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1. Was Robin a good leader? How does leadership impact the strategic management process? 2. What is the impact of social responsibility on the strategic management process? 3. The Trojan Horse: A Timeless Strategic Model The story of the Trojan Horse has been told throughout history. It has been recanted in children’s books and dramatized in movies. Recall the films Helen of Troy and most recently, Troy, starring Brad Pitt. An Epic written by Virgil within The Aeneid, somewhere between Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, it is a story of war between the people of two cities separated by the sea. Its lesson is timeless and worth our while. The Greeks were weary. After ten long years of fighting, they had not yet won their battle against the Trojans. Odysseus had an idea, a plan for victory. First, they would feign retreat. Then, they would trick the Trojans into thinking they had come to present a gift to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. 

Carefully, the Greeks crafted their strategy. The Greeks built their “gift,” a massive wooden horse. History has it that the structure, containing a trap door and holes where the eyes were located, was large enough to hold 30 soldiers in its body and two spies in its eyes. They transported the horse from Greece, across the sea, to the front gates of Troy. There it stood for the Trojans to observe. Opening the gates, the Trojans examined the horse. Indeed, they believed that this was “gift” for Athena. They pulled it by the long rope attached to the front of the horse, right into their own city of Troy. It was so big that they had to remove a piece of the city wall to get it through the gates. They left it at the temple of Athena. The Trojans then had a party to celebrate the end of the war. Meanwhile, the Greek soldiers remained motionless until nightfall. In darkness, they climbed out of the horse and attacked the sleeping city of Troy. They destroyed the city, taking its people captive. The war was over. The Greeks had won! What lessons about strategic management can we learn from this epic?