When the Spanish arrived in the new world, they encountered Montezuma, head of the Aztec Empire. The Aztec civilization was a command and control society. By killing Montezuma, the Spaniards easily defeated the remaining Aztecs since their entire society was built around a single, all powerful leader.
As they continued their advance, the Spaniards used the same technique of killing the societal leader. This approach led to the same success as it had with Montezuma, and they were able to plunder riches from the indigenous tribes– That is until they encountered the Apache Indians.
In Apache society, power was not concentrated in one leader. The Apache civilization was very decentralized. When the Spaniards killed one leader, he was quickly replaced. Additionally, the death of one Apache leader at the hands of the Spaniards roused the ire of the other Apache tribes. The Spaniards suffered their first defeat in the Americas at the hands of the decentralized Apache Indians.
Lessons from history can often be applied to business. Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing tool that ran afoul when the government started enforcing copyright laws. When users started sharing music over the internet, they deprived record companies and artists from their royalties. Napster founder (Sean Parker) and heavy users were sued for copyright infringement in the hopes of discouraging similar behavior in the future. However, since the government never directly addressed the users who still wanted free music, the government failed to achieve the desired effect of curtailing future music sharing. What made Napster a target was its single command and control structure. Napster was defeated because it had a very visible and centralized command structure similar to the Aztecs.
Using the lessons from the Spaniards and the Apaches, Kazaa took the concept of peer-to-peer file sharing and decentralized the command structure. By distributing the data and not having a single identified leader, the music industry had a much harder time defeating piracy and defending copyright laws.
When you decide on a plan of action, do you consider the ultimate consequences as your target reacts to your actions? Are there lessons from history that you can apply to develop scenarios to predict how your target audience will react?
