The Parable of the Bumble Bee

The story goes that: "the only reason the bumble bee actually flies, is that it did not listen to the NASA scientists who stated unequivocally, that in terms of their scientific study, the bumble bee does not comply with any aerodynamic structures, therefore it should not be able to fly".

A recent Time magazine article tells us that the bee populations are decreasing in the USA and an endemic is imminent. The reason for this is that we rely on Bee pollination for almost all the food we eat, from fruit, to vegetables and other foods. An example is that most fruits rely 90% on bee pollination to reach 'fruition' (pun not intended), many essential vegetables 80% and something as innocuous as almonds require 100% pollination from bumble or honey bees.

If we think about a parallel with business today, the Bee hierarchy is overseen by the Queen Bee, the Drone takes care of the reproduction inputs, but the worker bees actually do all the work. Now is this not peculiar with regard to my comparison? In business today we have the Executive Management (Queen Bee), Middle Management (Drones) and then the workers who actually do the work?

In terms of progress we are continuously retrenching workers either to cut costs, or install technology and all the while, right across the globe the same trends are in evidence, and the global economy is declining. At what level was the Global Crisis 2007-2010 most felt, at worker level of course.

Now workers (read Arab spring uprisings) or rather shall I put it; unemployed workers, are revolting against the Drones and Queen Bees - they too have stopped listening to these scientists telling them what they can or cannot do. Let Executive Leadership never ever forget at what level, the actual money is made.

Constant change is not a new-age 'principle' as they would have you believe. Of course we need to change, ourselves, our outlook, our business model etc as the world evolves. But when they tell you that: "Change is the only constant"; this is in fact utter nonsense and brought on by people and business where the word 'constant' implies turmoil. Change takes place under structured circumstances over time, supported by intuitive planning.

2013 Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-Pants

Well since my post in September last year the tension around Israel./Iran eased somewhat, caused in the main by similar war-like activity in other areas, this does not mean however it has gone away. Obama is back in power as expected and we should expect pressure from his administration for this Israel/Palestine crisis to begin to reach some sort of settlement. Staged wirthdrawals from Afghanistan will again redirect attention to that area.

The US 'fiscal cliff' disaster was averted, again as we would have expected, but nonetheless their woes continue unabated and increasing, which in essence means our little domain down here will be far down the pecking order insofar as global recovery is concerned.

Latest local GDP data is doom and gloom with forecasts for 2013 being lowered already to as little as 2.5%, at which level we are actually economically receding. At the very least this negativity will contribute to an increase in unemployment in SA, a fundamental that we simply can not afford.

Mangaung gave us nothing to hope for except hearsay and more subterfuge and of course that we can expect 'more of the same'. What has happened to the famed and costly NDP?

Strategy, as we all know is completely dependent upon implementation and review - we have heard nothing further on either score. Whilst we continue to have these leadership crises we will continue to flounder as a country, lower GDP, higher unemployment, downgrades of country and its banks - sounds calamitous.

With no leadership from the top echelons of the country it is again left to business to fathom out a path forward on its own, for its own people. Strategy becomes critical in these scenarious, so plan, plan, plan your way forward every step of the way and carefully.