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BORA Consulting - Consultancy for Entrepreneurs - Ralf Borlinghaus
contact: ralf.borlinghaus@bora-consulting.com, +41 44 58 66 157

Success is not a children's game. Moreover, it's striving for power, social Darwinism, where the stronger beats the weaker and the faster eats the slower. At least it seams to be. The language of economy is warlike and strategists are the leaders. Initially, strategists are military leaders coming up with action plans to beat the competition. With smart product and marketing strategies they try to conquer the most attractive position on the shelf in the supermarket and try to bring the competing product out of sight.

What's valid on the macro level applies inside the companies as well. To present oneself, to get connected with strategic allies, to defeat competitors, to take ones advantage. Ludo is the game making us familiar with this social rules as from the beginning. - Are there alternatives?

On the field of success there are 4 scenarios.

1. Win-Lose or: Be happy! since you've won. According to Song of Nibelungs Siegfried defeats the dragon in a dramatic duel and its blood makes him invincible. Gunter conquers arrogant Brunhild with Siegfried's help. Siegfried is awarded with Gunter's sister Kriemhild. Siegfried wins - Brundhild loses.

2. Lose-Win, or: Get angry! since you've lost.  Kriemhild reveals the deceit to Brunhild who seeks for revenge. Kriemhild herself marks the location on Siegfried's coat, where Siegfried is still vulnerable. This location is deadly hit by Brunhild's allie, Hagen. Siegfried is dead, Brunhild triumphs.

3. Lose-lose, or: Take comfort! since the others are not better off. Now Kriemhild seeks for revenge. She marries Hun's king Etzel, who invites the brothers Gunther, Gernot and Giselher to his castle to Hungary. There Kriemhild initializes a battle, which brings one after the other to dead. Finally, Kriemhild kills Gunther and Hagen with Siegfried's sword. Kriemhild is killed since she dared as a woman to kill a hero.

4. Win-Win, or: Funny, all are happy! since all feel successful. This position is not available in the Song of Nibelungs. While Win-Lose and Lose-Win are dramatic positions, Lose-Lose provides matters for tragedies. Finally, the Win-Win position is reserved to theatrical genre of comedy. Think to the turbulent comedies, where initially everything is mixed-up and finally all confusion is clarified and the story ends happily for everyone.

 So many heroes of our economy put on their personal dramas and tragedies with a catastrophic end. Is it due to the fact that comedies have the reputation of entertainment for simple minded people? Maybe, it's much more difficult to put on a comedy than a tragedy, to create Win-Win rather than Lose-Lose?

 Your comment is welcome

"We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom."

Steven Vincent Benét, 1898-1943
                                                              

What Comes Up Must Come Down                            

Strategic Self-Manager                                               

Drama, Tragedy Or Comedy?

The Zumwinkel Case

From one day to the other CEO of Deutsche Post World Net, Klaus Zumwinkel brought himself from the Win-lose position into a Lose-Win due to fiscal fraud. He changed his economic hero status with an outlaw banned by media, politicians, colleagues and the unprivileged in one moment. From an aesthetic point of view Zumwinkel's fall is just one act of the big drama of raise and fall. He lost everything and his successor takes over the lead. For the society this case is a tragedy, since there his a heavy lost of trust in social market economy. However, art provides satire as genre helping us coping with tragedies: