(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
(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 :-
Waiting for your comments.
CAclubindia
