Dodo people – Asset or liability to corporate

Scientific facts about the possible reason for the extinction of the bird Dodo of Mauritius, the people in every corporate must know. By knowing the above scientific fact only, many ‘Dodo like people’ in corporate can stop their extinction. Many such 'corporate dodos' are unfortunately unaware of the fact that they have to be smart besides being hardworking and sincere.

Scientists have discovered that the Dodo was evolved in perhaps a safe and isolated island - Mauritius. During the time of evolution of Dodo, there was no other animal and not even rats were there in the island to compete. Dodo had plenty of seeds and fruits of several plants to eat and live freely from no threat of any predator. May be because of the above facts, Dodo would have lost flight adaptation and have become a flightless bird roaming freely as terrestrial bird.

With the invasion of Portuguese people in Mauritius, many new visitors like pigs, dogs, rats etc started entered into Mauritius and settled over there. Since the Dodo not had any predators for several generations, had not learned the art of 'fight or flee' hence become an easy prey to these animals.

To the new entrants, the Dodos totally lost its kingdom, dynasty and clan completely.

Dodo would have perhaps believed that they are the native birds, endemic to the region, learned perfectly to live in the region and have got the 'birth right' of the region.

But unfortunately, they did not learn the art of dealing the threat that is purely external, i.e., the threat come from outside Mauritius Island. Hence, the invaders pushed the Dodo to extinction.

Many employees in most corporate do carry such Dodo psychology. Perhaps they may be with the organization from the day of its inception doing more or less the same job of 'mixing and matching' the same stuff with the same set of skills and knowledge.

Because of their long association with the company they often assumes that they have settled well, learned the art of living in the company forever and have the birth right over the organization. They are blatantly ignorant of competition and threat of any form. They lack competitive skills, intelligence and sensing the possible danger.

When a competitor arrives, the corporate Dodo knows nothing but to complain and grieve.

Many corporate leaders during the early stage believe that these Dodos are assets as they are loyal, highly dependable and never would leave the organization. The corporate leaders and the HR functions further attempt to preserve these 'Dodos' to be ‘like what they are’. With time, these Dodos become extinct due to the lack of relevance, significance and competitiveness.

At the end, both the employee and the organization trade blame at each other. The corporate leaders would say that since these people were with the organization for several years does not mean that the organization has to take care of them for rest of the period. When they fail to update, upgrade and fail to acquire the required level of 'intelligence' has to find another job. On the other hand the employees would say that the organization is ungrateful and have shown no respect to the long associates, hardworking people and those who are loyal and faithful.

While advising the corporate people not to practice 'Dodo-ism', the corporate leaders also must remember that they should never be 'Mauritius habitat to such Dodos'.