Develop Komodo dragon leadership …. A HR message

The reproductive biology of Komodo dragons indeed follows an extraordinary management principle or approach that would be greatly useful to the corporate if the corporate attempts to learn or understand the same.

Scientists have discovered that the female Komodo dragon can reproduce without the help of a male partner. Such type of reproduction is called as ‘parthenogenesis’ in biology.

Why and how such type of reproduction is possible to such a massive and well-developed reptile-like Komodo dragon?

One of the presumed reasons for the above process of reproduction is the obvious nonavailability of a suitable male partner. Such possibility only would have pushed the female Komodo dragon to reproduce by means of parthenogenesis. Nature has ensured that the female Komodo dragons should not loose the reproductive capability or the opportunity (season) due to the nonavailability of a male partner. Hence they are given with such unique capability to reproduce by means of parthenogenesis.

The most important learning point is not about parthenogenesis or Komodo dragon. The mind boggling thing is that all the offspring of Komodo dragon born by means of parthenogenesis are males. Look at the beauty of evolution. When the male was not available for reproduction, the female still reproduced through a unique process called ‘parthenogenesis’ and interestingly she produce only male offspring probably to ensure males in the society at least in future.

It appears to be like she wants to ensure that the next generation female Komodo dragons should not have such problems i.e. nonavailability of male partners for reproduction. Only through cross-mating, she knows, the genetic mix is possible and only such offspring could survive well. What she did not have, she doesn’t want her succors also to undergo or experience or suffer.

In corporate, most people wish that what is not available to them or provided to them or possible to them, should continue to the rest of the organization as well. If someone doesn’t get a promotion or good increment, they never wish others getting them. They even work secretly to ensure that others don’t get either promotion or better increment. More than they work to get the best for them, they seriously engage in others not getting a promotion or good increments. It is not what they do not have makes most people sad but what others have or should not only push them to the abyss of sorrow.

People in the corporate must learn from the Komodo dragons that instead of getting the slave to what is not there for them, their effort should be to ensure that such limitations shall not affect the next generation and that is what is called ‘corporate wellness’. In corporate, everyone should carry such vision and working style and only then a ‘collective and total’ success can be achieved. The HR function must promote such leaders and leadership element in corporate.

Dr. S Ranganathan

Learn more from the following management books

1. Jungle wisdom for corporate management – lessons from the university of nature by Swami Sukhabodhananda and Dr. S Ranganathan
2. Nature – The Entrepreneur by Dr. S Ranganathan