PROJECT

ON
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

MYTHOLOGY: CHAKRAVYUHA
Chakravyuha, designed by Drona, was as a spinning wheel and a puzzle with the
formation in a constant state of rotation

Knowledge of how to penetrate it was limited to only Abhimanyu, Arjuna, Krishna

and Pradyumna. On the twelfth day Trigartadesa, Susharma along with his 3
brothers challenge Arjuna and ensure he was on the other side of battlefield

The remaining four Pandavas and their allies were finding it impossible to break
the formation; it could be broken only by entering and exiting the formation

Yudhishthira instructed Abhimanyu to break the Chakravyuha formation.

Abhimanyu knew the secret of entering the Chakravyuha formation, but did not
know how to exit it.

Once Abhimanyu entered the formation, King Jayadrata stopped all the Pandava
forces from entering as he had got a boon from Shiva

Abhimanyu fought fiercely but was ultimately surrounded and attacked by many
warriors in a combined attack.

From a business perspective its important to assess your competitors strategies

and try to counter it rather that succumb to it and fall.

FOLK STORY: THE JACKALS STRATEGY

A jackal, who was very smart and had a good presence of mind, was in search of

food when he saw a dead elephant; however, he could not tear the elephants
thick skin

On seeing a lion, the jackal said O king of jungle, I found this dead elephant and
was keeping watch over it so that you can have it. Please be kind to eat to your
hearts content

On seeing a leopard, it shouted, O Uncle! This elephant was hunted by the lion
and I am guarding it for him

On seeing a tiger, it shouted, Hey, it has been a long time since we have met.
You look very thin and starved. Be my guest. You can eat this elephant when I
keep watch for the lion. Once he comes I will signal you and you can run

As the tiger tore apart a big chunk of the elephants skin and started eating, the
jackal jumped, Here comes the lion. Quick! Run away

Bow before the mighty, throw something before the low and fight the equally
powerful

MOVIE: MARY KOM

The movie narrates the story of Mary Kom, right from her childhood life in India to the
victory at the 2008 World Boxing championship; Priyanaka Chopra played the lead role

Promotion of the movie was outsourced to a marketing agency, Flarepath; social media
channels were used extensively in marketing

Introduceda pre-launch contest on Twitter; Winners were given a chance to meet Priyanka
Chopra in person and watch the movie with her.

Introduced a #PCEntourage winner contest; Winner could share the stage with Priyanka
Chopra, interview her and shoot the episode on Vine videos; vine videos were widely used
in the trailer launch activities to engage the fans.

During trailer launch, fans got a to see Priyanka Choptra in her Mary Kom outfit; a Q&A
session was also organized with the actress.

Post-trailer launch was carried out on the same day which enhanced the trailer views;

winners were presented movie posters signed by Mary Kom; trailer received almost
3,825,356 views

Promoters used all leading social media channels like YouTube & Vine to make this
campaign more appealing

Received 7087 more followers; able to reach out to 688472 people onlineand received up
to 20254782 impressions; received 700 tweets during the contest.

WORK EXPERIENCE: ESSAR OIL LTD

Essar Oil Ltd (EOL) is one of the two private players involved in refining of crude oil and
marketing of refined products, the other being Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)

RIL was not able to retain its market share in the fuel retailing segment post regulation of
diesel prices

EOL pioneered the concept of Dealer-owned, Dealer-operated (DODO) fuel pumps; with a
pan-India network of 1,750 retail stations, the company covered the national and state
highways and the rural areas

RIL competed with OMCs which had a wide network and the backing of government.
Hence, it was not viable for RIL dealers to continue their business after diesel price got
regulated

POLITICS: NARENDRA MODI

NDA led by Mr. Narendra Modi secured an unprecedented victory in the 2014 General
elections winning 336 seats in the Lok Sabha; the election campaign was based on the
theme of Development and the excellent work done by the Modi government in the western
state of Gujarat.

Positioned himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the early 2009 when Gujarat was
attracting big business houses for investment and was developing with extraordinary pace.

Divided this big goal of becoming the Prime Minister of the country into very small goals and

maintained strong and cordial relations with domestic and international companies and
governments.

Communicated his developmental work very effectively which helped him connect with the
young generation.

