Standing the Test of Time: Two Things I Learned in Peru that Apply to Business Growth

When traveling to take in Machu Picchu as a life wish list item, I didn’t expect the history of the Inca civilization to parallel my work with pre-rapid and rapid growth business leaders.

That’s the beauty of adventure and new experiences. They not only transport us physically to a different place but allow our minds to expand with novel ideas - sometimes delivering a whole new way to reconsider what we may think we’ve already learned. Truly, I didn’t sleep in my 9th grade history class with Mrs. Clark. She taught me about South America and ancient civilizations.

But there’s a difference between learning vs. experiencing, and then reflecting.

During the adrenaline rush of rapid growth, it can be tempting to take short cuts. Here are two of my take-aways, and how they translate into growing a business that stands the test of time.  

Intentional Design

The Inca civilization is known for its architecture and road work including Machu Picchu and the Sacsayhuaman fortress complex near the capital of Cusco. The design of the fortress was laid out in the shape of a Puma, which represented what was vitally important to how they lived - with power, strength, and force.

They knew that to build a wall and structures that would withstand periodic 6-plus Richter earthquakes as well as natural erosion, the largest rocks would have to serve as the foundation for the medium and smaller rocks on top. Instead of using a concrete-like mixture to hold the rocks together, they were carefully grooved and tongued then placed on top of each other to fit with the precision that ensured long-term stability.

So what?

When building a business, be intentional in the design. What does your business stand for? Although we don’t typically have animals to symbolically represent what’s being built, having a well-defined purpose and values should always be evident in how the business is structured and actualized. Based on the vision of what’s being architected, put the big rocks first. This allows everything else – missions, goals, and priorities - to be placed on the foundation and supported by the big rocks.

Don’t Conquer, Assimilate

For approximately 100 of their 300 years in existence, the Incas assimilated other parts of South America into their civilization before they were conquered aggressively by Spain. There’s a vast difference between conquering and assimilating. While there were certainly hostile takeovers, the Inca leaders took the best practices from the other civilizations and integrated these into their economy, politics, and agriculture. One example of a learned adaptation is the agricultural terracing used to prevent erosion – the Inca empire learned this over time from others.

So what?

When acquiring other firms as a path to inorganic growth, take the approach of learning from and including the best practices of the organizations being acquired. What have they built and how have they achieved success in ways that should be incorporated into the future state of the larger, evolving organization? This helps to avoid forced and unnecessary expectations of compliance. Abolishing what was vitally important and soulful to those acquired slows progress. The resulting collaboration from the approach of assimilation allows for collective knowledge, better buy-in, and bolstering the odds of building a business that lasts.         

If you want to build a business that stands the test of time, we can all take a few cues from the Inca Civilization. These two approaches, out of many they used, are like hard-earned wisdom. They stand the test of time and never go out of style.