Zach Selch traces how Egypt's shift from reed boats to wooden vessels around 3000 BC let one group dominate the Nile Valley and build an empire. He argues small logistics improvements work the same way in modern business: better delivery and customer service can drive explosive growth in international sales.
Chapters
I'm fascinated by international trade and by the history of international trade. You can see behind me, I'm at the temple in Karnak in Luxor in Egypt, and the columns are made to look like ancient papyrus plants because papyrus was a fundamental element of their culture. They used to make paper, of course, which made them the people of the book back before there were Jews or Muslims and people who considered themselves— considered the book important. To the Egyptians, paper was important because they could keep track of things. But they also made their original boats, which allowed them to do trade up and down the Nile. From papyrus reeds. Now here's the interesting thing though. When you take a look about 3,500 BC, uh, in, in what they call the pre-pharaonic times of Egypt, there were a dozen or more different cultures, each with their own type of pottery and their own trade goods up and down the Nile. And then at one point— and they were all using boats made essentially out of reeds tied with a piece of linen string. Then about 3,000, a little bit more than 3,000 BC, people started making sturdier wooden boats. And these sturdier wooden boats could take them farther and carry more trade goods. And what happened almost within 100 to 200 years, a single type of pottery, a single type of trade good, took over the whole Nile Valley. And what we can learn from that is that essentially when one of these groups of people came up with a better delivery system, a better system of logistics, they were able to dominate the market of the whole region. with their trade goods. And it wasn't just pottery, it was the things inside the pottery. So by creating a better system of delivery, a better logistical system, if you would, this group of people were able to really dominate. Now, less than 500 years later, the Egyptians were building pyramids. They had pharaohs. They had a much greater centralized civilization with a better tax space, and so on. So you could say that a simple technical development, a better boat, which allowed people to deliver more goods at a farther range, really took one group of these people from being one of 12 villages along the Nile to being the technological leader and then the political leader moving forward creating this unified kingdom, this empire of Egypt. That's one way of looking at it. So trade and the elements of trade and how you support your trade is very important to history. It also shows us that one little development, not necessarily in your product, but in terms of how you deliver your product, in terms of how you serve your customers, in terms of your logistics, Those type of things can be revolutionary in terms of your growth as a company. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us and we can help. When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.
