How Rome overcame Spartacus – and lesson for expansion stage companies

In my last post, I noted a couple of lessons from the book “The Spartacus War” that I thought were applicable to expansion stage software companies. In this post, I look at the same events, but from the Roman point of view and hopefully derive equally useful insights from the Roman experience.

In 71 BC, how did Rome eventually overcome such as fearsome force of barbarians, led by a charismatic and brilliant general such as Spartacus? After all, Rome eventually fell to the same barbarians in the fourth century, but in the first century BC, Rome had a few things that proved decisive for its survival:

• Persistence: The Roman armies could be beaten badly, but they would never give up. In less than two years, multiple Roman armies have been soundly defeated by Spartacus’ rebels, and there was veritable fear and panic in Rome. But yet, the Romans kept coming back, raising more armies and chasing Spartacus’ army until they beat them. It is the same with competing in the market today: what counts is persistence and perseverance in the long run. Your competitor might have a lot of competitive advantage over you today, but everyone has to evolve, and as long as you are evolving faster than they are, you will eventually overtake them.
• Getting the right leadership: The first Roman armies failed because they had weak leadership. However, it got increasingly better over time, as Rome learned its lesson, and the tides really changed with Crassus, a determined, capable general who was hungry to prove himself. Again, this is a crucial area for young companies: they have to constantly look to improve and upgrade their management teams to be better and more qualified as the company grow and its competition stiffen.

I am sure there are more to learn from the Romans – but for now, I would say let’s just focus on sticking to the goal with the right leadership. That might already take the company a long way.