Children's Business Review

Success Is Often Rooted In Strategic Thinking And Planning

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Clara couldn’t contain herself, not even for one more minute, as she let out a big“Ahhhaaaaaaooooooouuuhaaaaaw!” 

This startled the two owls who found themselves staring into the open mouth of a bear.  Needless to say, they  were less than amused. Clara giggled. “Sorry I yawned!”

Hours later, Clara and Aris chatted as they made their way towards Clara’s den, “Aris, why do you like playing that game? It takes so long and isn’t very exciting.”

To her credit, Clara had spent the better part of an afternoon watching Aris and his friend Leo play papyrus, a game popular among owls which consists of alternating turns in which each player moves stones around other stones in elliptical patterns and tries to predict the ultimate positioning of each object at defined points in time. 

“My dear Clara, while it may not look exciting, papyrus is really quite invigorating,” Aris answered, somewhat defensively. 

“Really?” Clara asked, obviously not convinced. 

“Would you like me to teach you how to play?” Aris asked.

“Hmmm, I don’t know.” Clara replied with hesitation. “I prefer games with more action, where each move matters then and now, not at some point in the distant future.”

“Clara, if you’ll sit with me for a minute, I’ll tell you a story which will show you how exciting it can be to plan for the long-term.” Aris said confidently.

Clara nodded vigorously, sat down and made herself comfortable for the story to come. 

******

“You’re crazy Chai Son! There’s no way you can pull it off,” declared Dolores, a rather tiny chameleon, to the turtle who was staring impassively at her. 

For several minutes Chai Son didn’t respond to Dolores but gazed rather at the large yacht that was moored in the bay below from where they sat. And then, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, Chai Son turned towards Dolores.

“You’re right,” he said “I can’t pull it off, at least not by myself. But we can pull it off.”

Despite the fact that Dolores returned Chai Son’s smile, Chai Son could tell that his friend was not convinced. 

“We will need help,” Chai Son began by way of explanation. “A flock of flamingos, a dozen or so lemurs, a fosa, a crocodile and a pair of geckos should suffice.”

“It will be a miracle if you can get that group assembled!” Dolores remarked with conviction. “Let alone pull-off what I think you’re thinking of doing.”

“It’s almost midday. I should just have enough time to speak with everyone.” Chai Son mused. “Meet me here tomorrow at the same time and, if our luck holds out and the yacht hasn’t moved on, we’ll be in business.”

Dolores watched as Chai Son set off, rather slowly, as turtles are prone to do, down the beach. “It’s impossible, it really is impossible,” she said to herself. “But if anyone could pull it off…” she mused with a smile.

Too curious to stay away, the next day found Dolores entering the clearing that overlooked the bay, at the time prescribed by Chai Son. Dolores was, to say the least, astounded with the group she found assembled there. 

Chai Son was speaking amicably to a crocodile and a fosa at some distance from the rest of the animals who watched the pair with some anxiety. Eight flamingos huddled together and made small-talk with a dozen or so lemurs who paced anxiously, well aware that lemurs are a fosa’s favourite meal. Almost lost in the crowd were a pair of green geckos, who sat quietly in the surrounding foliage. 

Chai Son smiled at Dolores as she joined the group and then wisely addressed everyone assembled as not to test anyone’s patience, or in many instances, their courage more than he had to. 

“I’ve spoken to you all at length about your roles in our upcoming ‘project’. Fortunately, the yacht hasn’t departed however I’d rather not push our luck and so, unless there are any objections, I propose that we set everything in motion this evening, before sunset.” 

With no sign that anyone wanted to delay the endeavour, Chai Son continued. “You all generally know what is expected of you, the trust I’ve placed in you and that you can expect of each other.” The lemurs and flamingo appeared visibly relieved and, as if on cue, the crocodile and fosa nodded in assent.  

“And so if you’ll gather around me, please, please come closer, there’s nothing to fear today, we can get on with this.” Given Chai Son’s insistence, the rather unusual group he had assembled resisted their natural inclinations and gathered around as he began to scratch in the sand with his toe, eventually producing some rather elaborate drawings which represented his plans for that evening. 

Hours later, the sun began its descent towards the horizon, its sunbeams shifted from colours of golden and crimson to hues of pink and rose and happened to shine warmly on a flock of flamingos, visible in the bay’s waters.  

Within minutes, a group assembled on the yacht’s deck to take-in both the beautiful sunset and the flamingos, who were framed so perfectly by the sunset  and perhaps had never looked finer. 

As Chai Son expected, the chance to get a close-up view of the flamingos quickly proved more than the yacht’s passengers could resist and, in short measure, they boarded the dinghy attached to the yacht and made their way to the beach. 

Once they reached the beach, the group began walking slowly down the shoreline towards the flamingos, taking their time, of course, as not to scare the birds away. Imperceptible to the yacht’s passengers, the flamingos they approached were slowly moving further and further from the yacht, and, by doing so, drew the group further and further away as well. 

