Afghan debacle for America means nothing as the country thrives only on the concept of forever war that feeds into military industrial complex and in turn to the elites’ sway over USA politics & geoeconomics. But this has several lessons for business strategy. Here I present few of these:
Focus on the goal shifting from micro to macro. Americans did well initially, as they uprooted Al-Qaida and its supporting base Taliban was later expelled from Kabul. Once mission completed USA should have left; instead it opted to stay for mission creep and enlarged the goal to nation building. In terms of capability USA had absolute military advantage but it is not geared to bring out western style democracy to Afghan which for ages had consensual decision making known as Jirga.
For business strategy understanding ends-means-ways is crucial building block. A company cannot change goals in mid-way. Once the focus is set, missions are to be undertaken such that the business is able to tread carefully so the overall goal is achieved 100%. In between there are missions whose objectives is to facilitate the ultimate goal, though.
Linearity of solution is good but using means need to be altered. This is allowed depending on the theatre of operations where different purposes are thrust upon an invading army. Military has its own downside. It can win wars but it cannot win hearts. That is best left with administrators and not with military men whose only mantra is surge & withdrawal. Evidently, troops were inducted to Afghan theatre in surge and withdrawn later in stages. But civil administrators were nowhere to be seen at all. No infra-structure development worthy of its name seen in the last two decades of USA invasion.
In executing business strategy the lesson from the Afghan episode is those who are in charge must have distinct skills in their specialization that have been demonstrated and documented previously. For example in aggressive marketing campaign tactical disposition would be the mainstay of the first line of attack whereas behind the scene top rung marketers would work with strategic dimension that seeks final “ends” of capturing lead market share that could be sustained even after mission is over.
America is bedevilled with superiority complex from 2001 onwards. They controlled the narrative that was acceptable to their domestic audience and numbers were concocted of Taliban casualties even including all those civilian deaths. The numbers game was intended in such way American casualties were downplayed. More than that military’s preoccupation was to present a victorious army yet it simply did not have the capacity to engage with public at large neither the motivation to do so. The Hollywood type of image projection of US army as liberators utterly failed as Afghans across the divide was united in hating Americans as occupiers, bent upon destroying Afghan culture and institutions that are unique to their civilization.
The third and important lesson for business strategy is that it is not numbers but the conditions that matter. No business can rest its laurels saying so much is sold but the quality and condition of the sale. For example when Adidas bought Reebok in 2006 it expected the total sales to swell much in both companies. But this did not happen because “Adidas focused more on sports & lifestyle whereas Reebok was passionate about fitness & training” (Here). Simply Adidas has different preoccupation that went with its image in the public perception and has neither the capacity nor predilection to get into fitness training!
Cheers!
Muthu
Ashraff Rajulu
Business Strategist
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Business Strategist
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