Joseph Asare Jnr

(A sequel of the battle of superior strategy)

It was one ordinary dawn in June 1997. I was enjoying the richest prize-fight boxing contest between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield when suddenly in the third round, Holyfield started jumping in pain holding his ear. Has he gone crazy already? I wondered. Was it one of Mike’s iron jabs? Then the cameras exposed his right ear. A piece of it was nowhere to be found. Where was it? Millions of us around the globe wondered. 

Tyson was behind on points and he had unsuccessfully complained to the referee about Holyfield’s use of his head. Getting no respite from the referee, he ejected his gumshield, drew Holyfield into a clinch, and bit a piece out of the top of his right ear. As he spat it to the canvas, Holyfield danced away to his corner in a frenzy of pain. The referee had been unsighted when the bite occurred, but he could not miss the tooth marks, or the blood that poured down Holyfield’s neck. Nonetheless, he ordered the two men to fight on. A few seconds later Tyson was gnawing at Holyfield’s other ear. The new wound was less spectacular, but that meant the contest was over. Sylvester Stallone, who was watching from the ringside is noted for one of the famous commentary of that night: “Boxers should eat before they fight.”

Mike Tyson in his days was a devastating, almost peerless unbeatable beast. He was sharp, fast, powerful and difficult to hit. He was a boxing giant in his days. Mike Tyson’s biggest weapon was fear. He had an aura of fear around him and fighters capitulated to their fate whenever they went into the ring with him. But any time a fighter was willing to stand and fight Tyson, he lost his fear factor and he became a man. And Holyfield had no fear of this giant. 

David had no fear of Goliath. Giants are often not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength or fear factor are often the sources of great weakness. David, at one good look at Goliath could see through his disguise. He didn’t see a howling intimidating giant; he saw a proposal with huge unbelievable flaws.

Lesson #11: Next time a giant problem come at you, look closely past their size. You will spot your breakthrough. Whilst Israel was awed at his size, David was amazed at his flaws.

Ironically, the Philistines didn’t send their best warrior. They sent a man with huge flaws. They sent a blind and unintelligent warrior. Goliath couldn’t see David well enough until he was up close. And when he eventually saw David and examined him, he cried, “am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” But that wasn’t exactly what David was holding. The Bible says that when David went to fight Goliath, he took up his shepherd’s staff, shepherd pouch with five smooth stones and his sling. Goliath could not clearly see the actual weapons David was coming at him with. Slingers (Projectile soldiers) always defeat foot (Infantry) Soldiers hands down. And a Slinger was coming up at him and instead of being terrified, he felt insulted.

Secondly, haven’t you always wondered why Goliath, an infantry warrior enters the battle field with an attendant bearing his shield? Soldiers going for a sword-to-sword contest hold their own shield to fight. Medical experts believe that Goliath had a medical condition called acromegaly – a disease caused by a tumor of the pituitary gland which causes an overproduction of growth hormone. This explains Goliath’s extraordinary size but acromegaly also had vision problems as a common side effect. So there lies the reason for the attendant carrying his shield. He was a decoy – primarily his vision aid.

God’s role #3: This must have also been the doing of the Lord who won the battle for Israel before it began. Initially, the contest was expected to be a battle of armies. But because of the valley, the armies remained at the ridges facing each other and none of the two dared to descend the ridge into the valley and climb up the opponent’s ridge to attack. That would be suicidal. And so the Philistines changed the contest to a hand-to-hand combat and somehow, by divine intervention, chose their worst warrior, whom we are told was their champion, to represent them. Ultimately God had orchestrated victory for Israel long before this battle was conceived. The choice of Goliath was fitting into God’s sovereign plan.

Lesson #12: When organizations become too big, their vision can dim. They can become too complex, a bit too full of themselves, rigid, complacent and too sure of their internal processes. They begin to play god and become dismissive of smaller competitors and the changing trends around them. They become less adaptive and inflexible. And so when threats come up, they are sometimes too late to react decisively until competition has closed in on them. Just like in this duel, David had substituted physical might with speed and surprise and Goliath only saw it when the stone cracked his skull and sank into his forehead. 

We know of the sad story of Kodak. Kodak was founded in the late 1880s and became a giant in the photography industry in the 1970s. They were so big and so successful they practically pushed their competitors off the market. In the late 1970s, Kodak had an 85% market share in cameras and 90% market share in film. The American icon had the talent, the money, and even the foresight to make any transition. They invested in digital cameras and technology but they were too late and ill-prepared when smartphones took the market by storm. Like Goliath, Kodak was so blinded by its success that it completely missed the rise of smartphones and failed to realize that online photo sharing was the new business. They became victim of the aftershocks of a disruptive change and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. In this age of digital transformation, it pays for every business to consistently ask themselves perhaps 3 basic questions: What business are we in today? What new opportunities does digitisation or any other market disruptions open up for us? What capabilities do we need to quickly respond to these disruptions when they occur?

