.d. Easy and Flexible Asset Management Software — Asset Panda. [online] Available at: <https://www.assetpanda.com/> [Accessed 16 March 2021].

Freshservice.com. n.d. IT Asset Management Software — Freshservice. [online] Available at: <https://freshservice.com/eu/features/it-asset-management-software/> [Accessed 16 March 2021].