Hindu Dharma (Hinduism is not a religion but a walk of life) is rich with lessons that suit to every aspect of human’s life. Those lessons even suit to the modern days and that is one of the reasons that spiritual gurus from India are more successful in the West. All that one needs to do is to draw parallel of those stories with modern days’ strategies!
In Hindu mythology, the 4th avatar (climbing down - reincarnation) of Lord Shri Vishnu is “Narasimha”. Nara means Man and Simha means Lion. Narasimha is the combination of Man and a Lion. Just for explanation, I will tell you the entire story. However, the intention of this blog is not to share this story of Hindu Mythology but to take some leaves from this story to marketing strategies.
Once upon a time, there lived a demon-king named Hiranyakashyap. He was a tyrant, who won over all the other kings. With almost no rival to challenge, he wanted to rule the entire universe. For that, he wanted to be immortal. He did a severe penance to the God who granted Hiranyakashyap the boon he wanted. Hiranya wanted that there should be no death to him.
Listening this, the God told him, “It is not possible, whoever has taken birth in this world has to die one day or other. So ask something different” Now Hiranya started thinking and came back with an innovative demand. Hiranya demanded, “Okay! I accept that I have to die one day. However, I would like to have certain conditions for that. I should not die in the day or in the night. I should not die inside a shelter or outside. No weapon should kill me. I should not die on the floor or on the bed. I should not be killed by a man or an animal”
These conditions made him almost invincible. This boosted the confidence levels of the demon-king and he started conquering king after king. However, the people were not happy of this king as he mis-ruled than he ruled. Slowly, these successes went to the head of the king and he declared himself as the God and ordered everyone to worship him as God.
Meanwhile, the king had a baby-boy named Prahlada. Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. He disobeyed his father, the demon-king and worshipped Lord Vishnu only. The demon king made attempts after attempts to get rid of Prahlada but all went vain. Prahlada claimed that he was saved Lord Vishnu every time.
One fine evening, (neither day nor night) Hiranya wanted to see the God and asked his son where the God is? The lad replied, “He is everywhere.” “Where can I find him, here, or here…” asking so he stumbled upon a pillar and hit-broke the pillar. To everyone’s surprise a creature came out of that pillar. The creature had the face and limbs of the lion and a body of a human. The creature pounced on Hiranya roaring and caught hold of him with its jaws. It simply pulled him to the main door and sat on the door itself (neither inside nor outside). It laid Hiranya on its lap (neither on the floor nor on the bed) and with its claws (no weapon used) it tore open the stomach.
That ended the story of Hiranya and the creature is named as Narasimha – Nara meaning Man and Simha meaning lion.
What this has to the strategies of marketing?
Hiranya with his innovative thinking in the form of boons made himself the Competitive Advantage. If one sees the ingredients of Competitive advantage, it is the combination of resources, capabilities and distinctive competencies that would give Cost leadership or Differential leadership resulting in value chain.
Let us not grope the cost part and the same is subjective. Hiranya had the resources, being a great warrior, he had the capabilities, and his fire to be the God of the world gave him the distinctive competency that was supported by the boon he had. All these combination gave him the differential leadership over other kings.
To challenge Competitive Advantage, one has to reconfigure, redefine and spend all. As we have left out cost part, let us not discuss the Spend-all part here.
Reconfigure: This allows challenger to compete differently in the same scope of activities. Either the value activities are performed differently or reconfigure the whole value chain. Here by reconfiguring the structure of the body (a combination of lion and man), the God stunned Hiranya.
Redefinition: Broadening or narrowing the scope of competition is required here. While broadening the scope may give you synergies and heightened ability to deliver products, narrowing the scope can allow tailoring of value chain that delivers greater value at lower lead time.
By suddenly appearing before Hiranya, He not only stunned the demon-king, but also gave him no time to react. The innovativeness in reconfiguring the body, appearing from nowhere, shortest lead time all lead to the fall of Competitive advantage.
I have tried my level best to equate this story to this subject. Your feedback is appreciated.
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