This
website is based on a book that uses the movie, Monty Python
and the Holy Grail, as an analogy for the life in a modern corporation
- an illusive objective, bloated egos, a dysfunctional leadership
team, and idiocy all around. APR 14
Sir Galahad, the pure, and the Castle Anthrax
Sometimes good opportunities are not in the strategic objectives
After the knights separate to pursue the grail, they each have their own little adventure. The first up is Sir Galahad who traveling on a dark and stormy knight, sees the shape of a grail flashing over a castle like a beacon. Rushing towards the castle, Galahad falls and injures himself. He bangs on the door of the gloomy castle which is opened by a beautiful, young woman named Zoot. In fact, the Castle Anthrax (not a very good name, now, is it?) is solely inhabited by beautiful women between the ages of 16 and 19 and a half with nothing to do but undress, bathe, cavort, and dress. All these women want to do is to tend to Galahad’s wounds, give him a nice comfy bed, and bathe him, but Sir Galahad, the Chaste, fights off the temptation of these evil temptresses and insists on being shown the grail.
As two “doctors” try to examine ( or probe is more like it) his wounds (or really his naughty bits), Galahad breaks away and discovers more half-naked women in the castle who want to tend to his needs. Here he finds that the grail is fake beacon and the girls persuade him that a good spanking would punish the offender, Zoot, and that really they all could use a good spanking. As Galahad starts to succumb to the opportunities these girls have to offer, Launcelot breaks in to rescue him. But Galahad wants to stay and face the peril! Launcelot drags him away from the foul, evil temptresses with Galahad accusing him of being gay.
Poor Galahad the Chaste, the Castle Anthrax is proving a challenge to his very identity as the pure and noble knight. It didn’t take that much convincing for him to abandon this whole celibacy business and recognize that a short romp at the castle is a good opportunity even if it doesn’t lead to the grail. Drat that Launcelot! He ruined the occasion by insisting they continue their quest. Galahad’s not alone in that respect. Many an employee who found a great business opportunity has been thwarted because that opportunity wasn’t part of the corporate strategy.
Conventional business wisdom states that if it’s not in the strategic plan, don’t do it. Business success depends on executing the strategy –that’s the mantra of management literature. However, I posit that sometimes great opportunities aren’t in the plan, and, all too often, the strategic plan can inhibit the growth of a company. Oh, I hear some of you saying, “The strategy is supposed to be a living document, not a hard and fast rule.” To you I say, “Where have you worked that the fundamentals of the strategy were revisited and updated on a regular basis?” In my career, I’ve seen two companies ruin themselves by getting stuck in a strategy. I won't mention them here (you can buy the book to read about them), but having no strategy is better than having a bad one.
It's not just having a bad strategy, though. I have learned that pursuing a strategy, any strategy, even a good one, has a downside, that of lost opportunities. Opportunity costs are rarely factored into the quest to become a strategically-aligned company. Four times now, I’ve been part of company that embarked on developing and achieving a strategic vision. In the pursuit of the strategic vision, we neglected other opportunities, sold off businesses, laid-off employees, and generally had a miserable time. None of those companies succeeded in achieving their goals. They were either acquired, went bankrupt, or abandoned their vision in order to survive. Poor Galahad has a great opportunity at the Castle Anthrax that won’t help him in his quest. Not only does he lose out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you probably also realize that he will never find the Holy Grail, like so many corporations on their quests for their Holy Grails.
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