[Druga Runda]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4481195.stm

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
"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 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
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."

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."

now my manager is nothing like that, but I am

[Geo]

Actually, there's a whole book. Quite entertaining and insightful too.

[sytaylor]

My manager is friendly, from cardiff and likes to talk about his family a lot. Ghengis Khan he aint. If he gets me this damn promotion i've been chasing though, I can't say I'd mind.

[Guden Oden]

"He embraced new technology," Mr Snow says. "He forced Chinese engineers to join his army and quickly adapted to their technological innovations."

Isn't that pretty much what Microsoft's been doing for years and years, grabbing other people's tech as their own and when they complain just charge right over them and stomp them into mush?

[3dilettante]

Originally Posted by Guden Oden

Isn't that pretty much what Microsoft's been doing for years and years, grabbing other people's tech as their own and when they complain just charge right over them and stomp them into mush?

Probably not. Considering Genghis Khan's use of an extensive rider system and the coopting of an alphabet for the previously unlettered Mongols, he was very aware of the power of communications technology.

If he were in charge of Microsoft, they wouldn't have taken so long to respond to the Internet. That and the staff at Netscape would have been trampled by horses, literally.

[pax]

KHAAAAAN!

Sorry had to do it.

[mito]

I believe that during those days brute force was more of an asset rather than management psychology.

[Druga Runda]

Originally Posted by mito

I believe that during those days brute force was more of an asset rather than management psychology.

brute force?

and where does brute force come from, brute force has to be directed and organized, to be effective and that is called management