changes that matter come about. So be that one person.
— Buckminster Fuller
YOU MIGHT NOT REMEMBER much more than the rhyme in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but you probably know that Christopher Columbus is one of the most significant people in the history of humankind, bringing the lands that are now called the Americas to Europe’s attention. This chapter uses the Columbus strategic-thinking narrative to reveal more about the nature of strategic thinking.
Christopher Columbus was born in the Italian city-state of Genoa in 1450 or 1451. Columbus spent much of his early life on the Mediterranean Sea learning the basics of seamanship. He later ventured north and south on the “Great Ocean,” as the Atlantic was then called. He acquired the idea of finding a trade route to Asia by sailing west. He approached Portugal for sponsorship but was rejected, eventually securing three ships from Spain. In October 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas, believing he had reached islands off the eastern coast of Asia. He returned to Spain and secured resources to make three more trips to the west. On the second trip, his party discovered Cuba and Hispaniola. The third voyage was especially significant because he encountered the large freshwater flows of the Orinoco River in South America, signaling the presence of a continental landmass.
He held a big (transformative) idea. The fact that the Earth was round was not in dispute among educated Europeans. Columbus’s big idea of sailing west probably originated early in his sailing career.
We don’t know the source of his big idea. We do know, from studying his journals, that he was curious and had an eye for details. Imagine Columbus spending hours in conversation with fellow sailors at sea or in port, trading stories of the mundane and the fantastic. Perhaps when Columbus was in the British Isles (and possibly Iceland), he may have heard stories related to centuries-earlier Viking settlements in lands to the west. Regardless, the big idea of sailing west captured Columbus’s attention and organized his thinking and energy.
He held specialist knowledge. Columbus had practical, applied knowledge of sailing. His know-how included navigation, ship construction, and the operational details of sailing. Important, too, was his experience as a merchant trader. This knowledge was valuable for advancing the interests of the Spanish Crown and his other investors. His mapmaker experience supplemented his navigational expertise, giving him both a global perspective and knowledge of details. Finally, he understood political power and developed influencing skills.
Big ideas often originate in small details gathered over an extended period.
He spent significant time in an innovation hub, exposing him to emerging technological and social trends. The 30-year span from 1462 to 1492 was a time of considerable development in sailing and exploration. Innovations in design and construction of ships improved their performance on long trips over the stormy waters of the Great Ocean. With the ability for longer-range travel, merchants could open new markets and establish new trading business models.
Columbus’s time in Lisbon (1477 to 1485) is crucial to the narrative. Lisbon was one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan cities in the world. For part of that time he worked with his brother Bartholomew in a business that produced and sold maps, keeping him attuned to emerging knowledge in geography. Imagine Columbus finding himself in energetic discussions of what lay over the western horizon. This debate would have stimulated the integration of ideas, sharpened his arguments, and subsequently built his confidence to promote the idea to sponsors. It was in Lisbon that Columbus acquired a map made by Florentine thinker Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli that showed a westward route across the Great Ocean to Asia. Columbus was inspired and carried a copy of the map with him on his voyage, a signal of its significance to him. Some scholars refer to Columbus’s voyage as the Toscanelli project.
He had a valuable insight. An insight reorganizes our understanding of the situation and contributes to a strategic logic. Here is my conjecture of the events of one week. Watch for the spark of insight.
It’s the year 1485. Columbus is at the mapmaking shop with his brother Bartholomew. On a Monday, the brothers complete a chart of wind patterns of the Iberian Peninsula. They talk about prevailing westerly winds, making small jokes about reasons for the wind’s directions that prohibit sailors from sailing into the sunset. That conversation sparks a memory by Bartholomew of the Toscanelli map, which Christopher had inherited from his father-in-law. The next day, Bartholomew asks Christopher if he still has his copy of Toscanelli’s map. He retrieves it from a box, and they have a lengthy discussion about traveling to Asia by sailing west. This conversation between the two brothers causes Christopher to recall years-earlier shipboard discussions and conjecture about lands to the west of the Great Ocean.
The next morning, Wednesday, Columbus returns to examine Toscanelli’s map more closely. He notices the notation that one could get to Asia by sailing west. His thoughts are interrupted when another customer enters the shop with a request for charts showing wind patterns on the coast of western Africa. During this conversation, Columbus recalls his experiences sailing off the West African coast, where the winds blew toward the west and northwest. His customer information matches his experience that winds were out of the east.
That night Columbus awakens with the insight that will unify and integrate his history-making project. Biographer Eugene Lyon declared that it was Columbus’s most important insight: the secret to a round trip to the west of the ocean sea was to “drop down south to go westward with the trade winds, and return at a higher latitude with the westerlies.” The insight gave him a powerful advantage compared to the traditional notions of sailing into the westerly headwinds.
On Thursday, Christopher Columbus writes a letter to the court of King John II of Portugal, petitioning him for resources to make a voyage west.
He secured resources. I’ve previously explained that strategy is characterized by an interrelationship of ends, ways, and means. The means of strategy, the resources put at risk, are essential elements. Columbus had a big idea, but he needed resources. He undoubtedly found it logical to begin with a request for sponsorship from King John II of Portugal because Columbus had contacts within the Court. Columbus also smartly developed a relationship with the Spanish royalty, who eventually provided him with the resources needed for his project.
He adapted to change in the situation. Here are two examples of how adaptability contributed to Columbus’s success.
Columbus had placed an initial bet on securing the sponsorship of Portugal’s King John. When Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias crossed the Cape of Good Hope, he established the potential for a southern trade route to the Indian Ocean, and eventually the Orient. Portugal now shifted toward leveraging Dias’s accomplishment.
Columbus’s initial bet on Portugal’s sponsorship had failed. Wisely, he had hedged that bet by cultivating a relationship with Spain. Columbus pivoted to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who were receptive when he most needed their sponsorship.
A good strategy adapts to changing information about the situation.
Columbus pivoted again on his later voyages to the New World. He began his voyages expecting to find large and sophisticated trading centers, drawing on his experience in Europe and what he had learned from those who had been to Asia. He never found those cities, so he switched tactics, approaching trade as he had experienced it in Africa, moving from small port to small port conducting smaller deals.
These elements of the Columbus strategic-thinking narrative offer many useful lessons for strategic thinking. He was trying to advance his interests (self, family, business, and political) as well as those of his patrons.
With Columbus as an example, I’ll describe strategic thinking’s
