They are harmless or harmful... you should know the corporate people

Only when the corporate leaders and the HR function ever care to learn about Ichneumon fly (wasp) and their unique behaviour, can do a much better job than what they are doing today. In fact, they can do many wonders in corporate.

The Ichneumon fly or wasp exhibits two totally contradictory or opposite phenomena. If the corporate world fails to read both the phenomena together, total and collectively, may allow these wasps to even occupy the highest position in the corporate just to destroy and ruin the entire organization.

Compared to many other species of wasps, Ichneumon wasp doesn't sting humans or other animals. If one look at this behaviour of Ichneumon wasp, they are indeed harmless when compared to other wasps. If the corporate have to have a 'wasp' means, naturally the Ichneumon will be the best choice for the appointment. All the corporate leaders and the HR function would definitely prefer these insects over others. They deserve to be so as they are harmless. This is only one level of understanding. Certainly such an understanding is right and correct one. In fact, no one can dispute such truth.

But the understanding also must come from the next level. The harmless Ichneumon wasp may have a strong reason to be harmless. Or in other word, may be only to hide the most harmful aspect, this insect would have preferred to be 'harmless' to humans.

The most harmful side of the insect is that they lay its eggs inside the live larva of other species of insects by injecting the eggs through an ovipositor.

The eggs hatch inside the larvae and eat the larvae from inside resulting in their death. Then the larvae of the Ichneumon wasp moves to the next phase in its life cycle - pupa stage, and later becomes an adult and move forward with the above style of rearing the young ones.

The message is that what appears to be harmless need not be harmless if the corporate limit its search or understanding to a limited extend.

Many people in the corporate may appear superficially soft and harmless. But they may be secretly poisoning the thought and actions of other people in the corporate. In most occasions, such working style of these 'people' may not be visible. These otherwise 'harmless' Ichneumon people in the corporate will be smartly achieving their goals and sinister designs through many innocent people. At the end they would ruin many innocent people causing great harm both to the people and the corporate. They are truly Ichneumon wasps.

Most of the corporate will have such people. The existence of such people, the corporate leaders and the respective HR function can understand only if they study the people in totality. Superficial evaluation or judgment will never provide the knowledge required to know the true behavioural instincts of people and its true manifestations.

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