Did Laloo Yadav Learn Judo Strategy?
Part - I
At the outset, let me ensure all of you that I am neither a supporter of Laloo Yadav nor is
this article meant to offend him or any of his supporters. It is my perspective of looking
at his actions and meteoric rise and draw inferences from the point of view of strategy.
The idea of seeing Laloo Yadav as a strategist struck me in one of my strategy classes,
thanks to our strategy teacher Mr. Nitin Balwani who has taught us to relate each and
every aspect of strategy beyond corporate arena. The more I thought about it, the more
fascinating it became.
What is Judo Strategy?
In the simplest of words, it is an approach to competition that emphasizes skill, rather
than size or strength. Based, entirely on the rules of \"Judo\", the underlying motive
remains the same, how to beat a competitor who has everything from size to history with
him. If I am a new entrant against a behemoth incumbent I can't even think of clashing
head on, do I have a reason to actually fight at all. Most of the rational souls, especially
the orthodox economists would disagree, but Laloo Yadav decided otherwise. Was he
not rational? Who cares, at the end of the day he has been successful. Let us see how he
has applied the main techniques of Judo Strategy in his political career so far.
The Puppy dog Ploy
Have you ever been to a Baraat where the food is not served indoor? If yes, then you
must have observed a group of dogs in one corner relishing the left over food. You will
mostly see the big bully dogs that compromise with one another for the common good.
The middle-sized dogs are mostly shown the way by the biggies. But, there is a third
party to the feast. They are the small puppies who are too small to gather any attention
and moreover, they never hog the central area. Very silently, they eat a small portion of
the food without even bothering the biggies. This is exactly what Judo Strategy's first
technique suggests, \"keep a low profile and avoid head to head battles that you are too
weak to win\". Nirma did this initially and Ghadi is trying to do it even today. Does Laloo
Yadav follow this? Of course not today. But, he is no more a \"puppy\" now. From the
days of JP movement to his university elections (he was also the president of Patna
university Students Union) to the day he became the chief minister of Bihar, he was
always a low profile leader. Though he had become a member of the Legislative
Assembly in 1977, he was never called the future CM by any visionary as Mr. Vajpayee
was called the future PM by none other than Pt. Nehru himself way back in 1960s. Being
powerful does not come without costs. The stronger you grow, the more opponents you
will have. When Mr. Devegoda became the prime Minister, his name was fourth even in
the party least for the coveted post. Sometimes, being low profile and weak does the
trick, as was the case with Mr. Devegoda.
Part - II

Define the competitive space
While the puppy dog ploy is largely about defense, with this next technique, offence
comes into play. Here is where one seizes the initiative by defining a competitive space
where one can take the lead. Jonty Rhodes could play Hockey equally well (has even
represented South Africa), Vivian Richards was adept even at Soccer and Kishor
Kumar became a legend only when he set his priority as a singer over the actor. The
point I am trying to make is that one has to define one's competitive space to be
successful in the long run. Huh... Old wine in new bottle! Socrates said, \"Know thyself\"
and C.K. Prahlad has given us the logic of \"Core competence\", all of it leads to the
same point. Every champion has areas where he is weak, often precisely because he has
invested so heavily in his core strengths. Judo strategy teaches one to take advantage of
these weak points to define a game one can win. The Southwestern Airlines is a classic
case in this context. So, what has Laloo Yadav done regarding this? Well, if see the
marketing strategy of BJP, we will find that redefined the segmentation of the market,
basing it essentially on religion. Now, a good Judo student will never fall into this trap.
He will try to see if there is a gap in the market. If not, he will see can he redefine the
rules of the game? And Laloo Yadav, of course is a good student. He restricted his
competitive space to Bihar and redefined the market on the basis of caste. Further, he
came out with \"MY\" equation meaning Muslim-Yadav. Without much effort he could
give his product a beautiful secular packaging as well. Strangely, we do not have a
parallel word to secular, for inter caste harmony and brotherhood. Did Laloo smell it
beforehand?
Follow through Fast
Catch your competitor unprepared and before he wakes up, ensure you have the upper
hand. One needs to use the opening to strengthen one's position through continuous
attack. One day soon, and these days that is sooner than ever, one's competitors will see
through the puppy dog ploy, shall try to rise to the challenges of the new competitive
space and seek to bring the advantages of superior size and strength into play. By
following through fast, one can postpone this day of reckoning and make the most of
this early lead. Laloo Yadav became the Chief Minister of Bihar in March 1990. How
much unknown he might be, once he became the CM of the second largest state, he
could not be ignored. It was time now to channelise all his resources and gear up for the
real war. Who can forget that within months, he got Mr. L. K. Advani arrested in
Samastipur amidst his Rath-Yatra. Please remember that Mr. Advani was not a very big
leader at that time. So, Laloo only strengthened his position by this act in his own
market. The formation of his brigade had also started. He was the man who brought
Sharad Yadav to the political forefront getting him elected from Madhepura in 1991.
Part - III
In 1992, amidst much fanfare, he came out with a new movement called Charwaha
Vidyalaya (school for impart education to children of poor and downtrodden in a
semiformal setting and at hours that were flexible). Laloo thundered \"Padhna likhna
seekho O gai charanewalo, O bhains charanewalo, O bakri charanewalo, O bojha
dhonewalo.\" And such was the appeal that it was soon adapted as the prayer in schools.
So, what that he became a ready made source of Political entertainment for Media and
the so called intellectuals laughed him off, Laloo himself never let his objective and

