ZOO

Leadership

Today a team presented a case study that assessed the competitiveness of a zoo in Hokkaido, Japan.

Back in 1995, the zoo's management had seriously considered to close it down. None of the factors (the factors refer to those categorized by Michael Porter: factor conditions, demand conditions, structure, strategy and rivalry, and related and supporting sectors) positively influenced on its competitiveness. To make it worse, important factors such as location and weather were bad and unluckily, out of control. It was a critical moment because they had to decide whether to sustain the business or not. Fortunate was the zoo since good and proper leadership took over the management just before its death sentence. Right decisions and therefore, good strategies affected the rest of the factors that dynamically interacted with each other. Eventually the zoo improved its performance making its story one of the most successful cases in the industry.

Many areas have been enhanced thanks to good leadership. Here was when the presenter made an evaluation on the importance of leadership and strategy. And here was when I thought leadership was the most important factor that influences competitiveness since it is the ground where all the resting factors base their dynamism. He agreed with me; the professor didn't. According to Mr. Moon, leadership is important, but it especially becomes the most important factor in times of crisis.

Well, I am not quite sure about that. Leadership might be decisively the most important factor in critical situations, but still it is always the most important factor.

1. Disadvantages are opportunities to create new ways of doing things and to solve bottle neck problems that eventually will help us be more competitive. To recognize disguised disadvantages and to decide whether to solve them are a matter of leadership.

2. Porter sustains that all factors of competitiveness should be constantly enhanced. Constant efforts to enhance competitiveness should also be carried in times of stability. To execute this even when everything seems to be fine is a matter of leadership.

3. Which factors to focus, when and how to enhance them is another matter of leadership.

In other words, leadership is the basis that provides fundamental direction and balance to the whole dimension of a continuous process of competitiveness enhancement.


My old man

I so enjoyed going to the zoo with him. I remember we used to go to the zoo in Palermo and feed the animals. Then we would go to the Japanese Garden which was right in front of the zoo and feed fish in the lake. At the end of the day we often used to go to a buffet near there to finish our typical itinerary. He always had fun stories about each animal, and I really liked listening to them. He often made strange animal noises when telling his exciting stories. And I wouldn't miss any word, any sound, and even any breath of it.

We stopped hanging out at the zoo as I started to feel I was a grown up. Well, we stopped doing pretty many things together. I was too busy doing things we really have to do when we are teenagers. I don't remember exactly, but I am sure that for a teenage girl like I was, those little things were a matter-of-life important.

Curiously since I actually turned an adult, the zoo has again become our usual hanging out place. He is not as exciting as he used to be. I can't hear either fun animal stories or intereting noises from him anymore. He does not have the energy to lift me up when I feed the giraffs or the zebras. He has become slower, more silent, more discrete, less powerful. Everything has completely changed. Him, me, and the zoo. But I still love going there with him.

Tonight, I just want to hang out with my old man. Of course, at the zoo.