Application Exercise

(Assignment to be submitted) (90 min.) (Not exceeding five pages)

The GE case highlights organization building with a congruence of action in areas like structure, systems,
staffing, culture, skills & leadership style. Reflect on these elements or any specific practice in the GE case
(work-out etc.) to assess the effectiveness of the implementation approach in your firm.

Application Exercise
My learnings from ‘Bridge on the river Kwai’.

After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-
operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors –
After the surrender of Singapore in World War II, a unit of British soldiers are marched to a Japanese
prison camp in western Thailand. They are paraded before the camp commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue
Hayakawa), who informs them of his rules; all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the
construction of a bridge over the River Kwai to carry a new railway line.
Their commander, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), reminds Saito that the Geneva Conventions exempt
officers from manual labour, but Saito furiously orders everyone to work. At the following morning’s
parade, Saito threatens to have the officers shot, and Nicholson refuses to back down. When Major
Clipton (James Donald), the British medical officer, intervenes, Saito leaves the officers standing all day in
the intense tropical heat. That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is
locked into ‘the oven’, an iron box, to suffer without food or water.
Clipton attempts to negotiate with Saito for Nicholson's release, but Nicholson refuses to compromise.
Meanwhile, the soldiers are working as little as possible and sabotaging whenever they can. Saito is
concerned that should he fail to meet his deadline, he would be obliged to commit seppuku (ritual
suicide). Using the anniversary of Japan's great victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War as an excuse to
save face, he gives in, and Nicholson and his officers are released to command their men.
Nicholson conducts an inspection and is shocked by what he finds. Against the protests of some of his
officers, he orders Captain Reeves (Peter Williams) and Major Hughes (John Boxer) to design and build a
proper bridge, despite its military value to the Japanese, for the sake of his men's morale. The Japanese
engineers had chosen a poor site, so the original construction is abandoned and a new bridge is begun
400 yards downstream, using better materials. His officers are concerned that this can be seen as
collaboration, but Nicholson is determined that the job will be done as well as it can be done, and by
British soldiers, not slave labourers.

The Bridge on the River Kwai is an epic tale of the struggle of British POWs in a Japanese
prison camp in Burma during WW II. As the story begins, Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness)
marches his men into Prisoner of War Camp 16, commanded by Colonel Saito (Sessue
Hayakawa). As the troops enter the camp, they are observed by long time captive Shears (William
Holden), an American sailor, who has bribed a guard to be put on the sick list. Saito announces
that their job will be to build a bridge over the River Kwai so that the railroad connecting
Bangkok and Rangoon can be completed. However, Saito also demands that all men, including
officers, will do manual labor. This act forces Nicholson to inform Saito that, under the Geneva
Convention, officers can not be required to do manual work. Saito expects them to do as their told
because they are his prisoners after all.
A standoff occurs when Nicholson adamantly refuses to make his officers do manual labor. The
battalion is marched off to work with the officers left standing under the gaze of a machine-gun.
Because of Nicholson's unwillingness to back down, he and his officers are placed in the "ovens"-
small, galvanized iron boxes sitting in the heat of day. Time passes with Nicholson sweating his
life away, while the enlisted men labor away at the bridge. Shears, along with two British soldiers,
try to escape but only Shears manages to get away, having been thought drowned in the river.
Eventually, Saito reveals why he is desperate to finish the bridge on time. If the bridge is not
completed on the pre-set date, Saito will be disgraced and, according to the Japanese code of
honor, must kill himself.

Nicholson mentions that he does have men skilled in this type of task but Saito simply locks him
back in the "oven." Eventually Saito gives Nicholson and his officers amnesty and Nicholson sees
this as a small but well needed victory. Nicholson suggests to his officers that, instead sabotaging
the work, why not build the bridge to the best of their ability. Nicholson and his men set to work.

Shears, who survived the escape and is now recovering in a hospital in Ceylon, is asked by Maj.
Warden (Jack Hawkins) to come along on a mission to destroy the bridge. Fearing recapture,
Shears reveals that he is not even an officer but has been posing as one to get better treatment.
Unfortunately for him, Warden already knows and literally blackmails Shears into going on the
expedition. After recruiting a fourth man, the team parachutes into the jungle but only Warden,
Joyce (Geoffrey Horne), and Shears make the jump safely. After several days of hardship, the
team learns of a train scheduled to travel the railroad on the 13th. They choose this day as the day
to destroy the Bridge on the River Kwai.

Nicholson informs Doctor Clipton that the bridge won’t be completed on time. To increase
manpower, Nicholson recruits wounded men from the 'hospital' to do light labor at the bridge. Far
away from the bridge, the team of Shears, Joyce, Warden, and their native porters are resting
when they are discovered by a Japanese patrol. A gun battle ensues and Warden and Joyce chase
down one of the enemy soldiers. They find and kill him, but Warden is wounded in the struggle.
The team presses on, but Warden has difficulty walking on his wounded foot. Finally Warden tells
the team to go with out him but Shears refuses, telling Warden what he thinks of him. Warden is
carried from then on in a makeshift stretcher. The team finally makes it to the bridge the evening
before the train is due.

As Nicholson dedicates a plaque to the bridge, the demolition team watches and makes
preparation for its destruction. Shears and Joyce are sent upstream to prepare to float themselves
and the equipment down river to the bridge, while Warden stays behind to prepare a mortar
assault. Nicholson admires his bridge and reminisces with Saito about his military career. When
night falls, Shears, Yai and Joyce make their way to the bridge. Under the clattering boots of
sentries, they set charges on the bridge and continue down stream. Shears leaves Joyce with the
detonator and crosses to the other side of the river with Yai to cover him. Back in the POW camp,
Nicholson’s men hold some entertainment. Nicholson congratulates his men on a job well done.

In the morning, the team discovers that the water level of the river has dropped, making the wires
visible. Joyce feverishly tries to cover the cable but it is still spotted by Nicholson. Saito and he
follow the wire to Joyce’s location. While their backs are turned, Joyce kills Saito with a blow to
his back. Nicholson attempts to stop Joyce and Joyce winds up being shot. Warden begins to
mortar the bridge as Shears attempts to cross the river to get to Joyce but is taken down by
Japanese soldiers. Nicholson realizes what he has done and tries to get to the detonator but is
wounded by a mortar shell. Nicholson stands and makes his way over to the detonator. Keeling
over from shell shock, he falls on the detonator just as the train crosses.

Clipton, who had been watching the whole ordeal from a hill, sees the wreckage of the bridge and
the bodies of Nicholson, Shears, and Joyce. His only remark to this is "Madness".