Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare

Harshal Parikh (16) & Prashant Meshram (31)

Review

“Where Eagles Dare” is one of the classical war movies where, Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood played the central leads in the movie. Richard and his team are on the mission of infiltrating the most inaccessible fortress in the world to rescue American General (who was aware of the troop movements for the ongoing war). Movie revolves around the rescue mission where Richard and his team are disguised as Nazi officers and enter the prisoner’s zone. Richard created perplexing situation for Germans and made them write the name of all double agents. Movie at each plot unfolds numerous twists and the rescue mission illustrated diverse adventure scenes. Finally, Richard made Colonel Turner to reveal that he was one of the double agents and successfully accomplished his mission.

Management Learnings

1.  Know your Competitors - Richard with his immense experience was fully aware of the movements of his competitors (Germans) and hence was able to develop smarter strategy for the rescue mission. He anticipated competitors in the best possible manner which made him successfully breach the enemy walls.

1. Strategic Planning - Richard divided his whole mission in goals (set of steps) and he formalized those steps, so that they can be implemented without error. He also articulated the anticipated consequences of those steps and accomplished his mission successfully.

1. Plan B - Richard and his team though completed the mission successfully but they were not prepared with any plan B (considering if any of their anticipated consequence was incorrect). Strategy should always be devised considering the worst case scenario as well which was lacking in the Richard’s plan of action.

1. Strategic Thinking – From the moment his team-mate was killed, Richard knew that there were double agents in his team. He envisioned a change in his plan of rescuing American General by acquiring the names of all double agents serving in England for Germany. This change in the vision was due to the intuitions and creativity of Richard which formed the part of his strategic thinking.

1. Left- and Right-Handed Planners – An organization or a team must have both left- and right-handed planners in order to complete the team’s overall planning. In this case too, the team had both handed planners in the form of Richard (right-handed) and Schaffer (left-handed). Although this cannot be attributed to the strategic planning while forming the team, but we can learn that both types of planners are important for a team.

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