Stragtegic management: band of merrymen

The paper “ Band of Merrymen – Core Competencies of the Company, Basic Objectives, Business Strategy” is a thrilling example of a case study on management. The band was growing in size and had gained enough strength in terms of numbers. Besides, the group was receiving widespread fame across England and had plenty of recruits from all parts of the country. However, the growing size of the band meant that it was now difficult for the group to hide and conceal its identity within the forest. The enormous size of the band had also drained its financial resources besides forcing members to rely on supplies from nearby villages. Travelers were now avoiding the forest altogether in order to prevent their goods from being confiscated.
Robin Hood has the unique opportunity of encouraging people to travel through the forest by not robbing them and instead levy a transit tax. He also has the chance to contain the size of his band and remove any weak members who had become a liability for the group. These measures are necessary since the Sheriff’s power and determination is growing constantly. Besides enjoying mighty political clout, the Sheriff has been probing the group for any weaknesses through a dense network of spies.
CORE Competencies of the Company
The band enjoys the benefit of dedication amongst all members towards the common cause of fighting against the rich and corrupt. Robin Hood has also knit the group into a disciplined unit where each task or responsibility is handled efficiently by an experienced member of the group. The group has also established policies to distribute any proceeds from raids equitably among members and has arrangements in place to store and safeguard the surplus. The group has also devised an efficient spying network that collects information on the movements of the Sheriff and other high-profile individuals in the region.
Company Basic Objectives
The primary objective of the band is to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive administration of the Sheriff. The band also aims at improving the living standards of the lesser privileged people in the region by targeting rich individuals and distributing their loot among the former. The group also works towards establishing alliances with people who have similar grievances against the government and are interested in fighting against this injustice.
Company Basic Business Strategy
The band’s leader, Robin Hood, believes in an inclusive approach in his fight against the Sheriff. His primary strategy is to increase the strength and size of his band to match the might of the Sheriff and his men. All members of the band are also trained rigorously in skills like Archery and their strength and vigil is always put to test. There is also evidence that the group believes in covert tactics as it operates out of the forest and plans all its moves in advance based on gathered intelligence.
Current Strategic Management Issues
As mentioned previously, the group has grown vastly in size and it has become to maintain discipline and respect within the group. There is also a growing sense of uncertainty among members as experienced by Robin Hood, who could not recognize many of his band members. The band’s encampment is now thinly guarded as members have become more relaxed and discipline has become hard to monitor and implement.
Robin Hood has given considerable thought to assassinating the Sheriff to take his revenge but realizes that such a possibility is distantly remote. Moreover, the Sheriff enjoys enormous political and royal support and has friends in the judiciary. These factors render any planned move against the Sheriff even more dangerous, raising the chances of retribution if things were to go wrong.
Actions which should be taken to address these Issues
Firstly, Robin Hood should restrict the size of his band and refrain from including any new members. He should also reduce the size of his current group by retaining the strongest and skilled individuals while assigning the rest to other responsibilities that would not require them to hide in the forest. Such roles can include hiding incognito in the city and gathering intelligence on important issues, garnering public support towards the band’s cause and raising public awareness on the atrocities of the Sheriff.
Lessons from the Case Study
The case study shows that Robin Hood may have realized the problems at hand a little too late. Firstly, he allowed his group to expand without considering the potential impact of such developments. The lack of vigilance in the encampment not only threatened the band’s survivability but also led to severe mismanagement and lack of oversight. The group’s inability to resolve its internal deficiencies also allowed the Sheriff to enhance his power as he developed new strategies to counter the threat from Robin Hood and his band. In fact, the band was in no position to carry out any direct assault on the Sheriff fearing a severe backlash across multiple fronts if things did not go according to plan. In short, the case study explains that constant revisit of the strategy is necessary and must be combined with a thorough analysis of current scenarios in order to tackle resulting problems at the earliest.