Walking on lake ice is like navigating corporate culture: slippery and occasionally sinking

Clear ice is stronger than white non-transparent ice on a frozen lake; Transparent companies are safer to work for or work with than murky ones.

CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 119

When walking on a frozen lake, you should step on the stronger clear ice and avoid the weaker white ice. Choosing the company to work for or work with has analogous parallels. 

1) CLEAR ICE: 

Companies with transparent employment practices are like clear ice.

Clear ice is formed when still water freezes directly. There are few air bubbles, which results in solid ice, so even though he surface is slippery, it is firm under your feet. Similarly, companies with transparent employment practices have fewer undefined “air pockets” in the corporate structure and provide a well-charted course for career development. The same metaphor also holds for dealing with or investing in companies. A “clear ice” company has transparent financing and is less likely to suddenly spring a hole and sink. 

2) WHITE ICE: 

Companies with “murky” nepotistic employment practices are like white ice.

White ice contains air bubbles and impurities which compromise the integrity of its structure and make it more fragile and unreliable to support your weight on your journey across the lake. In a similar way, a company with nepotistic employment practices ("air pockets") offers an uncertain future: you would not have a clear roadmap since career advancement is not entirely determined by performance. And when dealing with a "white ice" company as a supplier or a customer, you constantly have to be on the lookout for concealed financial information or quality-cutting practices.

Whether you are seeking employment or a corporate partnership, consider the risks of taking a step off the clear ice and onto the white ice on the frozen surface of the "corporate lake".

Frozen lake in Canada
(image source: Wikipedia)

Windows of opportunity open and close just like rivers sometimes freeze in winter

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 88

You cannot walk on water (unless you are Jesus Christ), but you can walk on ice. And not only walk on ice but you can also have a fair on a frozen river or lake. This used to happen in London on the frozen River Thames, where winter fairs were held at least in 24 winters since 1400 AD. The year 1814 AD was the last time the river froze and a River Thames frost fair took place. 

A frozen river creates a temporary opportunity to walk on it or have a fair, but at the same time denies an opportunity to use the river for other purposes, such as shipping. In similar ways, temporary opportunities open and close in life, business and politics. For example, the window of opportunity for Scottish or Catalan independence seems to be closing. In business, the age of the internal combustion engine opened in the early 1900s to the detriment of the electric motor (which had been the leading contender to power vehicles in the late 1800s), but it seems likely that the electric motor will make a comeback and displace internal combustion in the next decade or two.

You never know when the perfect storm, e.g. a volcanic winter, may freeze over the rivers again, even if it hasn't happened for 200 years. And this will invariably be good for some and bad for others: one man's meat is another man's poison.

Frost fair on the Thames in the 1600s (Source: Wikipedia)