EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE
Conquistadorial Entrepreneurship: Lessons Learned
By Dan Cooper and Brian Grinder
In our last “Educators’ Perspective,”
we argued that the Spanish Conquistadors were not professional soldiers but
armed entrepreneurs. We concluded that
although the Company of the Levant was
successful, the outcome for many of its
participants was less than optimal. The
column ended with two unanswered questions, which we will now address. What
can today’s entrepreneurs learn from the
Conquistadors, and did the Conquistadors
take on too much risk?
Lessons for Today’s Entrepreneurs
Beware! Creative Destruction Happens at
the Most Unexpected Times
Creative destruction occurs when disruptive events or technologies change the
rules of the game and bring about the
demise of current businesses or institutions. The book industry and the music
industry are both recent examples where
the creative disruption of the Internet
radically changed both industries.
When Atahualpa met the Conquistadors at Cajamarca, he was at the top
of his game. He was heading south to
Cuzco to claim the Incan throne after
a long and bloody civil war with his
half-brother Huascar. This journey should
have ended with Huascar’s death and
Atahualpa’s coronation, but the Conquistadors intervened. The presence of
foreigners mounted on strange animals
was a minor annoyance to Atahualpa. He
planned to capture and kill most of the
foreigners. Those he allowed to live would
become eunuchs tasked with guarding
his harem. He would then capture their
horses and raise them in great numbers to
bolster his power. The Conquistadors had
other plans and eventually captured the
soon-to-be Incan king.
The Conquistadors prevailed with their
superior technologies and their horses,
but most importantly, they succeeded
with the aid of native allies who vastly outnumbered the Spaniards. After 90 years of
Illustration of “The Killing of Pizarro” from Kim MacQuarrie’s The Last Days of the Incas.
10 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Fall 2016 | www.MoAF.org