Lost after the third generation
Another business lesson that may be learned from the Mongolian Khanate is that, while his grandson Kublai Khan expanded the Mongol empire, the successive generations of Khan males were more interested in arrogating power to themselves than preserving what their ancestors had won at great price. The empire collapsed after the third generation of Khans. Sound familiar? In Mongolia today, "business" leaders are more interested in attaining great wealth than in advancing the national interest. I watched this happen during my 13 years in Mongolia as market economics replaced command economics. A telling example: the only Maybach limo I've seen was parked in front of the Bayangol Hotel in Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar -- Red Hero -- in Mongolian) while in the steam tunnels below the hotel lived some of the city's 2,000 abandoned children. This is not the vision of responsible capitalism.
