Alexander: the supreme strategist

I have planned to take on my favorite subject at my B- School, 'strategy'. The best way of studying business strategy is studying military strategy, the mother of all strategic studies. Here on I will be exploring the stratagem of the stalwarts in this field. The strategist who inspires me most is Alexander the Great.

Born in Pella, capitol of Macedon in northern Ancient Greece, Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and of his fourth wife Olympias, an Epirote princess. Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon (a labour Alexander had to repeat because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as the borders of Punjab. Before his death, Alexander had already made plans to also turn west and conquer Europe. He also wanted to continue his march eastwards in order to find the end of the world, since his boyhood tutor Aristotle had told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea begins. Alexander integrated foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He encouraged marriage between his army and foreigners, and practiced it himself. After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died, possibly of malaria, West Nile virus, typhoid, viral encephalitis or the consequences of heavy drinking.

He was the first to try executing the dream of ruling the world and conquering Asia which most generals of west feared. It is the battle of Gaugamela against the Persian king Darius III where he defeated an army larger in number and superior in technology by use of shear strategy. It was this war which won him the title of 'Alexander the Great'. The strategies used by Alexander was a combination of several strategies.

Deterrence Strategies - Deterrence is a battle won in the minds of the enemy.

Alexander simply outwitted Darius as a general. He was more smarter and bolder than Darius had expected. Whenever there was a war between unmatched armies in number the smaller army attacked bigger army during night. While Darius and his army was awake and expecting Alexander to attack during night, Alexander was having a sound sleep in his camp. In the morning Alexander and his army was ready for the battle, Darius was already tired. Alexander surprised his enemy. The second reason why Alexander wanted to fight Darius in daylight and a terrain suitable to Darius was that even if Darius managed to escape then he would have no doubt that he will never be able to defeat Alexander again!

"All warfare is based on deception.

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

- Sun Tzu

Hammer & Anvil Tactics - Combination of the following strategies:

Frontal Attack - A direct head-on confrontation.

Flanking Attack - Attack the competitor’s flank.

Mobile defense - Constantly changing positions.

Encirclement strategy - Envelop the opponents position.

In this tactics the cavalry (the hammer) outflanked the enemy to drive it onto the spear-wielding phalanx (the anvil). This was the master stroke of Alexander which was his innovation.