Gauged the public mood against the UPA government and polarized all the forces against it.
Hired best marketers like Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi to create his election campaign
The UPA was unable to change its strategy according to the circumstances and lost
miserably.

Form a team of passionate and well qualified people; know ones strengths and the
oppositions weaknesses; be agile and flexible to the changing circumstances; go for a
course correction if their strategies are not working; effective use of all resources

SPORTS: TURNAROUND OF FC
BARCELONA
FC Barcelona was in shambles in 2003; the club had not won anything for the last four years,

and financially it was in an even worse situation.

President Joan Laporta understood the relation between sporting and financial performance;
building a strong team that performed on the field was considered as a driver of all revenue
sources
Improve the quality of the squad and thus the clubs sporting competitiveness by funds
generated from improved financial results which were to be derived from off-field activities
like global branding, commercial activities, and internal rationalization.
Maintain a sustainable brand image; build a team based on own-produced players from its
strong youth development system complemented by key recruitments of star players
Fans started identifying themselves more strongly with FC Barcelona as a club, than with any
individual star player, the club had the most fans in Europe, a total of 58 million supporters
in 2010
Significant increase in broadcasting and match day revenue
Promotion of the club outside of Spain through CSR Program; strongly related to the clubs
mission for being more than a club (Mes que Un Club); the club signed a 5-year deal with
UNESCO and started collaboration with UNICEF
Commercial revenue was further enhanced by an aggressive sponsorship strategy; the club
did also make significant improvements on the cost side

MYTHOLOGY: DRONACHARYAS DEATH

Dronacharya - guru of the Pandavas and the Kauravas - a master of advanced
military arts, including the divine weapons or Divya Astras; being s servant of
Hastinapura, he was duty-bound to fight for the Kauravas

On the 10th day, Drona is named the supreme commander of the armies; he fails on
his promise to Duryodhana of capturing Yudhishthira; Duryodhana taunts and insults
Drona causing friction between Ashwatthama, son of Drona, and Duryodhana.

Lord Krishna suggests the Pandavas that if Drona was convinced that his son was
killed on the battlefield, it would be easier to kill him.

Lord Kiha suggested Bheema to kill an elephant by name Ashwatthama and claim
to Droa that he has killed Droacharya's son Ashwatthama.

Droa approached Yudhihira and questioned him as to whether his son was dead,
Yudhihira responded Ashwatthama is dead. But it is an elephant and not your son

Kiha instructed the other warriors to blew trumpets and conches raising a
tumultuous noise in such a way that Droa only heard that Ashwatthama was dead

From a business perspective, for the greater good of the stakeholders, one might
have to take unethical means.

PERSONAL LIFE: CAT PREPARATION

Common Admission Test(CAT)scores a candidate on the basis of QA, VA and RC,
DIand LR

Strategy used during the preparation was to focus on your strengths and work
more on them

One should not try to do everything as he/she might end up nowhere; a company
should focus on its core competencies rather than trying to do everything

While giving the exam, strategy was to look for questions which are from areas
of strength and not to waste time in questions from other topics

Core competencyis a harmonized combination of multiple resources and skills

that distinguish a firm in the marketplace

Core competencies fulfil three criteria - Provides potential access to a wide

variety of markets; Should make a significant contribution to the perceived
customer benefits of the end product; Difficult to imitate by competitors

SPORTS: INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

IPL modernised the game of cricket; it re-packaged the game of cricket into something with
non-stop action and reduced the time investment; increased appeal to women; IPL learned it
from EPL, where the fast moving game of soccer has an instinctive appeal

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY - IPL created an altogether new industry called CRICKETAINMENT.
Created uncontested market space T20 cricket is a innovation of the game which caters to
not just cricket lovers

Created a new demand which was watching cricket with the whole family; made competition,
ODI cricket and Test cricket, irrelevant

Looked across the functional and emotional appeal to consumers by creating city based
teams; provided cheerleaders and movie stars to give aesthetic content to the game

VALUE INNOVATION - Provided great utility by increasing pace of the game and creating more
excitement in shorter version; Combined entertainment with cricket

4 ACTION FRAMEWORK - REDUCE: Time Spend reduced from 8hrs to 4 hrs; Reduced
uncertainty of result

ELIMINATE: It eliminated conventional wisdom about cricket

RAISE: It raised the pace and excitement of the game; increased the level of skill of the
players especially in fielding; raised the involvement of the family

CREATE: It created a new industry called cricketainment industry

POLITICS: ARVIND KEJRIWAL

Had a single agenda of ending corruption which brought him to power in Delhi.
This has been a unique strategy not followed by any other party in Indian
politics.

