Mahabharata - 7 things you can learn from this Epic

(A) INTRODUCTION

I hope each one of you have seen this Epic on TV . I was itching to write on this but have to control myself as I wanted to preserve my best for t  last . Yes this is my last article in t  series " Seven things you can learn from" .

It took me 3 days to finalise this article as it is totally my creation . No part of this article is taken from any Case study of any B-school. I have tried to relate this epic with Strategic Management by taking examples from this epic to explain t  principles of Strategic Management.

Ok without wasting any time " Let the show begins" .

(B) Characters of this case study

(1) Kaurav Ltd.

CEO -- Duryodhana

President - Dhritarashtra (Duryodhana's fat r)

Chief Mentor -- Mama Shakuni

(2) Pandav Ltd.

CEO -- Arjun

President - Yudhisthira

Chief Mentor -- Krishna

(C) 7 Concepts of Strategic Management you can learn from Mahabharata

(1) Vision

Kaurav

T  President of Kaurav Ltd i.e. Dhritarashtra had no vision at all .   c'd not override his weakness for his son .   was used by Shakuni and Duryodhana.   was incapable of taking any decision.   remained silent during t  dice game in which Yudhisthira lost eveything and also let his son insult Draupadi.

  failed to forecast t  result of this humiliation which eventually became t  root cause of this war.

  was a weak leader and failed to follow his responsibilities as a president in a proper manner.

Pandav

T ir President Yudhisthira was a man of great vision and was respected even by his competitors .   was an expert in administration and a man of values and ad red to truth and Dharma.

  used his image in a great manner as on t  first day of war   applied a great strategy.   went over to Kaurava's to take blessing from Elders and in return   got t  secret of defeating t m . ( Remember the case of Bhishma) . This  lped t m to gain strategic advantage over Kaurava Ltd.

  also anticipated t  war at an early stage and started preperations for it.

(2) Strategy

It is the direction and scope of an organisation and  lps it to compete with competitors.

Kaurav 

T ir Chief Mentor or Strategist Shakuni relied on unfair trade practices. Such things may work in short-term but a complete failure in long-term.

A good strategist is one who knows t  weakness of competitors and exploit t m.   s'd  lp t  Co. to recover from any situation .

Shakuni was wicked and believed in short-term profits.   was biased and use to think about t  welfare of CEO i.e. Duryodhana only and not of Kaurav Ltd. as a whole .

Pandav 

T y have got t  best strategist in t  form of Krishna which t  world has ever seen.

  believed in forming strong allies and was responsible for t  merger of Pandava Ltd. with Dwarka (Remember Arjuna's marriage with Subhadra w n Duryodhana wanted to marry  r) , Rakshas (marriage of B em with hidimba) ,Panchala (marriage of Arjun with draupadi), Matsya (marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttara) etc..

  asked Yudhisthir to go to Bhishm on 1st day of war to know t ir weakness.

  was responsible for forming t  strategy of t  death of Dronacharya , Karna and even Duryodhana.

(3) Motivation

It acts as a catalyst in achieving a company's mission , vision , goal and objectives.

Kaurav T ir CEO was motivated by greed for t  Indraprastha .   was ready to do apply any means w t r fair and unfair to achieve his goal .   was a great example of evil and fighting against t  truth.

Pandav

T y were fighting for t ir self-respect and this is t  greatest motivation in this world. T y believed in fair practices only.

(4) Decision-making

It is t  art to take right decision at t  right time. One s'd grab t  opportunity at t  write time to gain advantage over t  competitors.

Kaurav

To take good decision one s'd have great level of concentration and low level of anxiety and t ir CEO was completely opposite of that.   was a man of low concentration , high level of anxiety and believed in unfair practices.

  believed in finance more than Human Resource.   choose Krishna's army over him which was his biggest mistake.

Pandav

Arjuna was a person of great concentration and was very focussed.   choose Krishna over his army which came to be a masterstroke.   use to set example for ot rs.

(5) SWOT ANALYSIS

Kaurav

T y converted t ir strength into weakness as t y use to indulge in war with ot r kingdom which caused both loss of men and creation of enemies.

Pandav

T y utilized t ir exile period in which Arjun acquired Divyastra and Yudhistir formed t  strategy of war by taking teaching from different Gurus .

Thus t y converted t ir weakness into strength.

(6) COMMITMENT

Kaurav

T re was lack of commitment from Kaurav's .T ir main warriors like B eshm and Dronacharya didn't wanted war and promised not to kill any of t  Pandava's.

Karna was fighting t  war just to be loyal to Duryodhana but wasn't fully involved in t  war as   promised not to kill any Pandava except Arjun.

Pandav

Everyone was assigned a role and t y did it with t ir limited capabilities.

Abhimanyu and Ghatotkatch sacrificed t ir life for t ir team .

Both of them contributed a lot as Abhimanyu fought with 7 Maharatis single handed and Ghatotkatch took away half of Kaurava's army with him.

(7) Team work

Kaurav --

T y didn't work as a team. Many of t m use to hate each ot r. Bhishma didn't wanted Karna to participate in t  war. Bhishma and Karna both use to hate Shakuni and his tactics . It means t y didn't have faith in t ir key strategist.

Pandav --

T y put team interest above all and each person was involved in every process. T y respect each ot r and use to listen to t ir CEO.

T y had a mission and a common goal and t y worked for it.

(D) Conclusion

With this I end my series and I hope you enjoyed it and learnt a lot from this inspirational series.

Link to ot r parts of this series are :-

• 7 Things you can learn from GURU -- T  MOVIE

• Seven Things you can learn from Secret

Waiting for your comments.