Beware of Pinecone fishes... dear employees

Even if you remain as what you are and do what you are suppose or expected to do either in nature or in a corporate, in the process, you may get trapped and killed. It means, for no mistake of yours and in the pursuit of what is expected of you to do, you may get eliminated from the system. It may sound so strange, but is true. This is not only true in nature but also in every corporate.

Plants are the primary producers in nature. With the help of the pigment - Chlorophyll, the green plants by using the light and water, produce/synthesize the food called Carbohydrate. Only because of the green plants, the complex food chain, food web and the ecological pyramid exists in nature.

The prey catching/trapping strategy of the pinecone fish in marine world clearly reveals the untold facet of corporate life. 'Even still' the committed performance of people in the corporate can, many a times put their life in jeopardy and danger.

Pinecone fish has bioluminescence ability. With the help of certain bioluminescence bacteria, these groups of fishes produce light. When the pinecone fish produce light, the small phytoplankton (microscopic, free floating plants) thinking it to be a light source, so that they can make use of the same and synthesize food; move towards them and get preyed upon by the fish.

The phytoplanktons are there in the ecosystem only as producers. To produce carbohydrate like how the green plants do, the phytoplanktons also have to have light energy. Since they are free floating, they can accordingly move towards light where and when it is available. Hence they move towards the 'light' emitted by the pinecone fish.

Perhaps, the pinecone fish would have already understood the 'congenital' need of light by the phytoplanktons and their ability to move freely towards the light as they are free floating plants, used 'light' as the best method to trap these plants.

Why, when someone is performing their expected duty or expected responsibility, the same performance itself betrays them so heartlessly? Remember, in corporate, your performance will never give you absolute protection and only your smartness can help you to be successful and secured. That is the management message, the pre-predator relationship between the pinecone fish and phytoplanktons conveys to the corporate.

Many pinecone fishes do reside in every corporate. They trap only the performers. The problem is not about 'pinecone fishes' in the corporate, but the performers' not developing adequate smartness beyond the space of 'performance acumen' is the real problem. The corporate leaders and the respective HR function must train the performers to be smart and never get trapped by the pinecone fish.

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