“Tighten your belts..They are coming” The Gong has been banged.. Sounds like a war is about to begin. Indeed it is.. ‘Loose and you’re out..’ (smirk)

Zoom in. Now.

The Sumo Fighters

An average Sumo fighter weighs around 115+ kg!! They eat more than 10,000 calories/day. Do remember they are not just big, but equally powerful, disciplined, fierce, strong, steady and quiet. These wrestlers slam, slap,choke and toss opponents into submission (THUMP!!).. Yokozuna, the grand champion is equivalent to God; opponents can’t stand him more than 10secs! Do make a note of this: ‘They are masters in breaking the balance of their rivals’ and ‘this from of martial arts is not about playing; it originated from fight to death’. They carry no armaments and hide nothing, except emotions..Will power is the most important factor to win and it comes down to instincts and intimidation. They read eyes and judge whether the opponent is scared.

The Spartan Warriors

“When the boy was born, like old Spartans, he was inspected. If he would have been small or puny or sickly or misshapen, he would have been discarded. From the time he could stand, he was baptized in the fire of combat. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death on battlefield, in service to Sparta, was the greatest glory he could achieve in his life.’ (Extract from movie 300)

“SPARTANS, the finest soldiers the world has ever known, stood and fought Xerexes of Persia in 480 BC. The Persian captains went behind their wretched troops and scourged on them on to fight with the whips! But they were driven on to be slaughtered, pierced with the Greek spears, hurdled into the sea, or trampled into the mud of the morass. 20,000 men died before that handful of men!”

- Charlotte Younge, in ‘The mammoth book of HEROES‘

Play Off
A sumo fighter’s strength lies in it’s size, but that’s also a weakness. They are not agile. Alternatively look at the healthy Spartans who are ready to take over anyone..Yes, Anyone! Not doubting any one’s strengths or courage, but few questions are buzzing in my mind. Is ‘Big’ advantageous? Can ‘Big’ balance their capabilities well? Sumo fighters go to sleep after a big lunch. They can’t even drive but have to be driven.. Now, map the strengths of SUMO figthers and SPARTANS in different context. I’ll use these allegories to explain why big businesses fail and new breeds need a rethinking so that better outcomes can be obtained.
Disruptive Era

Clayton also pointed out similar problems with organisations such as IBM, Sears, Xerox, etc. ‘One theme common to all of the failures- these leaders in question were widely regarded as among the best companies in the world! Remember- there’s no stupidity in the story anywhere. ‘These companies were well-managed, had their competitive advantage, listened well to their customers, invested aggressively in new technologies, and yet still lost their market dominance.’

So I call ‘BIG(s)’ as ‘SUMO FIGHTERS’, whereas, I categorize the newer breed under ‘BRAVE SPARTANS’.. Also I associate BIG to FAT technologies, which have existed since long. Unfortunately, SAP tops the list.

Q. Is ‘Big’ advantageous?

A. May be not, else the best companies would not have failed. The best technologies used by SAP would not be losing its shares. They are heavy, strong and steady players in the market but new market entrants are lighter, quicker, smarter, easier, cheaper and effective. Wow!

Q. Can ‘Big’ balance their capabilities well?

A. Answer again is NO. Sumo(s) need lean management!! They have overgrown, can’t manage their resources well and are looking for safe play. Though aggressive, they settle down with very few ideas in vain. If they want to launch new things in market they require immense amount of effort. SUMO also stands for ‘Shut Up, Move On’ (Paulet al.). In his charismatic work, Paul has specially covered lazy people who need to change their thinking. He specially analyzed the gaps in ‘understanding’ and advised them to ‘create the future than leaving it to chance.’ SAP has a lifetime, but they just keep on coming back with upgrades from R/2 to R/3! Business suite 7 has given some ray of hope, but how good it is, we’ll see it in a while.

Q. How are Spartans better?

A. They are flawless. They are not re-engineered and neither are they looking for escape zones to build capabilities. They are focused and ready to pierce every possibility. They are born to WIN. Let me explain this with an example of DELL. It came out with a new business model, which functioned much like a strategy; difficult to copy and trapped the competitors in their own game- Joan Magretta. Looking at Dell’s G2 strategy, it kept on short-circuiting the value chain! It did not adopt SAP, but took Best of Breed to play the game..

Q. What is still missing?

A. Focus. Business Suite 7 is just a piece of software with better services. But SAP missed out the point of technology adoption in organisation! If SAP had come out with better services, wrapping everything in a good business model, it could have worked wonders and SAP would have managed to stand ahead in the Que. But, they are lazy.

Q. SPARTANS- how will they rise?

A. Copying from above, “If he would have been small or puny or sickly or misshapen, he would have been discarded.” Now here’s an acid test. Needs have to be understood, captured and exploited to take advantage. Don’t force fit; select the best for your business.

VERDICT

SUMO(s)- Gear up..Getting lean won’t take you anywhere. Time for you to go back to basics and start fresh. I don’t like the ‘sexy image‘ portrayed by Subaru. Also I don’t agree to Shaun Conolly’s point, that Judo has better tactics to leverage the benefits. Playing on core competency can give a significant amount of momentum and throw the opponent out of the ring. In fact, David B. Yoffie has adviced in his book ‘JUDO STRATEGY’, winning in Sumo which can get you ready for mission NEXT!

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