alexander

Leadership Process One: Reframing Problems 43
ple, some say his nose and ears were cut off, and then he
was returned to Darius’s family, who dispatched him in a
very slow, intensely painful butchering that concluded with
small pieces of his body being spread across the countryside.
Another lovely story is that he was tied to two trees
that had been bent down. When the restraints were removed,
Bessus was torn in half. Other stories are equally
vivid. It does not matter what actually happened. What
matters is that the fate of Bessus further made it clear to the
people of the empire that Alexander was king and that he
would deal not only with disloyalty but with any attacks on
his food supply.
Leading Lessons
Alexander correctly reframed the problem from one of provisioning
supplies to foraging the enemy. He repeatedly
captured the Persian supplies intact.
More than 3,000 years ago, Sun Tzu admonished all
would-be generals to forage the enemy. Alexander sought
not to alienate the civilians by stealing their food, so he
set out to capture enemy baggage and supplies. Forage the
enemy.
Conversely, burn your competitors’ crops as a way to
reduce competition. A modern example is the common
practice of ruining competitors’ test marketing or product
introductions. When a competitor brings a new product
into your market, give away or dramatically reduce the
price of your comparable product, buy extensive end-aisle
displays, distribute coupons, buy advertising to drown out