ALTERNATIVE MARKETING LESSONS
When DONE is DONE! IS IT EVER?
Krav Maga learning interpretation 8
WHEN DONE IS DONE!
This is the eighth in the series of alternative learning from Krav Maga.
A loud noise ruptured the silence of the night. Footsteps. It sounded like haphazard running, disjointed.
It was a policeman trying to escape. There was blood in front of the uniform and the back. Somebody shot this cop multiple times.
The cop fell down as another pair of feet came into sight — one more shot in point-blank range. The cop’s whole life flashed in front. And then the eyes closed. Darkness.
**
All eyes were on her as she took charge as the new Assistant Commissioner of Chennai. Roopa was ambitious, opinionated, and arrow-straight in her dealings. She always wanted to be a cop and had sculpted her career, move by move. There was complete clarity in what she wanted to do now and later.
Our great Indian society, male-dominated for ages, tried to put several impediments her way. What else is there for some people to do than subdue others, especially when others are more capable? Roopa anticipated all these moves. She jumped across all these hurdles like a seasoned athlete. A star performer all through, none of the mud her jealous competitors tried to throw at her stuck. With excellent performance come great enemies! Roopa did not have a shortage of that.
Her one critical task, she had asked for it, was to rid the city of the drug menace. It was a snake pit where she needed to watch her every move and all the next moves.
She invested time in studying the underbelly of the city. Roopa built a small core team around her, a group that trusted her. A team that she could rely on. Integrity, honesty, and entrepreneurial; these were the core tenets she espoused and picked her team for.
Drugs. They were everywhere in the city. Street corners, fake tea shops, on the beaches and in the parks. Some citizens expressed shock that their city had drugs. Most others had apathy. Oh, that would never affect my kids or family. Drugs, though, were killing relationships, families, and lives.
A city with over 10 million in population. A task force of ten to curb this menace. What a challenge this was for Roopa!
Within her first week in office, she received packages bearing gifts, money. One particular packet had red meat, dripping blood. Someone was binging on B-grade Hollywood mafia movies and using the cliche to send a message!
The cat and mouse game had begun.
Roopa called for a team meeting and sought ideas from her small team. They did not have the wherewithal to go behind all the drug dealers and peddlers in the city. What could they do?
One of her colleagues mentioned about the area he lived in. He spoke about his constant worry about his kids falling prey. That provided the spark Roopa’s team required. They decided to clean the city, one area at a time.
She requested funds from her superior and also went directly to the residents. With their support, in kind and money, the whole area was well lit. Closed Circuit TV cameras covered the places where people congregated and where drugs were being sold. Cops in uniform patrolled the area night and day. Even a brazen peddler would not attempt to trade in such a visible scenario.
Addicts will be addicts. Peddlers will be peddlers. The peddlers had a target to meet! It was a full-fledged dark business running. A chain of command that coaxed cajoled, and treated everyone around to increase the sales. Their goal was to convert more people to addicts! How much longer could they be quiet? They slowly started using other methods to pass drugs and get the payment- hidden in biriyani boxes, water bottles, pieces of clothing!
Roopa’s team monitored the movements and, in one motion, swooped in and arrested all these peddlers. Her unit moved right into offence from passive observation and prevention, taking all these people into custody. Roopa had planned it well. The addicts went to a de-addiction facility, with the support of the parents. She was going to clean up the area.
When people panic, they do crazy things. When the drug mafia panics, they do what they usually do — which is crazy for the rest of us. They had excess inventory, and the lack of sales was affecting their cashflow! I did say it was a (dark) business. Threats, gunshots, random kidnappings, all of which played out. Roopa had anticipated all these moves. Buoyed by the team’s success in one core area of Chennai, Roopa had received more significant support from the Police department and the government. The key decision-makers were watching! Some were supporting directly; others were covert. Roopa was building her tribe of followers and supporters.
With pressure comes exposure. With one key “inventory” man arrested, all the beans spilled over. Roopa requested additional forces. In a coordinated attack, captured four different supply warehouses in the city. The standard process was to create a big photoshoot with the consignments in the front, deposit it, and move on to the next case. Someway though, some of the drugs flowed back into the city. Roopa poured diesel on top of the captured consignment and burned it all. All of it. In full view of the media.
The forces sealed the city borders, and a dedicated search began. There was no escape for the perpetrators, and the entire drug gang was either arrested or encountered. Such an action was unprecedented in the police-mafia drug war.
There will be repercussions.
A loud noise ruptured the silence of the night. Footsteps. It sounded like haphazard running, disjointed. It was a policeman trying to escape. There was blood in front of the uniform and the back. Somebody shot this cop multiple times. The cop fell down as another pair of feet came into sight — one more shot in point-blank range. The cop’s whole life flashed in front. And then the eyes closed. Darkness.
**
There she stood, tears streaming down her face.
She looked at the framed picture and pointed to the medal.
The headlines in the newspapers read:
Lady cop busts city drug ring!
The Daughter cop completes what Dad started.
A chip off the old block makes our city safer!
The new age Shakti, Assistant Commissioner Roopa, saves the citizens.
**
“Follow The DONE model. Defense Offense Neutralize Escape.”,
Krav Maga Sreeram’s lesson.
When attacked, defend yourself. Attack immediately to neutralize the enemy.
When the enemy is still in shock, use that moment to escape, to run away to a relatively safer location.
Roopa defended an area and swept it clean. She then attacked the peddlers and the suppliers. She neutralized the drug movement by burning all the drugs. She did not allow a single perpetrator to escape.
D. O. N. E
In business, there will always be threats. Some known and direct, others indirect. Some of these indirect threats sneak in. We realize the impact of the risk only after it is too late. For known business threats, though, we need to have steps to defend market share or region.
Then to attack one or two core tenets: To neutralize the moves of the competitor. Capitalize on our strengths, leaving no quarter, no escape.
Should our planned attack fail, as sometimes they will, we need to have a backup plan ready to escape.
And start the DONE process all over again!
This is the eighth in the series of learning from Krav Maga.
Pravin Shekar is an outlier marketer, parallel entrepreneur and a raconteur.
mic @ PravinShekar.com .
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Pravin is the author of seven books: Devil Does Care, Marketing lessons from Mythology, Getting paid to speak, a Virtual Summit Playbook, Climb your way out of hell & a collection of travel pics/romantic poems, and stories from the heart!
http://tiny.cc/PravinShekarBooks
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