Strategic resource view - Personal viewpoint

Many people have asked me in a titbit how somebody can handle a very bad situation. I have always answered “attack from another flank”. This is a favorite strategy for me all my life, even while driving in Kolkata, I deftly use the underused left flank of the bypass to overtake most of the cars.

But the strategy is deeper than it looks. Attacking from “another” flank is not easy, the first factor is the deeply ingrained beliefs and paradigms about oneself. If someone thinks he is only suitable for any job that someone will “give him” and then he will do it “somehow”, that he is not suitable for any bigger thing, then “attack” become a joke. The paradigm has to be changed first, which takes a lot of mental strength to begin with, and then takes some self-respect, self-worth and confidence, things that the average bengali parents fail to inculcate in their children – evident from the protectionist and patronizing attitude shown from the beginning. These children are also “taught” that the ultimate goal is to “get a job”, totally unlike the Marwari or Gujarati (and not all of them are rich, I must say) people who know from quite early ages that they will do their own business some day, even when many of them do well in the studies and become CAs or other professionals, these are stepping stones for them, a part of their strategy.

In my office and in many other places I have seen people working as office assistants and in other roles at a salary of 2/3 thousand rupees a month. I have watched some of them closely to find out that it is not the lack of intelligence, it is the lack of confidence, the mental strength to fight any piece of shit that is dished out to him. This is the reason why penniless Biharis and some oriyas come to Kolkata and open a paan shop somewhere and often earn many times of that amount. Initially there are some local Dada or police trouble which has to be handled by courage and some money, which is probably the only pre-requisite. These people will always ask “but where do I get the money?” as if money is the only constraint. Alas, they do not know how much those people selling water (& nimbu-water) in the esplanade area earn. In 1983, I and a close friend (has his own CA firm now) chatted with one for quite some time and later calculated that he earns (as per his estimates which we thought was conservative) a net of 3000 in season and about 1800 in off-season.

Bengali people are basically greedy and mostly look for easy money, something that will come from lottery or bribe or by middleman commission etc. and will not entail hard work. They love money but do not know how to give it the respect it deserves. So, any small businessman is “lower-class” in social terms but when he becomes rich, he becomes “established”, he is higher-class. I am obviously not talking about the minuscule upper class educated class who are well-to-do and learn to think big from the childhood itself.

Strategic management says that you have to consider the resource view, which is not necessarily money alone. I will take the competitive advantages like contacts, political connections, personal determination and proper planning regarding the location and type of the business etc. for resources too, even if it is a paan shop (some of them have strategic locations and they mint money). In the BD market, I am watching a guy for the last 6/8 years. He initially started selling chicken in a small pushcart. He was threatened and pushed around by the Bazaar authorities, on cue from the established chicken vendors of the market. He changed places often and looked for strategic places just outside the market boundary. Then the market became too competitive, he switched to this and that and settled for fruits and is doing fine since then. He never gave up and his wife is also involved in the shop. He has not got a shop till now, but he is established, I should say. His major competitors were finally tired of going after him and gave up a small market-share as out of their reach, which was enough for this guy.

Strategic resource view is fine, but the interpretation should consider the person-specific competitive advantages. Have courage, it can be your biggest resource.