Three strategy lessons from Hector, Achilles, and Odysseus
By Lorenzo Bona
Today, compounding geopolitical friction, supply chain fragmentation, energy volatility, and rapid technological shifts seem to make strategic decision-making increasingly complex. The natural temptation could be to wait – to seek more data, reduce exposure, and delay commitments or initiatives.
Yet waiting is not neutral. Markets move, opportunities narrow, and competitive advantages can erode while organizations deliberate.
The leadership challenge, therefore, is not simply managing risk, but deciding which risk to accept.
Three great Homeric figures – Hector, Achilles, and Odysseus – can, if interpreted through a business lens, suggest the relevance of three distinct strategic postures:
The Discovery Posture (The Hector Lens) – Beyond the classic portrayal as a hero bound by duty and courage, confronting a virtually invincible enemy in the face of daunting odds, Hector may also be interpreted through a business lens as a leader facing what could be seen as a situation of knowledge uncertainty: we do not yet know enough.
In the Iliad, Hector knows the strength of Achilles and is famously portrayed as a man who overcomes his fears to confront a battle larger than himself. Yet his story may also leave room to see him as a leader who chooses to enter an uncertain and challenging arena, knowing that he cannot fully know in advance what only action can teach him about the situation – or what it may even reveal about his own capacity (for example, the full extent of his courage, what he is capable of, and where his limits lie).
Engagement generates knowledge that distance cannot. In business, customers reveal preferences by buying or refusing; competitors reveal strategy through reaction; organizations discover capabilities and limits under real pressure.
The Discovery Posture means accepting the cost of experimentation as the price of gaining knowledge.
The Acceleration Posture (The Achilles Lens) – Given that Achilles’ story is shaped by the prophecy that he must choose between a quiet, longer life and a shorter life marked by glory, he may be viewed as a leader facing situations of temporal uncertainty: we may not have time.
Knowing that his own life is finite and brief, Achilles chooses concentrated impact over security. Companies and their leaders face similar clocks. Technologies mature, capital moves, and first-mover advantages decay. Waiting for perfect certainty can become a strategic decision in itself.
The Acceleration Posture means accepting the cost of acting before certainty to capture an opportunity before it disappears.
The Adaptive Navigation Posture (The Odysseus Lens) – Odysseus may be viewed as a leader facing situations of what could be called navigational uncertainty: the path keeps changing, and new challenges emerge.
His ten-year journey home after the war requires continuous adaptation without abandoning the destination. Businesses and their leadership teams face similar conditions when strategies encounter changing regulations, supply constraints, geopolitical shifts, technological disruption, unexpected competitive responses, or culturally embedded business practices that cannot simply be interpreted and managed from a distance. Whether entering a new market, scaling an existing business, or responding to disruption, the original route may no longer be viable, but the objective remains.
The Adaptive Navigation Posture means accepting the loss of predictability to preserve the objective.
Strategic Alignment
These are not rigid stages or static leadership styles; they are postures that can coexist, and sometimes overlap, within the same initiative (for example, a company may need to discover a new market, accelerate its response to a closing opportunity, and navigate persistent regulatory or supply-chain obstacles at the same time).
The central leadership task is to recognize which constraint may require greater attention at any given moment:
Can we afford not to try?
When the primary constraint is what we don't know.Can we afford not to act now?
When the primary constraint is time.Can we afford not to keep going?
When the primary constraint is persistent friction.