SICILIAN DEFENCES

For most firms in The Business of Pleasure (as in most Industries) increased market volatility quickens the transition-time from Business As Usual to Bare-Knuckle, (depending on the depth of pockets/breadth of strategy, etc) but ‘taking the gloves off’ is not a fashion statement…

MOVE ONE: Adapt or die, an offer you can’t refuse

There is a pivotal scene in The Godfather where changes in both the trading environment and the Corleone clan’s organisation chart necessitate a major leadership restructure:

Firstly, the general tone of the Tattaglia Family’s solicitations, seeking support for their diversification plans (into narcotics) has escalated from sit-downs to shoot-outs.

Secondly, Vito’s first born son, Sonny, the first-in-line for succession, has exited the organisation in a hail of bullets and Michael has re-joined the Board after a picturesque Sicilian sabbatical.  

In short, the game has changed, and so must the firm …and in the Corleone’s line of business there is no limit on liability.

VITO CORLEONE: “Tom, I always thought of you as a son. I hoped that you would be the one to hold the strings. But a consigliere of mine — a consigliere of mine should have no part in bloodshed. You’re not a wartime consigliere, Tom.”

Some 2200 years BC (Before Coppola) Western Sicily, including the town of Corleone, was paying protection money to a mob that made the Tattaglias look like the Von Trapps …the Carthaginians.  However the Eastern side of the island had signed up with a rival outfit also known for the indiscriminate application of ‘muscle’…the Romans. The ensuing dust-up lasted 118 years.

MOVE TWO:  Choose your ground, Surf War versus Turf War

Carthage, originally the ‘new city’ of the Phoenicians, was the foremost naval power in the Known World. 

The Romans were the (almost) undefeated World Champions of the land battle, and, crucially, they had more of a Start-Up/Challenger mentality.

Having (allegedly) captured a Carthaginian warship (a ‘quinquereme’ powered by banks of five rowers) that had run aground, the Romans took it to pieces and used it as a template for their own boat-making.

Legend has it that they managed to build over 100 warships in 60 days, but it wasn’t until the process was well underway that they realised that they didn’t actually have any rowers. Nothing daunted, the Romans built galley-sized rowing machines on the beaches to ensure that the manpower was ready for when the fleet was finished. Which only left the small matter of how to equip the raw Roman recruits to go prow-to-prow with the highly skilled and battle-hardened Carthaginian naval commanders who could turn their boats on a shekel and then out-run and out-ram (almost) any ship afloat. No problem, said the Romans, who set to work on inventing the Corvus (‘crow’) a huge metal spike that could be winched over the opposing boat and dropped into place, attaching the two boats by a gangplank for the Roman soldiers to swarm over -thereby instantly converting a sea battle into a land battle.  

The spanking new Roman fleet sailed up to the super-confident Carthaginian A-Team, who were still trying to figure out what the strange mast-like projections might be for when the first spike was dropped. And then the penny dropped. They were f***ed. 

However it wasn’t Roman inventiveness that eventually won the day.  Or the nerve to build a fleet from scratch and take on a mob that had been ruling the wave for hundreds of years (since the collapse of the Minoans circa 1,500 BCE).

MOVE THREE: It’s not what you do, but what you do next that counts

The (largely) triumphant Roman Navy’s next enemy is one that is still going strong (and getting stronger) today.  The weather.  Here is the shipping report for coastal waters:

255 BCE 270 Roman ships (reportedly carrying 100,000 men) lost in a storm off Sicily

253 BCE circa 150 ships lost in a storm off Sicily and North Africa

249 BCE a massive number of ships lost in a storm off Western Sicily

And here’s the real secret to the Roman success.  Each time their fleets were wiped out they simply went back and built, crewed and equipped more. And each time they rebuilt, they built better.

And when they started losing land-battles, big-time, to the Carthaginians, the same dogged persistence won through there as well. Outmanoeuvred by one of the greatest military tactician of all time, Hannibal Barca, the Romans kept bouncing back until, in the end, the Carthaginian ‘Council of Elders’ back home cut off Hannibal’s funding (probably because his successes made him a threat, possibly because they were jealous). 

‘…Rome, by contrast, mobilized vast national resources through its citizen-soldier system and alliances.’

MOVE FOUR: Never forget how you got where you are

Now as we all know, this upstart Start-Up went on to bigger things (after first demolishing the city of Carthage and pouring salt into the ground so nothing would grow there).  At its peak, the Roman Empire extended to roughly five million square kilometres (see Ben-Hur, I, Claudius and the Gladiator movies) but whenever anyone needed to address the Roman Senate on matters of state, they would have to ascend the rostram, the raised platform flanked by the prows (rostra) of the captured Carthaginian boats, mounted on the wall behind them. Yes they were trophies taken in battle, and the Romans did love a good trophy, but they were also a permanent reminder that, when the chips (or ships) are down, agility, creativity and total commitment will (usually) provide the surest route to get you back on course.