Had they turned and looked behind them, the yacht’s passengers would have no doubt have been surprised to see a crocodile swimming towards their yacht with two geckos and one chameleon, Dolores, perched on his back. To be quite honest, a day or two earlier, if you had told Dolores and the geckos that they would soon have a ride through the bay on the back of a crocodile, they would have laughed heartily in disbelief. 

The crocodile swam smoothly up to the yacht’s side and glided to a stop at a staircase that just touched the water. Dolores climbed off her obliging transport and onto the yacht’s stairs. As chameleons are prone to do, Dolores quickly changed colour and was barely distinguishable from the yacht’s floorboards she was soon hurrying across. 

After several minutes passed, Dolores let out a whistle, signalling to the crocodile and geckos that the yacht was indeed empty. Chai Son’s plan continued to unroll like clockwork as the two geckos hopped off the crocodile’s back and made their way up the stairs, across the yacht’s deck and towards the yacht’s control room. 

The closed door posed no problem to the pair as their sticky feet allowed them to climb up the yacht’s wall and enter the room via a barely open window. Once inside, they made their way to a control panel and, as they were two rather clever geckos, within minutes the pair were able to determine the levers and buttons required to set the yacht in motion. 

At the sound of the the yacht’s motor coming to life, a dozen lemurs emerged from the jungle’s canopy and bound across the sand towards the yacht, which, due to gecko’s handiwork, was propelled into the bay’s shallowest waters and had quickly run aground in the sand.   

Clamouring aboard, the lemurs wasted no time scouring the yacht for anything that was not nailed now, particularly from it’s galley, and scurried on and off the boat, depositing their spoils at the jungle’s edge where several other lemurs waited to shuttle what they received into the jungle’s depths. 

You might be wondering what the yacht’s passengers were doing while all of this was occuring. Well, for the longest time, they were lured further and further away from the yacht by the flamingos. When they did finally decide to turn back, they were startled to find a snarling fosa, barring it’s sharp teeth and snapping at them ferociously. 

Being neither brave nor foolish enough to challenge their antagonist, the group cowered together for what felt like forever until everyone’s attention, including the fosa’s, was caught by the sound of a piercing whistle. 

To the surprise of the passengers, upon hearing the whistle, the fosa’s temperament changed immediately and he strolled off as if he had no interest in the passengers. Considering themselves quite lucky at having emerged from their encounter with the fosa unscathed, and still buzzing from their close-up encounter with the flamingos, the yacht’s passengers turned towards where they expected the yacht to be. 

Well, you can certainly imagine their bewilderment upon finding that the yacht was not where they left it but had run aground. And their bewilderment quickly changed to astonishment after they boarded the yacht and found it rather bare, having been stripped of all manner of food, clothing, tools and trinkets.  

Days later, Chai Son and Dolores greedily muched away at a box of high-end crackers, one of the spoils from their heist. “I still think you’re crazy Chai Son! But I have to admit, you did manage to pull off the impossible,” Dolores declared to the content turtle sitting across from her. 

“I’m not only surprised that you came up with the plan,” Dolores continued, “but I simply can’t imagine how you convinced everyone to help you.”

Chai Son smiled, and despite his usual reticence, spoke candidly with Dolores.

“The lemurs were the hardest and most crucial component in the plan,” he admitted. “Once I had them on-board,” he said with a smile. “everything else just fell into place.”

“To what end?” Dolores questioned.

“I needed a lot of lemurs to get the goods off the yacht quickly, transport them to the jungle’s edge and then to my hiding spot,” he explained. “And I still need lemurs to help open some of the more finicky tins and packages.”

“How did you convince them to help?” Dolores asked.

“That actually wasn’t hard,: Chai Son admitted, “they were more than happy to help in exchange for much of what was taken from the boat. They particularly like the odds-and-ends and trinkets that, to be honest, no one else would really want.” 

“And how did you persuade the others to help?” continued Dolores.

Chai Son sighed and listed off the conditions under which he had obtained everyone’s assistance. “The alligator and fosa were happy to help as long as they received most of the fish and meat that we took from the yacht’s galley. The flamingos helped in exchange for the alligator’s promise to stay away from their nesting ground for two months, which he reluctantly promised to do. The geckos were the easiest as all they asked for were boxes, tins, packages and bags to use asshelter.”

“And after all is said-and-done, you’ve still got a handsome supply of things for yourself,” Dolores remarked with a congratulatory tone. 

“For us,” Chai Son responded. “Although I may need some of this as an advance payment for my next plan…” He said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. 

******

“Next weekend, do you mind if I don’t watch you and Leo play papyrus?” Clara asked Aris. 

Somewhat surprised by this question, Aris responded cordially. “Of course not Clara.” 

“Don’t you want to know why I don’t want to watch you play?” Clara inquired with a sly smile on her face.

“Tell me,” Aris responded, smiling back at her.

“Because next weekend, you’re going to teach me how to play papyrus!” Clara declared.

“It’s a date!” Aris affirmed.