Strategic

Management
Group 10 Section C
Aayush

15P121

Chhavi Tripathi

15P135

Vandan Jain

15P175

Anshul Gupta

15P129

Akshay Gupta

15P125

Jalaj Manocha

15P145

Vishal Adkar

15P179

Mythology

Strategy to kill Dronacharya

When Pandava brothers were speaking about an elephant named Ashwattama, that was
dead, Dronacharya never thought of an elephant and thought that his son was dead.
Knowing this Krishna said Drona that his son was dead. Referring to Krishna's strategy,
Pandavas followed the same. Drona didn't believe anyone, but wanted to check with
Yudhisthira about his son's status. Yudhistira, being a Dharmaveer never lied in his life.
Drona knew about this. Only after hearing from Yudhistira, he came to a conclusion that
even his son was/could be dead.
Drona loved is son very much. He participated and fought the war also because of his more
affection towards his son. When he heard that his son was dead, he laid all his weapons and
began to meditate by saying his son's name. Closing his eyes, his soul went to heaven in
search of Ashwatthama's soul. Dhrishtadyumna took this opportunity and beheaded the
unarmed Drona. Though it was highly prohibited according to the rules of the war as agreed
by the 2 parties before the fight to kill an unarmed warrior or attacking from the back
Pandavas and Lord Krishna bend these rules to kill Drona.

StrategyPandavas and Lord Krishna played with the rules to kill Dronacharya who was a master
warrior. This shows how sometimes the competition is curbed through unethical means.

Personal Experience

This is a situation which comes more than once in every students life. As students, we have
to deal with some easy subjects and also some complex subjects simultaneously. So what I
normally did was to cover the easy topics initially and then when the difficult topics came, I
procrastinated the learning procedure. I usually ended up leaving that part.

So, I employed a simple yet effective strategy. The next time this situation occurred, I
started with the complex and difficult to understand topic. I tried to break that into small
and easy to achieve goals. Once, I was confident with that part of the course, I picked up the
easy topics. This helped me in covering my course and at the same time score better in the
examination.

StrategyThis strategy is based upon how to effectively manage your targets in such a manner that
not only they are achievable but also leave some time for other tasks. a

Politics

Barack Obamas strategy - 2008

Team Obama knew that if there was a typical turnout among Democrats on Iowas caucus
night, they could not beat Hillary Clinton. Their only chance was to identify voters who did
not typically participate in caucuses and persuade them to attend. Therefore, they targeted
such voters and convinced them to vote no matter for which party. This helped in bringing
voters out of their homes to participate in voting.
On caucus night, Team Obama took one look at the turnout across the state and knew they
had won even before the final results were even tallied. Nearly 239,000 people voted that
night, about double the historic Democratic turnout. They won by approximately 8 points.
The rest is history.

StrategyTeam Obama adopted the strategy of targeting a specific group of people and believing
that if they could convince the people to participate in voting, there are high chances that
the vote would go to their side.

Movie

Escape from Elcatraz is the true story of Frank Morris, a cunning bank robber who was sent
to Alcatraz Island, which was the most feared prison in the world and practically impossible
to escape through. However, this seemingly impenetrable federal penitentiary was only
broken once by three inmates.
Frank Morris is a cunning bank robber who determines to be the first to escape from
Alcatraz prison. He arrives at Alcatraz on a rainy night after escaping from several other
prisons, gets locked in his cell naked. The next morning at breakfast, he sits across Litmus
and quickly befriends him. After Frank leaves his office, the warden notices on his report
that Frank's IQ is superior. Morris befriends numerous other inmates, including Paul
Benjamin, a black inmate serving two life sentences. Eventually, he meets up with two
brothers who were also the bank robbers and shares his plan for escape with them. They
agree to participate. The movie climaxes with the escape attempt, and goes into detail as to
how they did it.
Morris notices that the concrete around the grille in his cell is weak and can be chipped way,
which evolves into an escape plan. Over the next few months Morris, Butts, and the Anglins
dig through the walls of their cells with spoons (which have been soldered into makeshift
shovels), make paper-mache dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats.
On the night of 11 June 1962, their escape happens. Morris and the Anglin brothers make it
out of the prison and are last seen paddling their raft into the night. When their escape is
discovered the following morning, a massive manhunt ensues and the warden is adamant
that the men drowned, despite no bodies being found.

(Tool used)

StrategyThe protagonist worked with a plan in his mind and all his activities, from befriending
particular inmates to finding weak spots in the infrastructure, were directed towards his
target.

Parable/Fable

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so
hard for her. She was tired of fighting and struggling. Her mother took her to the kitchen.
She filled three pots with water and put them on the stove. Soon the pots came to boil. In the
first pot she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and in the last she placed ground
coffee beans. She let them sit and boil and twenty minutes later she turned off the burners.
She removed the carrots and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed
them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her
daughter, she asked, Tell me, what you see?
Carrots, eggs, and coffee, she replied. Her mother asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg
and break it. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled
as she smelled the aroma and asked, What does it mean?
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity, boiling water.
Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after
being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting
through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they
had changed the water, making it fragrant and giving it flavor.
Which are you? she asked her daughter. When adversity knocks on your door, how do
you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

StrategyIn business, each entity faces certain common challenges like government regulations,
falling economy etc. However, it is their way of reaction which decides whether it will
sustain or not.

