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Ancient Greeks' Practices and Contributions in Public and Entrepreneurship Decision Making

Chapman Graduate School of Business, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
School of Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
zanakis{at}fiu.edu
stheofan{at}panteion.gr
golden{at}ath.forthnet.gr
tassiost{at}central.ntua.gr

In addition to the arts and philosophy, the ancients Greeks contributed greatly to the ideas and practices of economic and social decision making. In the fourth century BC, in his manuals on public administration, Xenophon offered pioneering ideas on leadership, management, stimulating economic growth, and fund raising. In Athens during the fifth to third centuries BC, random-drawing devices were used regularly to foster the democratic selection of public officials and jurors. The Delphic oracle of the ninth to the third centuries BC was the first central intelligence database of the ancient world, an interdisciplinary think tank of approximately 90 priests, deemed the best educated experts of antiquity. They collected and evaluated information and advised ordinary people and leaders, among them Alexander the Great. Major project management in the fourth century BC included the following two cases: In Samos island, a one-kilometer water-supply tunnel was built, connecting two tunnels originating at opposite ends of a mountain and meeting in the middle only 0.6 meters apart. A preserved contract for the draining of a lake in the Eretria region near Athens shows the project to be the first build-operate-and-transfer project in history.

Key Words: Professional: OR/MS philosophy. Government