The Corporate Jungle by Seema Raghunath - Book Review

Read ‘The Corporate Jungle’ by Seema Raghunath.  She starts of the book with an introduction that clearly says corporate politics exists in all organizations. She asks us not to be naïve and not to think that if we are apolitical, others around us will also be apolitical. It would become like the story of the ostrich with its head in the sand and thinking the world is also blind.

As she has called the book ‘The Corporate Jungle’, she talks about nine character types in offices and maps each with the name of an animal.  So she talks about Lions, Bears, Cats, Chameleons and more.  She starts of each type with a long list of bullet point characteristics about that type of animal/employee and later explains their behavior in detail. She also talks about nine political strategies followed to reduce and destroy people.

Say for example, the Lions abhor camps and won’t stoop to make godfathers. They rely on their merit and want to be king of small kingdoms. The Bear who is highly intelligent and loudmouthed and doesn’t mince words while talking to someone. The Bears burn all bridges without any care.  The under qualified and under-skilled Suckerfish who attaches them to a speedy shark in office. The timid Morphs who think a hundred times before voicing their opinions. The aggressive Jaguars who have the deadly combination of courage and charisma.

While talking about the weak Cats, she quotes a few lines that show how a cat is unlike other smart animals. This almost sums up how people fall for political ploys and how smart people behave. “The Cat is not the smart Lion who can see through people and their motives to plan course correction way ahead. They fall into traps all the time, eventually ending up complaining, whining and bickering about their luck, time, bosses, work, and just about anything that happens in life. Cats make bad judgements. They take things at face value, believing what people say. Smart people judge or assess people or situations based on a thorough study of facts collected from various sources: from meetings, conversations, reviews, reports, and networking. Smart people also read people, read between lines, connect the dots and heighten intuition to arrive at what they sense. This does not come easy for cats. They find it hard to fathom the sublime. They don’t go looking for patterns or changes in people and environment. Their predictive indexing is therefore poor, which is why they find themselves in tough spots. They end up doing things no one else wanted to do, roles that were redundant.”

Seema introduces a political strategy in between the animal types. There is the mustard gas strategy that includes running a co-worker down, harming his image by spreading canards, exaggerated version of events, conversations and situations, twisting facts and misrepresenting small disagreements. There are more strategies like the Lip Service Strategy and Isolation strategy. Seema reiterates the fact seen in many books that the protagonist of ill will, denies and never agrees to any participation in a political strategy. So confront them with facts.

The book speaks to your heart and to your mind. The language is lucid and clear. Seema has been an executive coach and HR consultant with around 20 years of work experience. On the personal front she overcame the gloom of dyslexia with her writing. She blogs at collegeoflifelessons.com The book will be a good guide for fresh as well as experienced employees to be aware of the various negative undercurrents in an organization. The book has 207 pages and at present costs Rs. 227 on Amazon India.