Music

There is an example of a team that learned to deliver the highest level of performance while
having fun on a legendary scale. Not coincidentally, its the most successful team of our
time: the Beatles. Every business team can learn from their story. The magic was far more
than just the music.

Beatles Principle Number 1: Invest in and build face time between team members long
before they are required to appear together.
Eight Days a Week
Behind their seemingly effortless playing were thousands of hours logged performing
together in the clubs of Liverpool and Hamburg. Today, we have almost forgotten about the
importance of face time in building familiarity and mutual trust the requisites for teaming
seamlessly under pressure.
Beatles Principle Number 2: Evolve your songs and bring the same level of ideas, new
perspectives, excitement, and enthusiasm to your hundredth meeting with a client that you
brought to the first.
"Getting Better
Most rock groups produce essentially the same types of songs, over and over again. The
Beatles secret to retaining and growing their audience over time was the breathtaking and
continual evolution of their music, from album to album, along many dimensions. The way
to keep clients and customers for life is to evolve your songs with them to constantly
expand your repertoire.
Beatles Principle Number 3: Help team members become brands-within-a-brand by giving
them a song an idea or proposal that will help them to shine.
With a Little Help from My Friends
The Beatles early success was driven mostly by Lennon and McCartneys songwriting
prowess, but the pair quickly had to accommodate what turned out to be four star
personalities in their own right. The band used a number of strategies to manage these
tensions. As the Beatles matured as a team, they worked even harder to recognize and
embrace each player.

StrategyIt is worth learning from the Beatles that no matter what task you are into, creating a set
of plans and strategies always helps in long run.

Movies
When the United States National Security Agency's code-breaking supercomputer encounters a new
and complex codeDigital Fortressthat it cannot break, Commander Strathmore calls in Susan
Fletcher, head cryptographer, to crack it. She discovers that it was written by Tankado, a former NSA
employee. Tankado intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website and have release it for free
if he dies.
Tankado dies in Seville, of what appears to be a heart attack, Strathmore asks Becker (Susan's fianc)
to travel to Seville and recover a ring that Tankado was wearing when he died. The ring is suspected
to have the code that unlocks Digital Fortress. Becker soon discovers that Tankado gave the ring away
before his death. Each person he questions in the search for the ring is murdered by Hulohot, a
mysterious deaf assassin.
Telephone calls between "North Dakota" and Numataka (chairman) reveal that North Dakota hired
Hulohot to kill Tankado in order to gain access to the passcode on his ring and speed up the release of
the algorithm. At the NSA, Fletcher's investigation leads her to believe that Hale, a fellow employee,
is NDakota.
Hale holds Fletcher and Strathmore hostage. Hale's name is cleared when Fletcher discovers through a
tracer that North Dakota and Tankado are actually the same person, as "NDAKOTA" is an anagram of
"Tankado". Strathmore exposes himself when he fatally shoots Hale, and arranges it to appear as a
suicide.
By hiring Hulohot to kill Tankado, having Becker recover his ring, and at the same time arranging for
Hulohot to kill him, would facilitate a romantic relationship with Fletcher, regaining his lost honor,
and enable him to unlock Digital Fortress. By making phone calls to Numataka posing as "North
Dakota", he thought he could partner with Numataka Corporation to make a Digital Fortress chip
equipped with his own backdoor Trojan so that the NSA could spy on every computer equipped with
these chips. Strathmore was unaware that Digital Fortress is actually a computer worm at the NSA
databank. Strathmore commits suicide. The worm eventually gets into the database, but soon after
David Becker figures out the password and is able to terminate the worm before hackers can get any
significant data.

Mythology
This story from Mahabharata is a perfect example of the strategic competency of Lord Krishna.
Jayadratha's father, the old and sinful king Vridhakshtra, had initiated a curse that anyone who caused
Jayadratha's head to fall to the ground would suffer by having his own head explode in the battlefield
itself.
Arjuna blamed Jayadratha to be the cause for Abhimanyu's death. He vowed to kill him the very next
day before sunset, failing which Arjuna would kill himself by jumping in a pyre of fire.
When Arjuna decapitated Jayadratha in the Mahabharata war, he faced imminent death due to this
boon, but Krishna intervened. He quickly asked Arjuna to shoot arrows that would carry Jayadratha's
falling head to his father's lap when he was sitting meditating in his ashrama. Arjuna shot arrows
which carried away the falling head all the way to Jayadratha's father's lap. When he got up after
meditating, he didn't see the head in his lap but caused it to fall on the ground. His own head exploded
as a result and Arjuna was free from the boon.

