Develop Hyena Innovation – A Management Message

Most of the talented and highly skilled people in corporate in general never like to see another person equally as talented and skilled as them. They always perceive such people as threat or competitor to their peaceful existence in corporate. Normally most people deal such situation by doing the following

1. Try to prove another person is not that efficient like them
2. Try to acquire some new skills and domain expertise
3. Try different means to prevent them from performing

All the above possibilities exhibited by the people in corporate are purely due to and for the purpose of own existence. Imagine if the boss/team head who is also equally efficient and capable in the domain expertise of the team members/subordinates, the subordinates will find it hard going as they cannot easily sell their ideas, stupidity or their superficial knowledge with their bosses. It is true with bosses also.

More often, people under such circumstances only tends to develop newer skills and methods to mask the capability of the other. By doing so, they easily escape the scrutiny by the other. If such scrutiny happens, they believe that they may have to endure causality.

If we look at nature, several animals also would exhibit more or less the same behaviour trait like that of the corporate people.

The hyena is a well-known hunter and scavenger in wild. It is very courageous, ferocious and also has unmatchable jaw power. Further, they also live as a pack.

If a lone hyena happens to get a kill, immediately the animal used to take the kill to the nearest water hole and hides them. The reason being, the smell of the kill can easily catch/invite the attention of other predators. If the kill is hidden in the water, the smell cannot reach the air as water would insulate them. Hyena knows that like its own astute sense of smell, many other predatory animals in the jungle like, wild dog, lion, leopard, cheetah, fox etc., also have a very powerful sense of smell. These animals like the hyena, can easily detect the presence of the kill even from miles away.

The hyena knows its competitors and their strength. The animal never seems to have discounted the strength of its competitors. Instead, it had learned a new technique – hides the kill in water. Through the above innovative approach, hyena easily over power the capabilities of other predatory animals that have as powerful olfaction as a hyena.

Two important management principles the corporate man has to learn form the above. The first one is that, the talented people never like to see another talented person who is equal to them. This is true not just in corporate alone but in the jungle as well. Unfortunately, people in corporate feel jealous and sad under such situations than be highly innovative like a hyena. This trait hyena exhibit only when the animal is alone with is kill and waterhole are available nearby. When the animal is alone, naturally the animal cannot defend its kill easily. Under such circumstances, instead of being jealous or fearful, it becomes very intelligent. The message is that be like a smart hyena in your corporate.

Dr S Ranganathan