Sunday, July 03, 2005
The Theory of Ant-ology…
By Christine Regan Lake
So, what in God’s name is Antology and what could it possibly have to do with business? Well, Antology is the name of my new business theory. Having become recently obsessed with the who/what/when/where/why and how of ants due to a recent infestation that we had in our home, I was shocked at what I began to understand of these amazing insects.
What I have come to learn and respect about these unique creatures is their tremendous adaptability. No matter what the scenario ants will do whatever is necessary to ensure survival of the colony. Some ants during an attack from an enemy will actually implode, spraying a toxic substance upon the enemy and thereby sacrificing its life in protection of the colony.
Just to give you some interesting factoids:
• Ants can carry 20-50 times their own body weight depending upon the type of ant
• Ants are the most socially complex animals know to exist and operate on a caste system that has a precise division of duties amongst the colony
• Army Ant raids are highly organized and executed in a systematic order rotating 123 degrees after every raid to ensure that they are invading a territory that will be full of prey
• Army ants are experts in the art of war with the ability to traverse great distances with thousands of ants and attack prey many times larger than themselves
• Successful colonies can live up to 100 years
As I commonly do with anything that I learn, I immediately began trying to draw parallels to business. I kept asking myself, how could this be useful in business? I could not stop thinking about how strong, agile and competitive, a company could be, if it could somehow learn how to embrace what I have termed Antology.
How large could you grow your business if you could align every single person to a single vision and have your work force screaming along making productivity and profitability gains from 20 to 50%?
What kinds of sales gains could you achieve, if your sales strategy were so targeted that you were systematically attacking your prospects in a detailed execution so as not to miss a single potential customer in your sales blitz? What could you accomplish in your business if you could inspire such loyalty in your work force, so that they would gladly sacrifice nights and weekends to ensure the
company’s’ survival and ultimate success? How would you like to see your business flourishing for over 100 years?
Let’s see some parallels we can draw from these outstanding little creatures called ants.
Small but Mighty The reason that ants are able to carry anywhere from 20-50 times their body weight is due to the fact that they have a small body mass. This body mass is a benefit, because it allows the ant to use the majority of its muscles for lifting things rather than using them to support their own body. Humans, by contrast have a much larger body mass and therefore a tremendous amount of their muscle activity must go towards ‘moving the body’ which inhibits their capacity to lift heavy
things.
So, what is the correlation to business? The correlation is that a large organization by its nature is going to be bureaucratic and will require a lot of ‘muscle’ or human capital just to keep it moving. And by ‘moving’ I don’t mean any ‘heavy lifting’ or ‘innovative solutions’ by moving, I just mean to keep the status quo.
Sometimes, small nimble companies can accomplish things better, faster and more efficiently than their larger counterparts because they don’t have so much ‘mass’ to move around. One such example of this is a company called SpaceQuest, www.spacequest.com. SpaceQuest is a spacecraft components and engineering company focused on small satellites. With their business model SpaceQuest can provide components at a price that their larger counterparts can’t
and won’t match. Small does not mean weak or unproductive, sometimes, as in Antology, small can be an edge.
Delineated Division of Duties
The complex social structure of an ant colony is highly delineated. Each ant has their specific duty; ants that tend to larvae, ants that clean out the refuse from the nest, soldier ants that go out and hunt for food or engineer ants that build and extend the highly complex tunnels. Each with their own job is highly specialized. If there is anything to learn from these astounding creatures, it would be to model their mastery of the concept of division of labor.
One of the most common mistakes that I see in small business is the lack of an organization chart with a clearly defined division of duties. What typically happens is several duties that should logically all be handled by the same person, get divided up among two partners and etc. For example there is no official CFO who monitors all of the finances for the company and as such things fall through the cracks and financial management is not as sound as it should be. The results are that cashflow may suffer as accounts payable and receivable are not efficiently managed. A clearly defined
division of duties amongst all staff members is critical to ensure an optimized work flow.
Systematic Sales Strike Force
Army Ants execute foraging raids that take place during a phase referred to as the ‘stationary phase’ which is a 20 day period during which the ant pupae develop. During this time the army ants move into an area and kill every viable form of prey and then move onto another ‘kill zone’ 123 degrees away. The raids fan out in a circular direction and rotate over and over again moving 123 degrees after each kill for the next 20 days.
I immediately started thinking about how effective a sales blitz would be if you were to plan an ‘attack’ upon your unsuspecting sales prospects in such a coordinated manner. If you were to map out your sales territories and coordinate your direct mail, telemarketing, promotional events and advertising in a highly organized and systematic manner, such as the army ants do in their foraging raids to enable your sales hunt to be as bountiful as possible. How much specificity
do you have in your sales effort to ensure that you are hitting every prospect within your territory?
According to the small business administration 600,000 new businesses are started each year. What systems have you put into place to ensure that your sales database is constantly being nourished with fresh prey from this new pool?
Laser Vision & 100 Year Legacy
“Put a hundred army ants on a flat surface and they will walk around in never decreasing circles until they die from exhaustion. But a colony of a million army ants is a sophisticated ‘super-organism.’ The colony carries out its legendary raids and can even keep nest temperatures constant to within a degree. An army ant colony seems endowed with an intelligence far beyond that of any individual ant.” says Nigel Franks, author of the article “Army Ants: A Collective Intelligence,” American Scientist.
The lesson here is that a group of people without an aligning mission and organized structure of duties is just a mass of individuals running around in circles trying to keep busy. If you want your business to achieve greatness, to have lasting success 100 years from now and achieve double digit profitability and productivity gains, than you must embrace Antology. You must organize a group of highly dedicated individuals and enflame them with a passion for your business and your vision. You must then have the discipline to create a delineated plan of the division of duties with in
your army, so that at the end of the day you have a single fighting force marching to a clearly defined kill zone!
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