the ant, a fable ... part i -the decline and fall

or

Part I – 2 minutes long - was translated from the original presentation by Pr. Obrigado Mário in Portuguese.

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Every day, a small ant arrives at work very early

and starts work immediately.

She produced a lot and she was happy.

The Chief, a lion,

was surprised to see

that the ant was

working without

supervision.

He thought if the ant

can produce so much

without supervision,

wouldn’t she produce

even more if she had a

supervisor!

So he recruited a

cockroach

who had extensive

experience as a

supervisor and who

was famous for

writing excellent

reports.

The cockroach’s first

decision was to set up

a clocking in

attendance system.

He also needed a

secretary to help him

write and type his

reports and …

... he recruited a spider,

who managed the

archives and monitored

all phone calls.

The lion was delighted

with the cockroach's

reports

and asked him to

produce graphs to

describe production

rates and to analyse

trends, so that he could

use them for

presentations at

Board meetings.

So the cockroach had to buy a new computer

and a laser printer and ...

... recruited a fly

to manage the IT

department.

The ant, who had once been so

productive and relaxed, hated this new

plethora of paperwork and meetings

which used up most of her time…!

The lion came to the

conclusion that it was

high time to nominate a

person to be in charge

of the department

where the ant worked.

The position was given to the

cicada, whose first decision

was to buy a carpet and an

ergonomic chair for his office.

The new person in charge, the

cicada, also needed a computer

and a personal assistant, who

he brought from his previous

department, to help him

prepare Work and Budget

Control Strategic Optimisation

Plans …

The Department where the ant

works is now a sad place,

where no one laughs anymore

and everyone has become

upset ...

It was at that time

that the cicada

convinced the boss,

the lion, of the

absolute necessity to

start a climatic study

of the environment .

Having reviewed

the charges for

running the ant’s

department, the

lion found out that

the production was

much less than

before.

So he recruited the

owl, a prestigious

and renowned

consultant, to carry

out an audit and

suggest solutions.

The owl spent three months in the

department and came up with an enormous

report, in several volumes, that concluded:

“ “ The department is overstaffed ...”The department is overstaffed ...”

Guess who the lion fires first?

The ant, of course, because she “showed lack of motivation and had a negative

attitude."

or

Part II – 3 minutes long - was created by BridgeS E C, 2010.

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Production was down, quality poor. Offshore competitors with products made by cheap and

efficient Bee workers were entering the market.

Some competitors were starting to use butterflies

for very effective marketing on the Internet.

“Butterfly power,” grumbled the lion. What to

do? He needed something new.

An executive coach!

He had heard that some

strategy-coaching elephants

charged fees on a results

basis. He liked that. He

called in an elephant.

The elephant begins with

questions about how the

business is defined, who

its best customers are

and why.

The elephant then asked

the lion what his

strategy was? How did

he capture it, for

instance did

cash cows and dogs

map its territory and,

once it was found,

secure it with value

chains?

These questions and a

series of follow-on

ones led the lion to

reposition his team.

The cockroach was

tough. There were

rumours he could even

survive the radiation of a

nuclear bomb. And the

military required the

precise reports he was

so good at preparing.

He would be perfect for

military marketing.

The cicada was elegant and

concerned about the

environment. He would be

wonderful for bio-friendly

designer products for the

premium upscale market.

The spider and the fly

were told to resolve their

differences and set to

work recruiting

butterflies.

But what about the ant?

The elephant asked

the lion if he knew

about the

Hawthorne

experiment?

The lion read a three

page summary of it

and reflected.

The elephant asked the

lion if he were familiar

with leasing machinery

and equipment to start-

up companies?

The lion reflected on

that.

Idea! The lion decided to

lease the factory machines

to the workers. They would

be their own bosses. He

would make them mini-

lions! They could all be

more like him.

The lion has the ant

found and brought to

him for a meeting. He

explains the three step

procedure to her.

Step I

The ant leases the production machine she

used and can either leave it in the factory,

or take it to any place she wants.

Step II

The factory will buy raw material and provide

it to the ant. She will work it and return the

completed pieces to the factory for final

assembly. She will be paid for the amount of

work she actually does.

Step III

The ant is allowed to use the machine to

do work for other customers also. In

short, she is running her own small

production business.

Now the ant certainly did not want to turn

into a mini-lion. But she did like the idea

of being her own boss.

Results

•Production, quality

and innovation

improve.

•The re-aligned team

successfully

penetrates the new

military and upscale

markets.

•The stock price rises.

The lion receives new

stock options and the

elephant a generous

results payment.

Would that solutions were

really that easy!

Therefore we present

different “Qoogols” (=

innumerable questions) in

Tools & Techniques.

The trick, of course, is

knowing which Questions

to focus on.

NB:NB:

The characters in this fable are The characters in this fable are fictitious; any resemblance to fictitious; any resemblance to real people or facts within the real people or facts within the CorporationCorporation is pure coincidence is pure coincidence ……