5 Business Lessons I learnt from Game of Thrones

Lord Robin Arryn CFA, MBA, Ex-Goldman Sachs, Ex-Google, Ex-McKinsey

Game of Thrones, the cultural phenomenon that made fantasy cool again for the first time since the Return of the King. Most people watched it simply assuming the series was about ice zombies, graphic nudity and sword battles. Not me. Much of what I know about the business world, was learned or affirmed by watching all 8 seasons of the show instead of studying for my MBA or CFA exams.

Despite my application to the Iron Bank getting auto-rejected at the pre-screening stage, I feel confident in sharing with you five of business lessons learnt by watching the show.

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Lesson#1 “Chaos is a ladder” Lord Peter “Little Finger” Baelish

Let’s not lollygag,  this is one of the best quotes from the entire series. Similar to how everyone at the Watch the Throne listening party knew “No Church in the Wild '' was going to be a monster, actor Aidan Gillen crushed it with this line. This came during an exchange between Little Finger and Varys, who up until that point of the series were two of the main players manipulating events behind the scenes.

Little Finger and Varys could not be different in their philosophies and motivations behind their actions. Vary’s claims to do what is best for the realm and all its residents¹, while Little Finger is focused entirely on personal enrichment. Little Finger didn’t see the point in trying benefit the realm at large, since to him, the realm is simply a social construct.

Baelish was born into a lowly house, without great wealth or status, compared to the other kings and lords in the story. He needed to seize it for himself. He accomplished this by dealing in unsavory business lines, spying & forming alliances all to give him ammunition for when the right opportunity presented itself. What Little Finger is really saying is, become antifragile. Put yourself in a position to benefit from disorder. When things are stable, there is no opportunity for advancement, this benefits the incumbents. Only when there is disorder, can those lower on the ladder climb replacing or joining those on the top.

Little Finger, created chaos by stirring up trouble between the Lannister’s and Starks. Skillfully played both sides, then positioned himself with the winning side. As a result he gained a castle and new titles. He did not stop there. Throughout the series, he would continue to sow chaos, climbing as high as Lord Protector of the Vale until the producers, Dan and Dave ruined his character arc late in the series and had him killed off in a fairly unsatisfying way.

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Lesson#2 Plan for Succession - King Robert Baratheon

Following Robert’s Rebellion, there was a period of two decades that was largely peaceful. Without the threat of war, King Robert and the realm faced a different threat, an existential one. Without war, who was King Robert? He was a great warrior, but a horrendous administrator. Running up historic deficits outside of war time against the advice of his Hand Lord Arryn, was irresponsible but Robert did not care. The love of his life Lynna Stark was taken from him when he was a young man. He was trapped in a loveless marriage, all he could do to entertain himself was to drink, sire many bastard children and go on hunts. At the start of the series, Robert was only in his late thirties and likely believed he would live forever. He had no reason to suspect his days were numbered, since besides some slight paranoia to the return of Daenerys, he saw no immediate military threat.  

This left him blind to the threats happening within his own court, which led to his unexpected death. Robert had never discussed the matter of succession up until the moment of his death. Even though he performed a royal decree that Ned Stark would sit on the throne until Joffrey came of age, nobody else was there to verify this claim. When Cersei assumed power and simply tore up the paper, nobody was willing to risk their life over it. This has happened many times in history in politics and in business. Lincoln did not properly plan for his succession, which led to his successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson assuming office with all of the same war time powers and undoing many of Lincoln’s initiatives. The Vanderbilt family went from the richest in the world to broke in a few generations due to a problem with succession. Robert could not have planned to die fighting a wild boar, but he could have made better arrangements if such an event were to occur. This could have helped prevent the War of the 7 Kings.  