In this case, we see how Krishna made a clear strategy by using Arjuna, the great marksman, to defeat
a rival and also make sure that Arjuna was free from the boon.

Sports
San Francisco Bay saw one of the best comebacks in the history of water sports, when Oracle Team of
US which was down by 8-3 came back in the race and defeated the New Zealands team. Oracles
Team USA, one of the richest and most favoured team had lost three of the first four races. Something
was seriously wrong with the boat.
The Americas Cup, first held in 1851, is one of the oldest international sporting trophy. Oracles AC
72 was the fastest boat to ever compete in the cup, but still they were losing. Technology
(simulations) suggested that they were fastest and tipped to win. The race consisted of five legs, with
one being the upwind and which made the life of Oracle team difficult. Mr. Spithill, the captain of
Oracle Team, was disturbed by this. Tacking-steering boat back and forth at a roughly 45-degree
angle to wind was the technique to move upwind and it was here that Oracle was losing the race.
Oracle had lost even the fifth race. They had lost 7th race also. On the other hand, Mr. Ozanne's, teams
head technician, software indicated Oracle would easily outsail New Zealand upwind even without
foiling, a technique used by New Zelands team. But there was a gap between the reality and
theoretical calculations and this gave the Spithill sleepless nights.
In tacking, there was a trade-off between speed and distancethe tighter the angle to the wind, the
shorter total travel distance but slower the boat moves. Oracles computer program had given a target:
Sail into the wind at an angle of about 42 degrees, which would produce the optimal mix of speed and
travel distance.
Mr. Spithill while analysing Kiwis video came to conclusion that they were sailing at much wider
angles to the windabout 50 degrees and this made them cover more water but reaching higher
speeds-offsetting the time to cover extra distance. Foiling appeared to be the key. Oracle's computers
had missed this calculation.
Mr. Spithill decided it was time to think like a sailor and let technical teams suggestions take a back
seat. And the results were as expected Oracles yatch defeated Kiwis in all the left races and making
a comeback from 8-1 to 8-9.

Theory of business suggested that one should keep revaluating every three years the strategy. And one
can learn from strategy of the opponent. Also, it is important to remember the core values, as in this
case the captain thought that they were too dependent on technology and it made sense to think like a
sailor and that made all the difference.

Politics
The Importance of One Vote
Most often heard excuse for not voting in an election is "my one little vote won't make a difference."
Congress leader and Minister C P Joshi realised about the importance of One Vote. CP Joshi, lost to
BJP candidate Kalyan Singh Chauhan in Nathdwara constituency in Rajasthan in 2008 assembly
elections by just one vote. CP Joshi was not only state Congress President at that time but was also
tipped to be the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Ironically Congress party came to power after
defeating the ruling party BJP but CP Joshi who was considered architect of this victory lost.
His mother, wife and driver did not turn up to vote on polling day. Nothing illustrates the importance
of every single vote than this incident.

Every small factor/person counts in the success of an organisation and should never be considered for
granted.

Personal Experience
Once I was in a market in Delhi, when I saw an accident of a bicycle with a 4-wheeler. Since the car
was at a great speed, the person on the bicycle suffered significant injury and fell unconscious. While
many people surrounded the place and were busy in chattering, a man in his late 40s came forward.
He checked the pulse of the victim and shouted that he is alive and needs to be sent to hospital. After
20 seconds, he realized that no one had called the ambulance or police yet as everyone thought that
somebody else would do that.
The man, then, made a strategy to solve this. He started pointing out at certain people and shouted
words like- You, yellow shirt, call the ambulance. Sir, you call the police and this way, he got
people to bring things like water, bandage and other things too.

His strategy worked and people did all the work he told them to do.

What I learned from this incident is that when you have to delegate some work, it has to be done
strategically in a structured manner so that people see it as a responsibility and complete the task.

Parable
Birbal followed Akbar everywhere, and his favorite advice was, Everything happens for the good.
One day Akbar went hunting and had a little accident. He shot an arrow at his own foot and was
injured. He asked Birbal what he thought about the accident, to which Birbal replied, Everything
happens for the good. This time Akbar was really upset and ordered for Birbal to be put in a well.
Akbar asked Birbal, Now, what do you think? The Birbal again replied, Everything happens for
the good. So Birbal remained in prison.The emperor Akbar went on a hunting trip yet again, this
time without Birbal. Akbar was captured by the Tribes, who decided to offer him as a sacrifice to
Goddess Kali. Just before chopping his head off, one of them saw the wound on the Akbars foot
and decided to throw him back into the jungle, as per their customs they cannot offer an imperfect
body to Goddess Kali as Bali.Akbar realized Birbals words and repented for leaving him in the
well and went back to get him. When Akbar explains what happened and apologizes to Birbal for his
act, Birbal says Jahapana, good that you left me, else they would have killed and offered me to kali
instead of you.

Sometimes words are not enough, you need to show an example to prove the point