Holyfield was one of the best close range fighters of all time. He forced Tyson to fight his fight. Tyson liked to run across the ring and throw blockbuster punches. That style overwhelmed 99% of his opponents. Holyfield was brave enough and skilful enough to take the fight to where Tyson was least comfortable. Close range. Tyson was not a close range fighter. He did not know what to do once he was that close. Hence his complaints of headbutting and ultimately his biting. Holyfield knew of Tyson’s achilles heel, and he came into the ring with his weapons to clinch and stay chest close to keep Tyson from launching combinations from medium distance. With that kind of weapon, Tyson could neither ward off Holyfield’s punches, nor land anything telling of his own.

David had come into the valley with his own tactical weapon to checkmate Goliath. Goliath was looking for a hand-to-hand combat. That was his strength and David wasn’t going to give him that. He was going to sling at him. Goliath wasn’t going to get the chance to be up close with him. Slings can go the speed of a bullet. A heavy sling stone could reach speeds of up to 160 km/h in the right hands. German researcher Jörg Sprave has analysed the kinetic energy of a sling and a stone and compared their stopping force to the modern .44 Magnum revolver. David was an expert slinger and with a giant who was so armoured he could barely move, his forehead was an easy target. In that valley, at that point, against an immobile opponent, the sling and stones were by far superior weaponry than the spear, the sword and the javelin.

Lesson #13: Your opponent can be flawed in their assessment of your strength and capabilities. Their vision of you can be impaired. Do not overestimate your opponent so much that you underestimate your strength. When you get the appraisal of your challenge right, and properly appraise your strength and map your strategy to your capabilities, the contest is usually over as quickly as it began. David dispatched Goliath quickly, perhaps in minutes and earned himself a place in the people’s heart. Holyfield will always remember the night he fought Tyson for eight minutes, made $35m and only lost a piece of his ear.

Goliath was a giant, over nine feet tall. To protect himself against blows to the body, he wore a bronze helmet and the rest of his body was covered with bronze plates weighing 125 pounds. He carried a javelin, a spear and a sword, all optimized for close combat. According to the bible, the blade of his spear weighed 15 pounds. He came very well prepared for a single duel with devastating weapons in much the same way as Tyson got into the ring expecting to move around and throw his devastating punches. Both giants had it wrongly figured out and they turned out to be rather ill-prepared. Goliath’s competitor had a more superior and offensive strategy coming into the fight and he was left exposed with no time to retreat and counter. He lacked any form of agility to dodge a flying stone. He was defenceless against an expert slinger.

Lesson #14: You may have such a strong market position, so fearsome, that you approach every threat thinking your “lesser” opponent will compete to your strength. If you fail to seriously consider every threat and strategize for the worse case, you could find yourself clutching at straws sooner than later. Being a giant and a market leader can be hugely disadvantageous against so-called underdogs because you can easily underestimate their potential or misread their threat. They start to gnaw respectfully but devastatingly at your market share. And it will not be long before they eventually checkmate you.

In episode #1, we spoke about Saul’s bold leadership call. The call that pitched the two mighty warriors against each other. Now that we are speaking of flaws, here is one flaw which is a typical leadership flaw. Leaders are many times tempted to genuinely mold talents into their image and in doing so we destroy them, leading to their failure to live up to their potential. Saul out of every good intention gave his fighting gear to David but David rejected it. Saul, we know, was taller and stood head and shoulders above everyone in Israel. So why did he try to dress David up in his fighting gear? Saul was asking David to step into his shoes. And he would have failed against Goliath if he had.

Lesson #15: Never try to step into your leader’s shoes if they don’t fit. Often leaders and organizations bet on talents yet try to box them within the status quo or norms. That suffocates talents and eventually they fail. David needed speed and manoeuvrability to succeed against a slow-moving Goliath. Saul thought David also had to be heavily armoured to stand a chance against Goliath. David boldly but politely rejected to be molded to be accepted. During the grooming process, Leaders out of good intentions can easily forget what unique qualities or skills of you attracted you to them and may try to fix you into their acceptable mold. That will at best, only make you like them not better. 

I am a firm believer together with others that Holyfield would always beat Mike Tyson any day. He knew of Tyson’s achilles heel – he had no fear of him. Evander Holyfield never knew fear in his entire fighting life. He will always fight Tyson at close range given the chance. He did it in the first fight and did it again in the rematch. When you take away fear of your challenges, look past the intimidation to spot the flaws and you trust in God, you will always come through on the other side. 

So the question still begs: who killed Goliath? Some say “David” I say not without God and Saul. Others say “God” I say yes! And he used a prepared David and an available Saul.

The End