Recently I've been watching the history channel. Ever since I've been a little kid I have always been interested in Dinosaurs, Lock Ness, Pyramids, Egyptians, Greece, Rome, The Spartans, Italy, The Bible, War and Mummies to name a few. In watching an episode called "Pyramids - How they were built" I noticed their use of centralized organization and how effective it was.
The processes to which they used were highly controlled and everyone's place and purpose was unique and important. Nearly 15,000 men's jobs were just to quarry the stone and then other men would move the 2.5 ton blocks over to the pyramids final location nearly a half of a mile away.
Similar to businesses there were tiers of support groups and separate devisions that had their own tasks. For instance scribes marked every block when it was cut to designate where it was to be placed, and another group would sharpen tools.
These individuals were without big leverages, and without motorized machines and used merely humans and ramps to push and pull these large blocks.
Talk about a work week: 9-10 days were spent working and the other day was a resting day.
Similar to life the more skills they had the better lifestyle they lived while working on the pyramids. If the individual had a skill that was rare they would be feed meats where as the typical workers ate well but not extravagantly.
They used competition as a way to get workers to perform more effectively and efficiently. Rivalry produced a high work rate. This is something that many companies use to get employees to perform better with incentives etc.
At any rate, I find it interesting the way their use of centralized organization of these pyramids was on a whole new scale of unification of a nation and a task at hand. One that was probably first in history. If a company these days can apply a strong centralized organizational structure they are far better off.
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