Have you ever been on safari in Africa? Do you like going to the zoo? Or observing the local fauna in your neighboring natural habitat? If so, then today’s article (as well as the one in two weeks’ time) is for you.

Two years ago, after having conducted a training course in Management Thinking Skills for the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya, I went on a four-day safari in Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara National Reserve Park. Being a creativity coach, and adhering to Leonardo da Vinci’s advice that “Everything is connected to everything else”, I looked for creative lessons that the animal kingdom could teach us for our personal lives as well as for the competitive wilderness of the business world. And, boy, did I find them. For your contemplation, here are some perspective-widening business questions from the wild savanna of Kenya’s Maasai Mara.

1. The Cheetah: Life in the fast lane

For the elegant and slender cheetah, life is all about speed. Cheetahs are the fastest mammals on earth, reaching speeds beyond 100 km per hour while hunting down their prey (that mainly consists of Thomson’s gazelles and smaller antelopes). Cheetahs are very lightly built to enable them to run so incredibly fast. One downside here is that the bigger predators such as lions, leopards and hyenas can easily chase away a cheetah from its prey after having observed it speeding through the terrain behind its prey. So for a cheetah, speed is essential not only for hunting down its prey, but also for devouring it. A cheetah needs to eat its prey fast, or else it can be sure to lose it again to one of the bigger predators. Learn from the survival strategies of a cheetah by asking yourself the following questions:

• How to use the concept of speed to become more successful in what you’re doing?
• How to ensure that you quickly realize the benefits of a current opportunity before it goes away?

2. The Crocodile: It’s all about the right location and the right timing

An ever-repeating epic drama in the annual migration of the big herbivore herds from the Serengeti to the Maasai Mara is the crossing of the Mara River, which can only be done at few selected spots where the river is not too deep. And guess what lies in wait for the herbivores at exactly these few locations: crocodiles. For days, you can see the wildebeests pile up at the river shore and check out different areas for the chance of a safe crossing — but at each location, there are already a number of crocodiles waiting for the feast to start. Both from the predator and prey perspective, there are two critical factors that decide the outcome in this life and death drama: location and timing. Let this tragic spectacle encourage you to look for your answers to the following questions:

• Where is the optimal location for your business to make better use of opportunities passing by?
• What is the optimal timing to maximize your chances for success?

3. The Giraffe: Curiosity, Overview, Vision

Giraffes are the walking towers in the wide plains of the Maasai Mara. Growing up to 6m tall, they definitely stand out from the crowd up in the tree and have a great overview of the landscape below them with all its dangers and opportunities. In addition, giraffes have an acute vision — and from their panoramic view, they flexibly shift their perspectives from taking in the big picture (e.g., spotting lions early so that they can kick them away in time with their long legs) and focusing on the special (such as focusing on the juicy fruits and leaves high up in the trees). What I also found very interesting is that giraffes are immensely curious — they voluntarily walk very close to your safari jeep and look at you like you are the seventh wonder of the world. The lessons that you can learn from giraffes are as follows:

• How to better your vision for dangers and opportunities?
• How flexible are you with regard to shifting your perspectives between focusing on parts and taking in the big picture?
• And are you curious enough to spot and then have a close-up look at new opportunities?

4. The Lion, the King of the Animals: Life is easier at the top of the food chain

The Maasai Mara is also known as the Kingdom of Lions. If you personally experience the harsh wilderness of this marvelous stretch of land, you understand why it is great to be on top of the food chain. Lions can rejoice in the knowledge that thanks to their superior physical size, their perfect integration into the ochre grassland of the African savanna and their operating in a pride, they are ideally placed to hunt down all other animals while being basically safe from outside attack. No doubt about it: Lions are the undisputed Number one in the Animal Kingdom — here is what you can learn from them:

• How to make better use of your unique strengths to become No. 1?
• How to become even better adapted to your environment to be able to move up to the “top of the food chain”?
• And who are the players or partners that you have to get into your team to become No. 1?

In two weeks, we will continue our business lessons from the African Animal Kingdom by looking at the competitive strategies of four other animals and at a famous African tribe.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2008. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the title “Ideas from the animal kingdom” on 23 October 2008.