identity get out of his mind. And he followed up fast, real fast like a shrewd strategist.
Within no time, he was controlling the symbiotic nexus of corrupt politicians,
repressive police, idle bureaucracy, organised criminals, cruel landlords and greedy
contractors of Bihar.
Grip your Opponent
Now the big question arises, for how long can one really avoid competition? There
comes a time when one will be noticed and a fight will be inevitable. This is where the
importance of Balance comes in Judo. Rather than oppose strength-to-strength, judo
practitioners learn to conserve their resources and maintain their balance by first giving
way. David Yoffie and Mary Kwak suggest, \"One of the best ways to grip your
opponent is to give your potential competitors a stake in your success through
partnership.\" Several Japanese consumer electronics company took this route in 1960s
and 1970s gripping their larger US competitors by producing low end products that
were sold under their rivals' brand. Honda does this by selling engines even to their
competitors. And Laloo Yadav does this by collaborating and forming alliances. In the
current elections, he knew that BJP and RJD were not fighting for the same share of
votes. The two major parties which could eat up his share were Congress and Lok
Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas Paswan). Congress still had some loyalist Muslim voters
while LJP was giving sleepless nights to Laloo over lower caste votes. So, what would
have a judo strategist done? Give them a stake in his success. That is what exactly
Laloo Yadav did. As soon as the elections were over, he sensed the fallen bargaining
power of Ramvilas Paswan and leveraged the situation beautifully to take away the
Railway Ministry.
Practise Ukemi
The first thing that a student of Judo is taught is Ukemi. It is the technique of falling
safely with minimal loss of advantage in order to return more effectively to the fight.
There will be times when the opponent will come out with a new strategy, which will
be too powerful a blow. It is better to give in to their momentum, but maintain balance,
so that one can return with vengeance. Remember the old adage \"To win a war, one has
to lose battles\". In 1986, Ryanair was launched with a single 44-seat turboprop plane,
offering better service and simplified pricing on the London-Dublin route.
Part - IV
But, the plan did not go too far with British Airways and Aer Lingus launching a full-
scale price war slashing their rates by 20 per cent. It was time for them to apply Ukemi.
They stopped the effort to match on service and made price their focus. Even the in-
flight food and pens for head quarterly staff were termed as unnecessary costs. But, the
result was that they were able to fall safely. From being on the verge of bankruptcy,
they returned to profits. Quite similar is the story of Laloo Yadav. In the familiar
manner of Ryanair, on 3rd July 1997, Pro Laloo group in Janata Dal boycotted elections
for party president. Both of them, Ryanair and Laloo Yadav, in this context, have
initiated the war. On the 5th July, Janata Dal sufferd a split with Laloo Yadav,
announcing formation of Rashtriya Janata Dal to counter ``attempts by a section of
senior leaders to grab party and humiliate him.'' Now was the time for retaliation by the
bigger players. On 11th of July, Special Judge of the CBI Designated Court, Mr. S. K.

Lal, rejected his anticipatory bail petition regarding fodder scam. On 16th of July, Bihar
Speaker suspended 45 of ruling RJD legislators for five days for disorderly conduct.
Like Ryanair, even Laloo's dare devil act had boomeranged. On 25th of July, amidst
rising political and legal pressures, he had to resign as Bihar Chief Minister after CBI
designated court issued an arrest warrant against him in fodder scam case. This was the
time when Laloo recollected all his Ukemi skills and used it in an impeccable manner.
\"Fall safely, if you have to\". And here we had the most unexpected and unthinkable,
which only a judo prodigy could think of. On the same day, his wife, Mrs. Rabri Devi,
was sworn in as his successor. She became first woman Chief Minister of the State.
Leverage your opponents' assets
Economics believes in preventing and controlling crisis, Strategy believes in leveraging
it. How weird it may sound, but sometimes a player's biggest asset can turn out to be a
liability. It all depends on the ability of the competitor to leverage it. Indira Gandhi was
an expert in it. And so is Laloo Yadav. Michael Dell says \"Assets collect risks around
them in one form or another\". The skill of the opponents lies in exploiting such assets to
the best of their advantage. The idea is that anything that represents a significant
investment can become a barrier to change and such deadlock situations wait for the
right competitor to exploit them. BJP has invested fairly huge amounts in giving it an
identity of a party for Hindus. Whatever they claim now, from Rath Yatras to stance on
Ayodhya temple, behind everything they had the motive of creating their own
competitive space. (Go back to the second technique). They sensed a gap in the market
and positioned their product accordingly. Of course it gave results. From being a party
with 12 seats in the Lok Sabha, Ayodhya saw them leaping to 88 seats in the next
elections.
Part - V
But, Laloo Yadav showed them how he could turn this pro-Hindu identity into a Frank
stein’s monster for them. Laloo knew that the memory of voters is short. So, BJP could
never sustain a competitive advantage by using this strategic asset. But, the moment
they tried to project themselves as a secular party, they would offend the organizations
like Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. Laloo used this situation to the
fullest leveraging on the assets of BJP. He could expand his market gradually and BJP
could do nothing, being trapped in their own assets.
Did Laloo Yadav actually learn Judo Strategy?
Now we come to the concluding part of the article. Shabana Azmi says, \"So what if
Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan were never taught acting skills, don't dare say,
they never learnt it\". To learn strategy, one does not necessarily have to be Arjun who
was taught under Guru Drona. We all know the story of Eklavya, who was never given
a formal training. Laloo yadav's case is more about making of an Eklavya. There is no
better teacher than life, and probably Laloo Yadav learnt it much before and much
better. Whether he has applied it for the betterment of the society, does not fall in the
gamut of this article. But, if his motive was to survive, and to survive successfully in
the political arena, his life is nothing less than a case study, and he must be thanking the
intricacies of Judo Strategy for this.