The dance of gazelles and elephants in times of pandemic!

Could
20, 2021

6 min learn

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.

By Edwin Andrés Casallas Larrotta, Head of Enterprise Improvement Colombia & Ecuador Wayra Hispanoamérica

On the finish of the 70s and 80s, the simile of gazelles and elephants , utilized by professors Birch of the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and Belasco of the College of San Diego of their tutorial articles on entrepreneurship was the simplest strategy to specific actuality. of the enterprise world of the time. Extremely, after 4 many years this comparability continues to be legitimate. At current, the big company (the elephant) continues to be managed by inflexible buildings, principally hierarchical, in addition to by bureaucratic processes that make it gradual to alter; Alternatively, the startup (the gazelle) presents an agile construction and processes that, along with its excessive tolerance to threat, make it gentle and decrease its progress and scaling instances. Likewise, Belasco reaffirms the necessity to hold alive the spirit of innovation in giant firms, as identified in his ebook Educating the elephant to bop .

For his half, Iñaki Ortega expresses within the following fable the truth that for a few years marked the connection between giant and small firms: “A younger elephant that lived within the savannah noticed day by day with admiration the agility with which the sunshine gazelle dodged obstacles and even assaults from the dreaded lions. The acrobatic leaps of the gazelle resembled the steps of a ballroom dance enlivened by Chopin chords. The pachyderm determined to spend a number of weeks training turns and dance steps till one morning he eagerly proposed to the antelope to bop collectively. The gazelle hesitated as a result of the 5 thousand kilos of her buddy in comparison with his solely fifty have been an excessive amount of distinction, however the enthusiasm of the younger elephant lastly satisfied her. The 2 animals started to bop as if it have been a waltz, and within the first flip of the dance the elephant’s foot landed by mistake, however with all of the drive of its 5 tons of weight, on the delicate column of the gazelle, who was crushed to demise on the spot ”.

Beforehand, firms used to reap the benefits of and generally eat up startups . Therefore the decision for elephants and gazelles to be taught to bop with out stepping on one another, referring to the truth that they have to be taught to cooperate to be able to survive in a tough and altering setting, immediately referred to as the VUCA setting , for its acronym in English ( Volatilily, Uncertainty, Complexity). and Ambiguity ).

^{At current, the nice company (the elephant) continues gradual to alter; alternatively, the startup (the gazelle) decrease their progress and scaling instances / Picture: Depositphotos.com}

A transparent instance of the VUCA setting has been the pandemic generated by COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) , reflecting the volatility within the radical modifications which have occurred in a really quick time. The pandemic pressured individuals and corporations to make use of expertise, turning into an accelerator of digital transformation by lowering to roughly 5 years months, time that, underneath different circumstances, digitization would have taken in Latin American firms. One of many quickest rising sectors in 2020 was e-commerce , an space during which Latin America was the second finest performing area on the earth, solely surpassed by Western Asia.

2021 isn’t far behind, as proven in the newest PayU report, which highlights a double-digit progress in complete annual client spending in Latin America, surpassing different areas and making it the brand new world energy of commerce digital.

The pandemic has been a problem for everybody, each gazelles and elephants have needed to adapt their enterprise fashions and even their very own services or products to the brand new actuality, thus reflecting the pure adaptability that animals have, and with out which they’d be destined for extinction, as has occurred to hundreds and hundreds of firms and small companies on the earth, which did not survive on this hostile setting the place now the elephant is now not so sturdy and the gazelle is now not so fragile. Simply to be an order of magnitude, in line with ECLAC figures in 2020, about 2.7 million formal firms in Latin America closed as a result of pandemic.

The collaboration for fragile however quick gazelles and powerful however gradual elephants may come from hippos, animals that, though aggressive, have proven to be collaborators and really feel empathy for different species totally different from their very own, saving gazelles on many events from the assaults of the crocodile, and sharing and even warning elephants of hazard after they need to cross the river. On this new simile, the hippos signify assist entities equivalent to accelerators, firm builders , CVCs ( Company Enterprise Capital ) and Enterprise Capital funds that search to be the communication bridge and the mediating physique between firms and startups ; Simply as Wayra does, the company funding arm of Telefónica Movistar, whose most essential process is to attain the match between Movistar and startups , supporting each the digital transformation processes of the company and that of its shoppers within the B2B portfolios and B2C.