Corporate leadership message from Devils

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The bite force of Tasmanian devil with reference to its body size is much higher than many well known predatory animals and big cats.  The Bite Force Quotient (BFQ) is calculated by taking the body mass equals bite force quotient.   According to this calculation, the bite force ratio of devil is 181 as against 112 for African lion.

 

One might ask the question as why the Tasmanian devil has such powerful bite force ratio.  Devil is the primitive mammal comes under the group of marsupials, a relative of kangaroo. 

 

The evolutionary biologists have hypothesized that the continent where the devil lives lack predatory animals until man interferes.  Mostly, the continent is occupied by flightless birds, primitive mammals, snakes etc.     The ‘niche’ of a predator was available.  Due to the obvious limitations, the devils in their body size, instead of becoming ‘predators’ have become ‘scavengers’ eating mainly the carrion.   To separate the flesh from the bone, perhaps they would have evolved with extraordinary bite force ratio.

 

The corporate world must learn the finest management message from the above.  They might find people in some small companies who virtually take different decisions, play different roles and will have knowledge in many fields.  Whereas the people in MNC’s may have super specialized knowledge and limited skills and are not the ‘jack of all trades’. 

 

Should they feel bad for the people in MNC’s or should they feel proud about the employees of small organizations? 

 

The devil has developed the bite force ratio only because of the availability of the niche of predator/scavenger and or due to the absence of another powerful predator or scavenger as competitor. 

 

Similarly, the people in small organizations show versatile talents because they have to perform different roles as the organization cannot afford to employ specialists to do different jobs.   Is it bless and bane?  The HR function must understand the fact that such ‘versatile talents’ in general cannot perform in MNC’s like specialists.  If they are employed for specialists’ job, they may mess up the work.  

 

They have the culture of ‘used’ to do different things like procurement, accounting and product promotion, R&D etc.   If they are asked to settle with one department, they may find it had as their past ‘glory’ and ‘multifaceted’ role might muddle their work acumen. 

 

While appreciating the versatility and multi-tasking ability of people, also remember whether they will be useful and valuable to your organization.   Devil, although has an extraordinary bite force ratio, cannot compete with Hyena in Africa.  If the devil were introduced in Africa, hardly it would survive.   The capability with reference to what context has really made them to be ‘capable’ has to be understood well.  

 

Appreciation, admiration and respecting the rarity and uniqueness are fine, but it should not be simply extrapolated without understanding the ‘context’ and the ‘niche’ from where it would have evolved.     

 

Let the BFQ of Tasmanian devil be your reference and learn from it 

 

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd., Chennai

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