Strategy and Entrepreneurship

I am back after a week in Kangwando. I participated in the KDI School seminar on how to teach cases--teachers teaching teachers. All an effort by the school to improve continuously the skill in stimulating learning in the classroom.

There was an interview in the WSJ with Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO and Founder of Bharti Airtel, one of India's largest cellular companies and most interesting question was as follows:

WSJ: What was the toughest decision that you had to make?

Mr. Mittal: Four years back, if you go into the history of Bharti Airtel, it was not a question of if, but when this company would collapse. Our stock was at 20 rupees (43 cents) compared with 380 rupees today. The whole market capitalization of the company was three-quarters of a billion dollars versus $16.7 billion today. This company had operations, it had revenues and it had brand. But it was dying because we were faced with unfair regulations. One decision we had to take was whether to stand up and fight with all that we had, or to lie on the ground and let the storm pass. Either you win or die, or conserve your energies for another day and retreat. We retreated. Then we rose, and rose very strongly, and came back.

In this case, energy equals capital. Most of the time, I see businesses pounding away, wasting precious resources during difficult times. Retreat and preserve and let others blast away at each other.