Strategic Mgmt. from Mahabharata

 

 

(A) INTRODUCTION

 

< I hope each one of you have seen this Epic on TV .

 

< 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 the principles of Strategic Management.
 

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

 

(B) Characters of this case study  

 

(1) Kaurav Ltd. 

 

CEO -- Duryodhana

President - Dhritarashtra (Duryodhana's father)

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 --

 

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

< He failed to forecast the result of this humiliation which eventually became the root cause of this war.

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

 

Pandav --

 

< Their President Yudhisthira was a man of great vision and was respected even by his competitors . He was an expert in administration and a man of values and adhered to truth and Dharma.
 

< He  used his image in a great manner as on the first day of war he applied a great strategy. He went over to Kaurava's to take blessing from Elders and in return he got the secret of defeating them . ( Remeber the case of Bhishma. ) . This helped them to gain strategic advantage over Kaurava Ltd.
 

< He also anticipated the war at an early stage and started preperations for it. 
 

(2) Strategy

 

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

 

Kaurav --

< Their 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 the weakness of competitors and exploit them. He s'd help the Co. to recover from any situation . 

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

 

Pandav --

< They have got the best strategist in the form of Krishna which the world has ever seen. 

< He believed in forming strong allies and was responsible for the merger of Pandava Ltd. with Dwarka (Remember Arjuna's marriage with Subhadra when Duryodhana wanted to marry her) , Rakshas (marriage of Bheem with hidimba) ,Panchala (marriage of Arjun with draupadi), Matsya (marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttara) etc..

< He asked Yudhisthir to go to Bhishm on 1st day of war to know their weakness.

< He was responsible for forming the strategy of the 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 --

< Their CEO was motivated by greed for the Indraprastha . He was ready to do apply any means whether fair and unfair to achieve his goal . He was a great example of evil and fighting against the truth.
 

 Pandav --

They were fighting for their self-respect and this is the greatest motivation in this world. They believed in fair practices only.

 

(4) Decision-making

 

It is the art to take right decision at the right time. One s'd grab the opportunity at the write time to gain advantage over the competitors.

Kaurav --

< To take good decision one s'd have great level of concentration and low level of anxiety and their CEO was completely opposite of that. He was a man of low concentration , high level of anxiety and believed in unfair practices. 

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

Pandav --

 

Arjuna was a person of great concentration and was very focussed. He choose Krishna over his army which came to be a masterstroke.

He use to set example for others

He use to set example for others.  

 

(5) SWOT ANALYSIS

 

Kaurav --

They converted their strength into weakness as they use to indulge in war with other kingdom which caused both loss of men and creation of enemies. 

Pandav --

< They utilized their exile period in which Arjun acquired Divyastra and  Yudhistir formed the strategy of war by taking teaching from different Gurus .

< Thus they converted their weakness into strength. 

 

(6) COMMITMENT

 

Kaurav --

< There was lack of commitment from Kaurav's .Their main warriors like Bheeshm and Dronacharya didn't wanted war and promised not to kill any of the Pandava's. 
< Karna was fighting the war just to be loyal to Duryodhana but wasn't fully involved in the war as he promised not to kill any Pandava except Arjun. 

 

Pandav --

Everyone was assigned a role and they did it with their limited capabilities.

Abhimanyu and Ghatotkatch sacrificed their life for their 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 --  

< They didn't work as a team. Many of them use to hate each other. Bhishma didn't wanted Karna to participate in the war. Bhishma and Karna both use to hate Shakuni and his tactics . It means they didn't have faith in their key strategist.

Pandav --

< They put team interest above all and each person was involved in every process. They respect each other and use to listen to their CEO.

They had a mission and a common goal and they worked for it.