Well most bosses really answer to the handle Mongrol rather Mongol,
however anyone who has read up on one of the most demonised characters
in history, he was one very sharp operator:
Guide to management, the Genghis Khan way
By Jennifer Quinn
BBC News Magazine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4481195.stm
Meet the board
He killed and pillaged and is widely seen as the epitome of the
tyrannical ruler, but was Genghis Khan all bad?
As the BBC prepares to broadcast a revisionist history of the
13th-Century Mongol leader, one historian speculates that Khan
possessed "many of the qualities of a good chief executive."
Disregarding what this might say about the management style of some
businesses today, would you want him as a boss?
"On one level, he is a megalomaniac," military historian Dan Snow says.
"But on another level, given that you have to judge him by the
standards of his time, he was a very good manager."
Mike Petrook, of the CMI, a professional body that represents managers
and helps them develop their skills, says a good boss must have both
solid technical skills and the ability to deal with people. It seems
Khan possessed those requirements, including the capacity to lead and
inspire, a knack for managing change and information, and the desire to
succeed.
Here are five reasons you might wish your manager was a megalomaniacal
dictator with a taste for world domination.
1. PROFIT SHARING
The profits in the 13th Century were, technically, the spoils of
victory and quite frequently included living people who were then
subjected to a life of misery. But for Khan's armies, the booty
pillaged from the vanquished was a big part of their annual income and
their leader was careful to make sure his soldiers got their fair
share.
"Genghis realised that and he felt that employees should be recognised
for working hard," says Dan Snow, the co-presenter of BBC2's
Battlefield Britain series. Snow calls Khan one of his "top five guys"
- at least in terms of military savvy and leadership. "It made them
love him and they would follow him to the ends of the earth."
Khan understood that to keep his armies happy, they needed to be shown
appreciation. And that sharing of the spoils of war engendered loyalty
among his troops, says John Man, author of Genghis Khan: Life, Death,
and Resurrection.
"He knew that, certainly in the early days, that what held all this
together was the pay system," Mr Man says. "Everything was his, but it
was his to give away, which he proceeded to do. All his officers were
paid extremely well."
2. HATED OFFICE POLITICS
Now, Khan didn't mind a little bit of gossip - he was a prodigious
gatherer of intelligence - and he certainly liked to know what was
going on. But he couldn't tolerate dishonesty, says Mr Man.
He is especially admiring of Khan's ability to manage - while
recognising that some extraordinary atrocities were committed in his
name. One of the areas in which Khan was unique was in his appreciation
for allegiance.
And it wasn't only loyalty to Khan of which the general was especially
approving, Mr Man says. Khan couldn't tolerate those who went behind
their boss's back to rat out potential coups or plots, either.
"He punished those who were disloyal, even if they were disloyal to his
enemies," the author says. "He would say: who can trust a man such as
these?"
3. RAN A MERITOCRACY
Barrow boy to chief executive - Sir Alan Sugar is a meritocrat
If you were working for Khan, and you did well, you would be rewarded.
The son of peasants himself, Khan had a very harsh childhood, Man says.
And perhaps because of his humble beginnings, he recognised there was
talent to be found in all classes of society.
"He was pretty remarkable in that he was able to employ people smarter
than himself in order to install good government," Mr Man says, "which
was pretty innovative."
Because he wanted to establish an empire that would last, he understood
that he had to create institutions of government, like a postal system
and a taxation system. To do this, Khan needed records. But he was
illiterate.
So he imported some whiz kids - think Silicon Valley meets the Gobi
Desert - to invent a new form of writing. It's still in use in parts of
Mongolia. Once you were a member of Khan's firm, the boss rewarded hard
work with promotions - and didn't give his kids, or his golf partner's
nephews, the plum posts.
"Most companies do this now," agrees Mr Snow. "Gone are the days of old
school ties.
"His officers were promoted on merit. He demonstrated absolute loyalty,
rewarded courage and said if you are good, you'll move up the ranks. He
didn't say, 'I'm going to get 20 years service out of you and then
promote a 17-year-old aristocrat'."
Snow says that if Khan was heading a company today, he'd know the names
of all his employees, from his top men to the guys in the mailroom.
"He'd know their names, be able to chat about the football on
Saturday," Mr Snow says. "He knew what motivated his men."
4. EMBRACED CHANGE
If Khan were running your office today, you wouldn't be tapping out
invoices on a dodgy laptop or sitting in a broken-down pool car on the
M25 during rush hour. He was a firm believer in trying new things.
Mr Snow says when the Mongols saw the Chinese armies using new weapons
effectively, he captured their men and put them to work for him.
"He embraced new technology," Mr Snow says. "He forced Chinese
engineers to join his army and quickly adapted to their technological
innovations."
5. THOUGHT AHEAD
Though Khan wasn't a big fan of office gossip, he was very big on
knowing what his enemies were up to. But more importantly, when he
decided on a new course of action - a battle, an invasion - he
researched it thoroughly before charging ahead.
"It's all about knowing what your competition is doing," Mr Snow says,
"and Genghis Khan was absolutely scrupulous about sorting out all the
intelligence he could. Although 200,000 men and horses would go
stampeding across a border, it was months after it had first been
proposed."
Aiding Khan in all he did was the absolute belief that he was anointed
by God to lead and to conquer, which made him a uniquely determined
general.
"There was one huge advantage he had, and that's that he thought he was
divinely chosen," Mr Man says. "The only drawback to that is that you
have to get others to believe it too."
Genghis Khan will be broadcast on Monday 25 April on BBC One, at
2100GMT.
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