Risk-Taking in Shackleton’s Expedition
From the video, Survival! The Shackleton Story, Sir Ernest Shackleton is an explorer who took 27 men on a voyage to Antarctica on a ship called Endurance. Shackleton’s ambition was to be the first to make an overland crossing of the continent, Antarctic (“Survival! The Shackleton Story”). Shackleton was a well-acclaimed explorer but had developed the drive to be the first to cross the Antarctic. Shackleton, despite knowing the danger the voyage posed decided to take the risk to sail through to the Antarctic. Shackleton ended up being stranded in the Antarctic for 22 months a period that showcased risk-taking that is necessary for strategic marketing and planning.
The word risk means to expose one to danger, damage or loss. Risk-Taking is evident in Shackleton’s expedition from the word go since Shackleton puts his life and those of his men in danger. Shackleton decides to take a risk and leave all the warmth and comfort he had to set out on a voyage to achieve a goal that he had set for himself, to be the first to cross the Antarctic. After taking the risk to place on the journey, Shackleton had then to take a chance for him and his men to survive the hard 22 months in the Antarctic winter. The calculated risks that Shackleton had to make were, to abandon the Endurance and drag rafts across the frozen ground once it was trapped in ice, and to construct a camp on a floating ice floe to await the change in conditions once hiking failed. Shackleton then took the risk of leaving some of his men behind and setting sail on with a small group of his men on rafts to find help on South Georgia Island, where there were a whaling station and the risk paid off when they went back for the remaining men and found them alive. The lesson that can be learnt from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s voyage is that modern captains of capitalism need to take risks, more so calculated risks, to enable survival during a time of cold corporate culture.
References
T., J. (n.d.). Shackleton’s Survival Skills: Risk Taking. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1P2-5737185/shackleton-s-survival-skills-risk-taking
Survival! The Shackleton Story. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgh_77TtX5I&feature=youtu.be