Yahoo, Microsoft and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

What, you may ask, could looking at the Roman Empire teach about strategic options for Microsoft and Yahoo?

Its all very simple, surely? - the Empire was a startup co-founded by 2 brothers, grew despite various setbacks, went corporate with Julius Caesar and finally declined and fell by a combination of its own rotting DNA and more vigorous cultures competing with it.

Not quite - that story conveniently forgets that in the AD 300's the empire effectively split itself into 2 to make it easier to manage - the Western Empire based in Rome, the Eastern in Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine.

Constantinople - renamed from its Greek name Byzantion* - was given extra resources to grow, and was able to create a new combination of classical Roman culture and new cultural memes going round. In other words, the "DNA" was made more current again.

This Eastern Roman Empire - otherwise known as Byzantium - lasted another 1,000 YEARS after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late AD 400's.

Another lesser known fact is that this Eastern Empire then reconquered much of the Western Empire in the AD 500's, holding parts of it for another 500 years until the Other, Greater Norman Conquest (of Italy) was completed in 1053 AD

And the Western Empire didn't collapse as such - it was more a hostile takeover and restructuring by the new kids brought into the Empire to shore it up in its end days, and that kick-started the Western culture we know today.

The lesson is that it is possible to take old DNA, ossifying in peanut butter, and re-invigorate it by splitting yourself up and garfiting new ideas into the new entities. If the Romans could do it with a massive empire, vicious internal politics, communications only as fast as a horse, no arabic number system (imagine Excel in the Roman number system) and having already lost market dominance in military might - what excuse have Yahoo or Microsoft got?.

Yes, apart from the Aqueduct, Roads, etc etc the Romans gave us an object lesson in how to run big, complex structures for a very long time.

So - who wants to be Constantine?

* And now called Istanbul - classic Greek for "lets go to town"