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Ants-in-pants!

B. S. Raghavan

How do organisations gear themselves up to meet the challenges of e-business and e-commerce in an economic and technological environment that is changing (in the words of the Microsoft mogul Mr. Bill Gates) at the speed of thought? The Websites of thinkt anks and transnationals are brimming with offers of `solutions' to enable corporates to survive, surmount, succeed and surpass in the new century which is going to be like no other known to humankind in the past.

Desperate in their efforts to score over each other by eye-catching and attention-grabbing formulas, these Good Samaritans are packaging their largely well-worn, and often trite, ideas with seemingly new labels. The Ant Philosophy currently doing the rou nds is touted as one such antidote to being taken unawares by the exacting demands of the era of e-com, m-com and wireless application protocols.

The corporate spin doctors have suddenly discovered that the sociology and organisational behaviour of ants hold plenty of lessons for corporate wannabes. If you want to win the rat race, they say, the place to watch is not the rat hole but ant hills!

The ants, it would seem, have several sterling qualities all of which are sure-fire recipes for the crowning glory of achievement. Here are a few that should put fire in everbody's belly:

Do-or-die. Ants have an implacable determination to trounce opponents and triumph over obstacles. You trap a group of ants within a circle of lethal acid and gradually reduce the area of their manoeuvrability. Initially, the besieged ants will try to fin d a way out, but when they conclude that there is none, they will boldly wade through the acid, the bodies of the forward formations of ants dying from the plunge becoming a handy bridge for those that follow. Those who have watched the march of Army Ant s on the Discovery Channel will know how formidable and ferocious these tiny insects can be.

Think spring in winter. If winter comes, the ants say to themselves, can spring be far behind? (P. B. Shelley only got the lines from them without acknowledgment!) The message is: Never lose hope and heart. How? Read on.

Think winter in summer. Build up emotional and material reserves to carry you through bad patches. Or, as the sayings go, make hay while the sun shines, take time by the forelock, have at the ready plans for all kinds of eventualities and contingencies.

Synergise. Each ant knows what tasks it has to perform and how they fit into the broader picture. Ants are marvellous examples of teamwork and synergy-maximisation. They are also super-colossal performers, carrying many times their weight individually, a nd moving insuperable loads collectively. People in organisations too should set no limits on their capabilities. They must attempt the impossible at once, while permitting themselves a little more time to accomplish miracles.

OK. But why is it the gurus have singled out the ants for emulation? Does not every creature hold out something instructive? May be, I have spoken too soon. God only knows what other animal-bird-insect paradigms the pundits will come up with to explain t he work cultural imperatives of the electronic age!