The shark tale

 

A Tale : Put a shark in your tank

 

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. 

If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

 The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference.

Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged so they remain active in the water, and yet fresh when delivered at the ports.

Gyan Guru’s learnings

Well like the disclaimer I had already put in, I am no management guru, so hardly can comment on the various learning’s that come out of the above story, like, as to how in a group, something like a shark, keeps a group on their toes, &  helps in pushing their performance a few notch etc. Can’t help remembering the similarity with the case of the Egyptian slaves being whipped during the construction of the pyramids. Its sad that we acknowledge the fact that men cant perform unless whipped.  A far fetched conclusion but a sad one nevertheless.

Here’s my twist to the story : The fishing companies are thrilled by the results that the shark provide, and are making good profits.  In a one-up-manship, one of the fishing companies in order to achieve their aggressive budget targets, try to add one more shark to the pool to keep the fishes more charged up. Over a period the shark counts increases ( you see the fishing companies also added some female sharks to the tank).  The sharks have a whale of a time (oops pun unintended). They eat more and more fishes,  the production reduces,  eventually the sharks become quite rounded. They keep barking at the poor fishes, and swallow as many as they can.  The fishing companies are now in despair. They are unable to manage the cost of maintaining the sharks,   So one fine day, one of the fishing company lets call the company ‘’Shark-o-soft’ decides to kill the sharks. Killing sharks is illegal, so Shark-o-soft decides to take them to the shores of a developing company and kill them there because of lax regulations. Having killed them  don’t know what to do with the shark meat.  They decide to trying to sell it at cheap prices in the local market. This desperate measure to save themselves hits the jackpot, as the shark meat becomes a rage in the market, soon it starts getting exported to countries already starving of hunger,  the management is  thrilled in having discovered a new business opportunity. There is sudden demand for shark meat, and the stock prices of Shark-o-soft hit the roof. So here are the learning’s-

·         Innovate Innovate & Innovate

·         One shark  fires up the team

·         Too many sharks add to cost and only erode the bottom-line

·         If necessary sacrifice the sharks and make a business out of them

·         Those who create new lifestyle habits can make a pile of gold for ex. Apple did with Iphones

So if you are a fish don’t worry, there will soon come a time when the fishing company will tire of the sharks, and you will be free once more.

These were thoughts that came to my mind, but I dismissed all of that as products of my sceptical mind. You see the management books cant be wrong and I was never good at management studies, no wonder I am still at the bottom of the pyramid.

 There are other thoughts which struck me, I had to brush them aside. You see I had no explanation for them for example,

·         Why did the Japanese not take to our Indian Dal Makni and pudina parantha, why did they insist on fresh fish ?

·         If their shores were always devoid of fresh fish, how did they get into this habit of eating only fresh fish in the first place ? Why were they so finicky.

·         Did they have Pepsi or Coke with their fish,  Were they getting a fresh supply of these drinks or where these drinks also stale,   if so then how did they make their drinks fresh – put sharks there also ?

O Oh, I am getting late, the sharks are coming, get back to you folks latter, need to catch up on my work.