Annihilating the Tigers: A lesson from Sri Lankan Military to
awaken the economic dragon

Today the success story of the military victory of our valiant forces over the LTTE Tamil terrorists is talked often about in many professional and academic arenas. The enthusiasm does not stop there, many wish for the same success to be replicated in business and economic battle fronts. It is natural that our society is being cynical towards terrorism and found to be celebrating with over enthusiasm the military victory of our heroic forces as we had been imprisoned for three decades in a terror environment.

Let the flame light
A good sign of a healthy society is to learn not only from past failures but also from their great success stories. They say that “success breeds success”. No doubt, defeating terrorism within our mother land is the greatest victory we had achieved as a nation since independence. In the context of the rising threat of global terrorism, the world’s most powerful nations are yet to taste the victory and definitely the Sri Lankan victory would have many lessons for many nations to ponder on. We as a nation have been in a paradigm that always thought “we are not capable”, or “can’t do” mentality for many centuries since colonial times. Many reasons were given to justify our ‘inability’ and ‘non-achievement’. Unfortunately, these reasons seemed to be quite acceptable to many in our nation.
The victory over the LTTE terrorism changed the national consciousness into a more positive framework. In the recent history, we as a nation had never been in a positive mentality and proud as a nation than we are today. In such a context, with the enthusiastic military victory if we think of extending this success to other battle fronts such as a business and economics, it could definitely be considered as a positive scenario. Though it’s too early to say that this positive mentality is a paradigm shift, nevertheless as a nation we are capable of converting this positive national consciousness into a paradigm shift with collective thinking towards the betterment of our nation.
However, simply being enthusiastic of the military victories would not suffice to replicate the success story of battle front into business and economic fronts and it is imperative to ‘dig deeper’ and look into the strategic intent of military strategy and principals that governed the success in order to identify the right key success factors.
In this context, the most admired ancient military strategist Sun Tzu’s (400 B.C) teaching on war strategy would be a stepping stone to analyze the Sri Lankan military victory and its relevance to economic development of the country as a winning strategy. The word strategy is originated from the Greek’s ‘strategia’, meaning “a general” and definitely in its early usage confines to the military arena. Sun Tzu used the word strategy in a wider and deeper meaning as “The Way”. His greatest military book on war, “The Art of War” provides a model for the success of war. This attempt is to provide a basic analogy from the Sri Lankan war victories over the LTTE in a business context for businesses to reflect upon and adopt a practical approach to bring about success.

Detail planning ensures victory
Very few appreciate the fact of how rigorously the military planning was done by the three forces. General Sarath Fonseka, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and Air Chief Marshall Roshan Goonetileke had drawn a comprehensive and detailed plan to wipe out the terrorists completely spending many sleepless nights during the last three years. In fact the media even revealed that amidst fierce battles and in very trying times, General Fonseka was so engrossed in planning that he carried all the documents to his bedside! Whether it was to be a ground attack, airborne or by sea, every single detail had to be carefully considered. There were many setbacks during these trying times in the initial stages of the war with the Anuradhapura airbase attack, the Digampathana attack on the sailors and the setbacks at the FDL at Muhamalai, but despite these incidents these great generals never let circumstances to neither override the grand strategic plan nor stop the planning process for a moment! They always kept the planning process alive.
Sun Tzu emphasised the importance of detailed planning as a cardinal principal of success for war even 2400 years ago. “War is matter of vital importance to the State. It concerns the lives and death of the people; and affects the survival or demise of the state. It must be thoroughly studied with careful and detail planning one can win. How much more certain are defeat if one does not plan at all! From the way planning is done before hand, we can predict the victory or defeat”
One should question how many of our corporates in Sri Lanka plan in such a focused manner and in the spirit of its true sense. Some might say that planning is a useless exercise in these turbulent times. But many misunderstand the importance of the planning phrase prior to the preparation of Annual Budgets despite most of their top executive having flashy MBA’s from various universities. For some the planning exercise has become an Annual event and thereafter it is forgotten. Many top business managers fail to understand that the survival or demise of one’s company is dependent on the quality of Planning. If any corporate looks for success, detail planning is important. Businesses in Sri Lanka should understand that mono perspective budgetary planning would not assure long term sustainability, but only short term profits and further, it is prudent to adopt a multi perspective balanced approach for planning.
As a country it is utmost important to have a comprehensive planning process going beyond the annual fiscal budgetary process. It should cover not only economic aspects but also social, cultural and many areas which are important for a country. Despite many criticisms on the government 10 years plan the “Ran Dora” which is based on the policy document “Mahinda Chinthana”, it is a good indication to remind the importance of planning for success. The much needed act of the hour is to have constructive criticism especially from the business community and professionals’ and intellectuals to correct the areas through these planning processes. As Sun Tzu rightly mentioned, the significance of planning is of utmost importance for the following reason; “To win hundred victories in hundred battles is not the hallmark of skills. The acme of skills is to subdue the enemy without even fighting.” If we are truly focussed on winning the economic battle, we need to be serious on comprehensive planning.

The importance of the Sovereign’s ‘moral influence’
To achieve any objective its important to rally a majority of the people or a country around a common purpose. When this common purpose is a just and reasonable one, its easier to embed it among the masses. Sun Tzu defined this fact as “that which enables the people to be in perfect accord and harmony with ruler for which they are willing to accompany him to life and death without the fear of danger”. The political leadership and especially the policy of political non-intervention in the conduct of war and military planning is clearly a distinction of this government which was a key ingredient in winning the war. Sun Tzu elaborated the importance of non intervention, ‘as the generals are able and not interfered with by the ruler will win’.
Political leadership of the country, especially that of President Mahinda Rajapaksa rallied the masses of the nation behind the “humanitarian operation” to defeat terrorism and save the nation from clutches of brutal terrorism. The President was capable of convincing the majority of the nation that sacrificing some of the economic benefit in the short term is just and fair to defeat the terrorism and achieve longer term prosperity. The facts were embraced by the majority of the country despite their differences in political ideology, ethnicity, religious and many other socio-cultural differences.
In the business world too, the moral influence factor is provided by the board of directors. The Board of Directors should uphold good governance principles and support the management by effective directions and policies which are in harmony with the laws of the country, culture and the sentiments of their employees. If one closely analyzes corporate scandals in the globe as well as recent local scandals, it is no doubt that this cardinal principle of moral influence was violated by the board of directors.
It is important to understand the role of the government is to provide the much needed policy framework, infrastructure and if necessary resource allocation and guidance for the development. There are lots of areas to be improved in the Sri Lankan scenario. The government should take extra efforts to convince the people through proper fiscal management and introduction of ethical and good governance practices. There is no doubt that efficiency of many public institutions needs to be increased and for government processers to be made easier and less cumbersome. The emerging economies such as China and India and their respective governments are performing a significant role in the success of their industries and export initiatives.
To be Continued next week