After conquering the Inca Empire in 1532, Spain expanded its colonies along the west coast of South America, centered on Peru. The western coastal route, relatively safe at the time because it was unknown to pirates, turned into a sea of blood in March 1579. The pirate ship Golden Hind, led by Francis Drake, appeared off the coast of Lima, Peru, and carried out indiscriminate plundering. This was the Cacafuego capture incident. It took five days just to transfer the looted gold and silver treasures. In today's terms, it was a pirate raid worth as much as 143 billion won ($105 million).
Drake was famous as a pirate who prepared meticulously, struck boldly, and then cleverly shook off pursuers. After pirating along the eastern coast of Brazil, he passed through the Strait of Magellan and suddenly appeared on the western coast of Peru. Having crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Drake went on to break through into the Indian Ocean. After hitting the jackpot with the Cacafuego, he took a westward route to evade pursuit and unexpectedly ended up circumnavigating the globe (1580). It was the second circumnavigation after Ferdinand Magellan (1522).
Upon his triumphant return, Drake met with Queen Elizabeth I of England, who had secretly backed him, and presented the looted treasures. In today's terms, they were worth about 150 billion won ($110 million), nearly twice the British treasury's holdings at the time. Including the Cacafuego haul, he presented nearly 80% of all his spoils to the Queen. Delighted that her royal financial worries had been solved in one stroke, the Queen knighted Drake, appointed him a naval admiral, and openly supported piracy, known as privateering.
Did piracy experience help with naval tactics? In 1588, Drake fought the Battle of Calais against the Spanish Armada, tormenting the large and heavy Spanish fleet by hitting and running like a guerrilla with small, fast ships. He also used an unexpected fire-attack tactic, setting ablaze ships loaded with gunpowder and ramming them into enemy vessels, throwing the Spanish fleet into chaos and becoming the top hero of the Battle of Calais. The Spanish called the notorious pirate Drake "El Draque" (The Dragon).
The guerrilla leadership that Drake employed resembles the strategic leadership of Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Just as Drake broke away from the Caribbean and the Atlantic to cross the Pacific and circle the world, Bezos started as an online bookstore and built a vast internet shopping mall that encompasses all of online retail. From the moment he set sail toward the digital ocean from the small harbor of Amazon.com in 1995, Bezos must have been reading the winds and currents while envisioning a route to his destination.
To stand up to an "Invincible Armada," one must focus on guerrilla tactics rather than firepower. Against global retail giants like Walmart, Bezos found a niche with the Amazon Prime membership service built around fast delivery. He also bewildered Walmart by launching Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing service. Why would a retail company invest in a web service platform? It was an unconventional strategy, much like Drake's fire attack.
Handing over nearly all the spoils he had risked his life to plunder in exchange for a knighthood? What Drake was really after was not a mere title but the official backing of the crown. He succeeded in transforming himself from a vicious marauding pirate into a proud, protective naval officer. Bezos, by opening AWS to U.S. government agencies, secured a stable revenue base and built favorable relationships. He also developed close cooperation between his space rocket company Blue Origin and NASA.
"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." How must Drake have felt when he took the helm toward the vast Pacific to escape Spanish naval pursuit off the coast of Lima, Peru? How did he persuade anxious pirates on an unfamiliar voyage with no land in sight? The same applies to Bezos. What on earth did he see in the digital ocean of internet shopping, unknown to anyone at the time, that made him hoist his sails?
