Honor Your Partnerships

Midway through season one, Catelyn promises Robb’s hand in marriage to one of the daughters of Walder Frey. In exchange, Frey allows Robb’s army to pass through his lands to gain strategic position, in addition to joining his own soldiers to Robb’s northern host. However, Robb eventually falls for Talisa, marries her, and breaks his word to Lord Frey.

It should really go without saying that if you commit to something with an external party, you have to stick to that commitment, especially if you want to continue doing business with them (or anyone, for that matter). Robb’s actions cause him to lose the respect of many of his men, inspire insubordination, and even cause several of his men to abandon him completely. In the business world, you’ll get all of that, and you’ll get sued. Don’t do it.

Set Your People Up For Success

Let’s get this straight: Ned Stark kidnapped Theon when he was ten and held him hostage for nine years as recompense for his father’s rebellion that he had no part in. The scale of traumatic experiences does not extend far beyond this. And yet, knowing all of this, Robb, the son of the kidnapper, sends Theon back to his father to convince him to fight for Robb and the North. At no point does Robb consider that maybe, just maybe, this is a bad idea. It’s not like Theon is likely to have any thoughts like this, of course:

You know what is like to be told how lucky you are to be someone’s prisoner? To be told how much you owe them? And then go back home to your real father?

And well, we all know what happened after that:

As a manager, you're responsible for people. That’s it. You have one job. The situations those people are in, the paths they are set down, the resources they have - those are all your responsibilities. You're supposed to be setting them up for success. When they're set up for disaster, it’s because you allowed them to be set up for disaster.

Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture

Without a doubt, Robb’s biggest mistake as commander is losing sight of the big picture. Robb views war as something that is strictly won or lost on the battlefield i.e. if I win more battles than you, I win the war. War, like business, is never that simple. The only rules of the game are the ones you set; anything you take as a given is, in fact, just one step closer to losing. As Cersei says, you either win or you die. By contrast, Tywin Lannister is constantly orchestrating alliances, marriages, and other machinations to bolster his odds of winning the war.

We see this tendency to locally optimize far too frequently in business: floppy disk manufacturers fight tooth and nail to create the best floppy disk. Then all of a sudden the CD-ROM company comes out and turns the industry upside down. Oh snap! Shit just got real. And yet, in spite of the biting reality of the market, floppy disk manufacturers keep a laser sharp focus on building better floppy disks, all the way to their demise. But it doesn’t stop there; once the CD-ROM company starts resting on its laurels, Flash drives come in and takes over the market. And all the while, cloud storage is hatching on a distant continent, waiting to swoop in and clear everyone out.