Management Lessons from History - 1

History as subject most of us do not like to read in school or at least do nto like to appear for the tests on history. Some of my recent readings on history gave me certain insights on the Management Lessons that can be drawn from the pages of History. I am not the only one to have this insight. I thought to share my thoughts as well.

Babur's Invasion into Hindustan

Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur,( 1483 — 1531) was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother. Babur in his journey of conquering nations starting from Faragana (Present day Uzbegistan) had largely battled in the terrain that supported his style of battled. He was more used close combat in hilly region. His success factors were tactical use of terrain and surprise factor in attacks.
When he had to succeed in war against Ibrahim Lodi, his difficulty was the open terrain in battlefield of Panipat. He knew his strength and created environment in the Battlefield by digging ditches and creating obstacles by felling large trees. This enabled him to restrict Ibrahim Lodi's size, as large number of forces cannot be deployed in the constricted space. The trees and ditches enabled Babur's force to deploy element of surprises.

Knowing one's strength and deploying that under any circumstances makes a winner. Even in adverse situation if one creates environment that would be conducive to the known strength, one can succeed. To me success stories of Cavin Kare and Nirma are example of this. Both knew that they cannot take on the giant in the industry. They knew that they are small and they also knew that there strength is in meeting need for Bottom of Pyramid market. They went on to play to their strength. Cavin Kare today has range of products that are sold in sachet form. Nirma has range of products that cater to "bottom of pyramid" market.