Ian Thomas

South African business strategist, Ian Thomas, has studied lions at close quarters as a game ranger  for more than 20 years and uses his experiences in the African bush to illustrate and draw parallels between the jungle of nature and the jungle of business. Ian Thomas presents a riveting and informative account of how lions, the only cats that hunt in teams, can be compared with how businesses operate as teams.

Lions formed teams in order to hunt the vast herds of antelope that evolved onto Africa’s savannahs.  The strategy of using teams to ambush these herds was extremely successful.

Individual lions and lionesses benefited from this association and the prides became extremely powerful.  The presentation is based around the point that  ‘the success of the team is because of the individual and the success of the individual is because of the team’.

This ‘win-win’ situation is the basis for successful lion prides and business teams.

The talk, illustrated with stunning photographs/slides and punctuated with growls and roars, is in three parts:

Lionesses do most of the hunting.  Using teams they stalk, ambush and kill their prey and thus supply food for the pride.  This is compared with how businesses bring in income.  This deals with:

• Individual
• Goals
• Communication
• Incentives

They mate, give birth, protect and train the cubs to be productive pride members.  This is compared with the introduction of a new team member.  This deals with:

• Team Spirit
• Structure
• Recruitment
• Training

Pride males secure the territory - they keep out males from other prides and especially nomadic males i.e. males that have no territory.  These nomadic males will try and kill or chase out the pride males and, if successful, they will often kill his cubs.  They do this so that the lionesses will mate with them.  If the cubs are not killed the lionesses realise that they cannot raise more than one set of cubs at a time and will therefore not mate with the new males.  Defence of territory is compared with keeping a competitor out of your market.  This deals with:

• Image
• Synergy

The strength and power of the pride is because it is made up of such powerful individuals, but the strength of each individual lion and lioness is because he or she is surrounded by such a powerful pride.

“The strength of the pride is the lion and the strength of the lion is the pride”