Lesson#3 If you decide to engage your aunt sexually, make sure your politics are aligned - Jon Snow 

Jon Snow experienced a meteoric rise during the 8 seasons of GoT. Ned Stark's alleged bastard was set to join the Night's Watch, where he would live out his days fighting Wildings. Within a few short years, he became a reanimated fully functioning zombie serving as King of the North. This rise and willingness to bend the knee attracted Queen Daenerys Targaryen (not going to list out all her titles). They agreed to ally themselves, deal with the threat of the White Walkers then reclaim the Iron Throne. Between all of this, they became intimate then learnt that Jon Snow was actually Aegean Targaryen, the rightful heir of the Iron Throne and Dany’s nephew. Further complicating matters, after losing a dragon and some fateful confidants, Daenerys decided to go scorched earth. Jon, naturally more dovish, was uncomfortable burning down innocent people. He found himself having to murder his ally, aunt and lover simultaneously. It is never easy to shove a sword through your aunt, who is your ally but it only gets more difficult when you have been together sexually (I would imagine). The next time you find yourself in such a situation, perhaps aligning on political views first might be preferable. 

Lesson#4 "Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king." - Tywin Lannister

Tywin Lannister is among the most forceful and charismatic characters in Game of Thrones; his presence was felt in every scene he was in. He made others believe he had the upper hand, even when he did not. Tywin delivered this quote at a Small Council meeting when his grandson King Joffrey Baratheon, was whining that he was the King and people should do as he said. Tywin then dismissed him and sent the king off to bed. Let me repeat that. Tywin dismissed him AND SENT THE KING OFF TO BED. Joffrey then actually left, as did everybody else at the small council meeting (except for Tyrion).

This scene was pivotal in demonstrating Tywin’s power over the throne and importance in maintaining stability for the realm. In this scene, Tywin also shows that simply giving somebody a fancy title, does not mean they will automatically be competent or command respect. Joffrey did not do anything that made him worthy of being king beyond being born into the right family. His reign was disastrous from the beginning since he lacked the wisdom or maturity to rule the realm. Cersei had limited ability to control him and even when she did, her advice was rarely better. Joffrey decided to behead Ned Stark against the advice of seemingly everyone, which made the possibility of peace with the North impossible. To wage a war against the North, he needed Tywin to provide the gold and the troops. 

Everybody on The Small Council knew this, which is why they were more inclined to disagree with Joffrey than they would have with Robert or previous Kings. Instead deferring to Tywin, the Hand of the King, who was technically serving at the behest of King Joffrey. Jon Snow on the other hand never had to beg people to follow him. His actions and bravery commanded respect, even from people who were previously his enemies. Enduring respect and authority must be earned, not given. Tywin was simply being helpful in pointing this out to his grandson, who was behaving more like Colin Ferrel in Horrible Bosses than an effective monarch. It is the same way in the business world. Your fancy title will not make people follow you, you need to be worthy of being followed. 

Lesson#5 Whoever has dragons will win - Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones took 8 seasons to build up Daenerys return to Westeros and only about 5 minutes for her to take King's Landing. It just took one Dragon, to win despite her forces being largely depleted after fighting an army of undead ice zombies. Cersei purchased the best sellsword army in the world and had the defensive advantage yet it did not matter. In a business context, we can think of Dragons as superior technology.

The company with the better technology has an incredible advantage. This does not mean technology alone will make your business successful, however if you are trying to compete with a larger, better capitalized company with an equivalent or worse technology, you are far less likely to win. This is why startups can often beat legacy incumbents; they offer prospective customers features or capabilities the older vendors cannot. Otherwise why go with a startup? IT, compliance and several other departments are going to whine that they are missing the latest cybersecurity certification or that their general commercial insurance coverage only goes up to $12M when they want it to be $12.5M.

The reason these customers put up with these annoyances is because they expect better technology will best solve their needs. Everybody will believe their product is best but if your target audience just needs one look at your demo to be convinced, it will be much harder to lose. Therefore if ever you are going to compete, make sure that you have the dragons on your side.   

That is all for today, please let me know if you enjoyed this and want me to release more. I have no shortage of business lessons I learnt from watching Game of Thrones I can share.

1. In the books, it’s really just so he can put a Blackfire on the throne. See Reddit.