"There's no evidence that famously successful organizations like the Roman army or the British East India Company were any less afflicted by protocol and politi

"There's no evidence that famously successful organizations like the Roman army or the British East India Company were any less afflicted by protocol and politics than organizations of the same size today. But they were competing against opponents who couldn't change the rules on the fly by discovering new technology." the mongol empire was the game changer [adopting siege machine, biological weapon (throwing infected corpse thru enemy's wall -- the seed of black death), religion (islam, christian, budhism), trade (silk route, 'pony' express), and the rise of creative class] it conquered the world with bow and arrow, lasted 3.5 centuries (longer than the nuclear powered usa) barbar/dictator/despotic empire can't/won't last that long -- there's truly something about mongol