Henry V And His Leadership Style

Bows and Arrows of Agincourt

History ahs a special way of reserving over a long period of time the lessons and skills that can be used at the present time. There is need, always to refer back to history mainly for two things, either to reference and copy or to learn and avoid same pitfalls. The battle at Agincourt fought under the guide of Henry V is a classic example that has ben sued by many disciplines in the contemporary society, one of them being the management sphere.

Briefly, the Agincourt battle happened in 25 the of October 1415 and pitted the French army against the English army. The spectacular thing about the battle that has inspired reference over many decades after it happened was that the French by then had the best cavalry and had an outstanding number of army of 30,000 soldiers, yet they were defeated by 7,000 Englishmen. This outnumbering can be equated to a ration of 4 French soldiers to 1 English soldier. It is also astonishing that by the end of the battle and a shameful defeat of the French army, the English had lost only 500 men yet the French lost 10,000 of their men, twenty times more than the English army. This was the one hundred years war that lasted half a century.

However, the history is not the real center of attention but the strategies that Henry V used to outdo a great number of his enemies and the applicability of these strategies in Operational, Supply Chain and Purchasing Management issues in the contemporary business.

The first principle in operations management is ensuring that the operations of the firm are properly organized through utilizing the resources that are required by the customers. This was the first thing that Henry V did. He ensured he would get the best of the courageous soldiers and strategized to utilize them in the most efficient manner in the nettle field by knowing the terrain of the battle field and strategically locating his soldiers at advantage positions against the enormous French army soldiers.

Henry V also did the fundamental thing when it comes to operational management which is spending time in prior planning before committing to any supply tender awarding to a given supplier or even floating the tending process. The French army was huge in term of numbers but they took comfort in the number and never bothered to plan yet the English army woke up very early on the battle day and thoroughly planned on the placement of each soldier and the roles as well as the sequence of the events. This was important since it helped them have an organized approach to the battle and hence outwitting the large number of French army with efficiency and prior planning rather than numbers.

The English army under the command of Henry V also knew well the significance of the theory of constraints in the carrying out of any operations. Henry V knew that in any operation management, when there are bottlenecks in the process, there is bound to be delays. Henry hence used this concept against the French army to compromise their effectiveness; he used stakes that created a hindrance to the approach of the French army and their horses towards the English army. Henry knew that with the muddy conditions, coupled with the stakes erected against the French army, these would be enough bottlenecks to hinder the progress of the French army and this worked well for the English army.

Supply chain management also emphasizes on improved performance that can be achieved through making the best use of the internal and the external capabilities that the organization has and in the process creating a seamless and well coordinated supply chain (Paulraj A. & Chen I., 2004:Pp4). This was exemplified when Henry V used the smaller number that was the internal capability in the best way possible to outdo the vast French army. He also took into account the external capability which was the better knowledge of the terrain of the place, the hills, the forests and the valleys that were at the battle field, yet the French army bundled themselves at the same place, taking comfort in their numbers (Jorge V., 2011).

The English army also employed the principle or theory of Just-in-time in the operations management. This theory advocates for the employment and use of the right resource or inventory when the need to use that particular resource arises and not to stock-pile the recourses that are not being used. The English army knew when to bring in the right resource into use and when to hold back. For instance, after placing all their infantry at the right places in the battle field, they charged a few hundred meters towards the French army, they use long bows and arrows to provoke the huge number of French army into a fight, and then they retreated back to their battle lines. This provoked the French army to advance as Henry V would have liked and get trapped into the funnel shaped battle field. This meant lesser room to maneuver and hence the bows and arrows of the French army could not be used. Instead the English army now started using their light weapons like the hammers, mallet and knives to kill the French. This was simply the tactic of using the right inventory when needed hence achieving better results just as it is with the operations management through the just-in-time theory.