The
bite force of Tasmanian devil with reference to its body size is much …

The
bite force of Tasmanian devil with reference to its body size is much higher
than many well known predatory animals and big cats.  The Bite Force Quotient (BFQ) is calculated
by taking the body mass equals bite force quotient.   According to this calculation, the bite
force ratio of devil is 181 as against 112 for African lion.

One
might ask the question as why the Tasmanian devil has such powerful bite force
ratio.  Devil is the primitive mammal
comes under the group of marsupials, a relative of kangaroo. 

The
evolutionary biologists have hypothesized that the continent where the devil
lives lack predatory animals until man interferes.  Mostly, the continent is occupied by
flightless birds, primitive mammals, snakes etc.     The
‘niche’ of a predator was available.  Due
to the obvious limitations, the devils in their body size, instead of becoming
‘predators’ have become ‘scavengers’ eating mainly the carrion.   To separate the flesh from the bone, perhaps
they would have evolved with extraordinary bite force ratio.

The
corporate world must learn the finest management message from the above.  They might find people in some small
companies who virtually take different decisions, play different roles and will
have knowledge in many fields.  Whereas
the people in MNC’s may have super specialized knowledge and limited skills and
are not the ‘jack of all trades’. 

Should
they feel bad for the people in MNC’s or should they feel proud about the
employees of small organizations? 

The
devil has developed the bite force ratio only because of the availability of
the niche of predator/scavenger and or due to the absence of another powerful
predator or scavenger as competitor. 

Similarly,
the people in small organizations show versatile talents because they have to
perform different roles as the organization cannot afford to employ specialists
to do different jobs.   Is it bless and
bane?  The HR function must understand
the fact that such ‘versatile talents’ in general cannot perform in MNC’s like
specialists.  If they are employed for
specialists’ job, they may mess up the work.  

They
have the culture of ‘used’ to do different things like procurement, accounting
and product promotion, R&D; etc.   If
they are asked to settle with one department, they may find it had as their
past ‘glory’ and ‘multifaceted’ role might muddle their work acumen. 

While
appreciating the versatility and multi-tasking ability of people, also remember
whether they will be useful and valuable to your organization.   Devil, although has an extraordinary bite
force ratio, cannot compete with Hyena in Africa.  If the devil were introduced in Africa, hardly it would survive.   The capability with reference to what
context has really made them to be ‘capable’ has to be understood well.  

Appreciation,
admiration and respecting the rarity and uniqueness are fine, but it should not
be simply extrapolated without understanding the ‘context’ and the ‘niche’ from
where it would have evolved.     

Let
the BFQ of Tasmanian devil be your reference and learn from it 

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

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