University of Balamand

Faculty of business and management

Business Policy
(BUSN 21)

Case study 1: Napoleon Bonaparte: Victim of an Inferior

Strategy
Case study 2: Sportsmake: A crisis of Succession

Instructor: Dr. Sami Tannous

Prepared by: Antoine Saadeh

 Napoleon Bonaparte: Victim of an Inferior Strategy
"My business is to succeed, and I’m good at it. I create my Iliad by my actions, create it day by
day." Napoleon (1804),

After the downfall of King Louis XVI, the revolution promised Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
to all. Napoleon was a leader that that restored civil order balanced the budget and established
the Code Napoleon. Napoleon earned his credibility after winning many wars and the most
significant was the battle of Austerlitz.

In order to attain his goals, Napoleon Bonaparte used strategic management, he as a leader and
top manager set the objective of his army, the marshals and the army implements his strategy. He
used the 4 basic elements of strategic management: environmental scanning, formulation of
strategy, implementation and finally evaluating and control. He studies the internal and external
environment, the societal environment; he used brain storming and delegation.
Napoleon strength was in implementing more dynamic and evolutionary battle strategy,
determining the enemy’s weak spot and directs all available forces to that spot, he could mix and
match the corps as required by the battle conditions, courage and determination, he knew how to
win the war and dictate everything to his marshals and soldiers and he knew what are the needs
of his soldiers.

Napoleon used two fundamentally new tactics: corps units and time as a strategic weapon.
Corps units led to increased mobility and flexible formations, it was controlled via ‘’a
communication backbone marshals’’ because the mission can change according to battle
condition. The role of the marshal was critical as they were the primary link of communication
with napoleon.
By considering time and not only force, the army has more flexibility in the approach of
napoleon strategy to every battle and the strong communication that allowed him to modify his
order effectively. This gain him a huge advantage in the battle field, the army was dispersed on
the eve of the battle to permit alternative movement without changing the formations, time was
very important to him, he used it to gain more preparation over his enemy.
These 2 strategies gave his army the elements of speed, surprise, flexibility and continual
adjustment and they transformed hi army into a single unit capable of executing a strategy
dictated by battle conditions.

Napoleon enticed his soldiers and his officers with the expectation of rewards in return for
bravery and obedience on the battle field. He trained the soldiers in the new corps system. The
generals executed his strategy after it was explained regularly and integrate their feedback and
their knowledge of the terrain and of enemy formulation, and hi gain their loyalty after facing the
Austrian army.
Insuring that the generals were involved in the early stages of campaign planning, and he took
their advices because he knew the advantages of engaging the officers in the strategic planning to
gain their reactions and advice. He trained and coach hi commanders in how he thinks and kept
them aware of their roles and responsibilities as clear as possible he slept with his soldiers and as
la leader he knew the importance taking care of the troops.
All of those led to the victory of winning the battle without even intervening or giving direct
orders, such was the level of understanding of his strategy and the confidence of his generals.
He revealed the plan to the whole of his forces on how to win the battle of Austerlitz which
helped to raise the moral of the army and showed the effectiveness of the corps system and the
capability of his marshal to execute complex tactical maneuvers…he was aware of the men’s
need and motivation and as rewards he distributed gold to his officers and provisions were made
for generous pensions to the widows of the fallen.

Like every nation that rises and arrives to its pinnacle, the moment will come to its end, the same
thing happens with Napoleon when he faces many problems because of lack of communication,
trust and difficulties in understanding and applying the strategy.
The problems began with the resignation of Talleyrand who was one of the few critical voices
that he listens to, and also the departure of the Foreign Minister. He isolate himself from regular
guests…he reduced public functions to a minimum, his closer soldier-friend were not allowed to
refer to him as ‘’you’’ and he did not chat with his soldiers and the process for promoting
generals or assigning titles left few of them demanding explanations.
The army fell in three levels of command, the number was huge that it was difficult for marching
the men in formation which led in delay of many of the corps and reserves, also time distance
and weather were against him, lack of proper food and fatigue were demoralizing the enemy,
napoleon overestimated his soldiers commitment, limit and logistical challenges even almost all
the marshal argued the campaign of Russia saying that invading Russia was madness.
He refuses to trust anyone and they have to get hi approval in the simplest orders, the marshal
became non cooperative and dislike grew among the marshals. All these issues led to his exile on
the island of Elba.
When he returned he promised peace and prosperity, but he founded difficult to select his
marshals because many were dead and other were unwilling to join him..He used the element of
speed and surprise to win the battle of waterloo but from the start the structure of the French
command started to cracks, chaos in communications and delays of the orders and difficulties in
understanding the tactics created further confusion. Napoleon planned everything alone without
transmitting the information to his marshals and neglecting the advices of his marshals,
everything gone wrong.The strategy were brilliant but the marshals couldn’t executed it well
which ended in loosing Waterloo battle.

Napoleon that was excellent in communicating and knowing the importance of that elements fell
in this trap, also gaining the trust of his marshals and clearly understand the strategy and listen to
his generals advises….all these elements that helped him winning the wars couldn’t manage
them to continuously improvement, when the number of soldier became very high, you need
more delegation and more trust and more advises from you managers you should not cut them.

Sportsmake: A crisis of Succession

Sportsmake is a company that made high quality sports equipment at affordable prices; it
outsourced all its manufacturing but keep control over its designs and quality. They acquire a
chain of stores called ‘’Hike and Bike’’, this acquisition led to other acquisitions not all of them
successful. The acquisition of the giant Winter Sportsworld put considerable strain on
Sportsmake’s resources, ethos and methods of doing business.

After the dead of Jim Claymore and the intention of his sun Roy to step up at the end of the year
two candidates remain to take over the CEO position: Toni Petroski, vice president in charge of
marketing and Marcia Davemport, vice president in charge of finance.

Each one has advantages and disadvantages:

Petroski started working in the company from the age of 17; he knew the cultural, the ethos and
their methods, and how they do business. After 5 years of promotion, he doubled the sales from
20 million to 40 million and he was after the idea of entering the snowboarding market by
designing snowboards and Sportsmake’s ‘’Quickboard’’ became one of the divisions more
profitable products and it set new industry standards. He has a talent in spotting new products.
The negative points are that he has not the education that Davemport has and the spirit of
professional manager.

Damemport has the spirit of the proffentional manager, she earned an undergraduate degree in
Economics in Berkley and pursues an MBA studies. She is bright and energetic and her powers
led her to enter the company and became the vice manager in charge of finance. She made the
decision to go public and she was involved in the corporate strategy.
The negative points are she doesn’t have the experience that Petroski has in the company, she is
new in the company compared to Petroski and she don’t have competitive spirit and commitment
to sports.

I think that the company done well by choosing Davemport because the company is growing and
it needs a modern professional management in order to have a continuous improvement, even
with the changes that will be made, her education along with her experience in finance can help
the company in doing good financially. As for Petroski he can continue doing what he is good in
and help Davemport in managing the company.