By George ILIEV
When someone is seriously injured, bleeding is often the primary cause of death. When a company is in crisis, employees leave en masse. What makes the situation worse is that the best employees are the first to leave.
An analogous phenomenon called shattering can be observed in the wild cereal plants, though a bit earlier in their life cycle: the seeds break off from the corn cob (or the wheat ear) as soon as they have ripened. This evolutionary adaptation of the plants works well for them in the wild, as the seeds are scattered in all directions, but this makes their harvesting by humans almost impossible.
This is why when prehistoric farmers at the dawn of agriculture set about domesticating cereal crops, the first trait they bred out of maize (corn) and wheat was exactly shattering. Only after they had managed to hold the seeds together for harvesting could they focus their attention on other traits for selective growing such as drought resistance and improved nutrition.
Image contribution: Wikipedia
Lessons for the CEO:
The first thing medics do when someone is wounded is try to stop the bleeding. When a company is in crisis, stopping shattering is the prerequisite for corporate recovery.
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer does not seem to have learned the "shattering" lesson.
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