Creative Execution: What Great Leaders Do to Unleash Bold Thinking and Innovation

Alexander Comes of Age

The clash at Gaugamela was the denouement of nearly 200 years of war and rivalry between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire. The outnumbered but highly disciplined Greeks put up remarkable fights at landmark battles such as Marathon and Salamis, and Thermopylae—the “Gates of Fire”—where King Leonidas held off the Persians with 300 of Sparta’s best warriors, giving the Greek armies enough time to regroup and halt the invaders. Just as impressive, but not yet acclaimed in a 3-D Hollywood movie, is the feat of the Ten Thousand, a Greek army of 10,700 hoplite soldiers that found itself surrounded by Persian foes in 401 BC. Rather than surrender, the Ten Thousand voted to walk back from Babylon, located in the heart ...