HR message from King Cobra and Elephant

King cobra venom can kill an elephant. King cobras are also known have killed many elephants. The question is why a small snake like king cobra in comparison to an elephant carries the venom to kill the giant animal like an ‘elephant’.

Do elephants attack king cobra often? Is the attack of the king cobra is an accidental event or well planned? Even if the attack of king cobra on an elephant is accidental and spontaneous, why nature has favored the snake to have such deadly venom?

Is not the venom in the poisonous snake is essentially for their defense and hunting the prey than killing other animals unnecessarily? The elephant is neither the prey of the snake - king cobra or an enemy who loves to attack them. The question is why they have such deadly venom?

This needs to be understood from the management perspective. When we compare, the king cobra is an extremely smaller animal than that of an elephant. There is no sense in such comparison, either. But have we ever understood how the snake would be seeing the elephant or vice versa?

There are several instances where the python has killed animals that are larger than what it could swallow. After killing the prey with great effort, the python has left the prey as it could not swallow the same. The probability is that the snake may not either able to measure the size of the animal, whether the snake can use the animal as its prey etc. before it bites.

Another probability is that the animal like an elephant would have evolved with least resistance or immunity against snake venom like mongoose, especially that of a king cobra. During evolution, nature would not have favored the elephant to be immune to the snake venom as the elephant as it may not encounter any conflict with the snake as snakes are too small a match for the pachyderm.

Perhaps the elephants also would have evolved by taking snakes for granted. The corporate leaders like CEO’s and people holding related profiles ( an elephantine position with reference to authority and responsibility) should never think or take other people like officers and executives for granted by taking their designation. The people like officers and executives can prove to be king cobras to the CEO’s in the corporate world.

In comparison, the CEO’s may hold extraordinary powers in the corporate in comparison to the officers and executives. But these people may carry ‘venom’ that can kill the CEO’s.

The CEO’s must evolve therefore with complete awareness and understanding that many people in the corporate can be like ‘king cobra’. Once such awareness is there, they can easily identify such poisonous snakes.

The HR must know the venomous people in the corporate as the venom of these people can cause the destruction of any magnitude irrespective of their designation, power or authority they posses. Further never take any one in the corporate for granted is what the king cobra and elephant example conveys to the corporate world.

Dr S Ranganathan