Freedom from a political legacy has been his biggest asset in claiming and
maintaining such rectitude; his rivals, however they tried, cannot come anywhere
close to his clean image and past

Promised a corruption-free government in Delhi; aimed to disrupt the mutually

beneficial ecology of corrupt people in his party, cabinet and governance
infrastructure

Asked people to become sting-vigilantes; asked people to shoot and tell; needed
to cleanse his party and his government

FOLK STORIES: AKBAR BIRBAL

Akbar disagreed with Birbal that wise men think alike and the claim was put to test;

Birbal invited 100 men to the palace; told them to return the next day with one pail
of milk each and pour it into a well

The next day, one of the men thought about the situation and brought a pail of
water instead of milk

All the men went to the palace and filled up the well with their pails; Akbar and
Birbal found the well to be completely full of water

Since everyone had the same thought, it turned out that no one ended up bringing
milk.

The moral - Great minds think alike even in dishonesty.

Takeaway - The tragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the commons is a situation where each person is tempted to overuse

a shared resource, and when everyone does this the situation is ruined for the entire
group

Identify situations where the smart individual choice could end up in a ruinous
collective outcome

MOVIE: 300
Spartans are people devoted to military training; they are given the citizenship of
Sparta only after they become experts in military combat

King Xerxes who asks them to submit their kingdom to him; on rejection of this
demand, they are attacked by his gigantic army

Leonidas, the king of Sparta gathers three hundred of his best soldiers in the
guise of his personal bodyguards

At Thermopylae, they construct the wall made up of stones and slain Persian
scouts as mortar, angering the Persian Emissary.

Used the Hot Gates and superior fighting skills to their advantage; Leonidas
declines the offer of Xerxes and mocks him for the inferior quality of his fanatical
warriors.

Formed a Phalanx formation; Used their superior military skills and astute
strategy

LEARNINGS FOR THE GROUP

Consider the practicalities, feasibilities and consequences of adopting/ not adopting a
strategy (Sport : IPL)

Strategies could fail if all the stakeholders (management, employees, etc) are not on the
same page (Movie : Mary Kom)

Co-ordination within the team and amongst teams is crucial for successful implementation of
the strategy adopted (Politics : Narendra Modi)

Unique strategies are more likely to succeed than contemporary ones (Politics : Arvind
Kejriwal)

Working around core competencies and developing new competencies is critical

(Personal : CAT Preparation)

Being flexible and responding to threat of competition should be a core part of strategy
(Folk Story : Jackals Strategy)

It is important to take calculated risks while being cautious (Sport : Turnaround of FC

Barcelona)

Innovations are required to stay relevant (Work Experience : Essar Oil Ltd)
Think out of the box (Mythology : Dhronacharyas Death)
Believe in your strengths (Movie : 300)

LEARNINGS FOR THE CLASS

Introduction to different strategies adopted by different parties at different
stages

Comparison of strategies deployed at different time periods and their relevance

in the contemporary world

By sharing personal experiences, like preparation for CAT, the class can compare

the strategy they had adopted and can get a better understanding of pros and
cons of each

Build your own strategy; do not emulate without thorough understanding

Failure of a strategy does not mean the end

LEARNINGS FOR THE FACULTY

Strategy changes with respect to a person, personality, profession and the time
period. Therefore, inputs to students should not be under common assumptions

Importance of strategy can be understood only when one actually is in need to

formulate ones own strategy; hence simulation games can be conducted so that
students develop and appreciate the need for a practical and feasible strategy

Relevance of strategies adopted at different time periods to the contemporary

world, taking into account the latest developments, should be discussed

Implications of the strategy a firm adopts on various functions within the

organization like operations, maintenance, finance, etc should be discussed for a
better understanding to the students

THANK YOU