Survival of the fittest

When Charles Darwin used this term (it was actually coined by Herbert Spencer though), explaining nature's evolution from a single-celled Amoeba to such a highly complex species called Humans, he not only explained Nature's arcanum but one of the most Universal Laws which applies not just to evolution but comes down to basic simple things of life, a simple day, a job offer, a good idea, a startup or be it a big MNC.

Survival of the fittest, as the phrase finder describes as " The Idea that species adapt & change by natural selection with the best suited mutations becoming dominant" never meant that the best wins but it can be easily comprehended to a simple logic that whoever, understands the scenario, and acts accordingly by adapting himself/ his company to the same, not only wins the game but also takes the best ahead to evolve to the next level. The smartest instance I can quote here is of the FB Founder Mark Zuckerberg. The way he shaped his now most popular, an addiction-to-many social networking site makes him one of the smartest people on the planet.That is even after many controversies surrounding him.This shows that its not only the best talent which won but also the one which fitted the need of the hour the most.

A company would differentiate itself from the other by adapting to a market demand, faster than its competitor & definitely under a group of leaders who would think a step ahead which is no rocket-science though impossible without an in-depth domain knowledge.So now you know when a restaurant down the street runs much better than the other, it must have simply focused on these :

“The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.”

Life Ho to Aisi ?

So 'My Galaxy' never talked so much of sense as it had been doing in my recent last few posts !
Anyway came across this quiz during one of those days where you Work-From-Home & sit around the internet & have nothing better to do (not even those FB Quizzes where the manager has all the chance to know the actual Work-from-home status !).So here I tried one :

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.6
Mind:	6.7
Body:	7.5
Spirit:	6.3
Friends/Family:	5.6
Love:	7.7
Finance:	7.4
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Looks good.. & looks more like the engineering CGPA's ! :D

So what do I conclude..?

Silly Quiz ! Need to get back to some sensible stuff aghain !

How the Pulitzer this year reminds of Animal Farm

Politics, it seems like, is one of those few things which hardly changes irrespective of the era, location or any civilization.It remains the same & carries with itself the same flavors throughout the time.

Back in 1945, the famous Journalist & author Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, described a Dystopian Society in his one of the famous works, Animal Farm.Inspired by the Stalin's era & being anti-soviet, it described how the rich exploit the so-called unfortunates through the games played by them for their own selfish benefits.He depicted this through a perfect analogy of politics in an animal farm, as how the powerful animals exploited the weaker ones, convincing them at every step, promising them benefits & in-return further making them weaker.

Coming back to the present.It wasn't surprising to find Wikileaks, which created some biggest international headlines & controversies last year, not even being considered for Pulitzer Prize (America's top Journalism Award). As informed by the officials, it came to notice that Wikileaks couldn't even submit its reportings because of a single reason that it did not belong to any location & was not registered anywhere on the globe.As can be understood from this Forbe's article here.

Quoted :

" Only American organizations are eligible for U.S. journalism’s top prize. So WikiLeaks, which is officially based nowhere in particular, couldn’t apply on its own."

Of course, at the end of the day, mightier keep getting mighty.It will give explanations & reasons & would convince in every possible manner to keep its Power.Animal Farm indeed !

Who is it Next ?

Internal or external, younger or older, Indian or an outsider, these are some of the choices infront of the committees formed by the Tata Group as well as the IT giant Infosys, and generally many other firms in order to look out for the successors as the Leading man of these groups are all set to step down finishing off an inning full of great works which comprised not just of mere leadership but of changing the directions & steering ahead the major Indian Enterprises.Of course,these committees face an enormous task ahead.The decision can be nothing less than a complete branch of management.Mind you, it is not only the business which faces this situation, the same applies to any field.

For instance,
- the succession of Dalai Lama as a religious head,
- the entertainment indutry, where the star kid tries to carry his parent's legacy, or
- the same goes to even the sports field & as we see the bigger the legacy,
- the more the pressure it is for the successor as the comparisons are bound to happen.

Both the leader & the successor, who is all set to fill some really noteworthy positions, have to be comfortable with each other including a correct balance of trust & confidence apart from the knowledge & much needed practical experience required to head such a big firm with the same zeal & sense & to most of all the ability to fill in the shoes of someone being so looked upon by everyone from the stakeholders to board members & infact, even the competitors.

A peek into the history of some great companies includes how these firms handled the same scenario when faced with a question about Succession & how working on this eventually led to something called "Succession Management".

The idea of  'Succession Management', started when Walter Mahler helped to shape succession of General Electric back in the 1970s, himself inspired by Peter Drucker's  (a famous consultant himelf) books. GE's succession procedure became the most widely followed one as GE managed to grow its leaders consistently.On the other hand, once competitor of GE, Westinghouse landed to bankruptcy due to a bad managed succession.Moreover, while considering the scenario in India, there is a thin line between family business & a global company.So overall, it is the safest bet to start the succession planning well in advance & follow certain fool-proof procedures with some intelligent innovations which might lead to a successful succession.In short have a good idea about the Succession Management & plan it well.

PS :
1. An amazing write-up on Succession Planning by A V Vedpuriswar (Warning : A pdf file)
2. Another good read for the Same (Warning : Again a pdf )