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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Portuguese Man of War: Business Model of Teamwork


Having recently moved from the wintery north to the tropical Caribbean, my eyes have become attuned to the uniqueness of the flora and fauna.  While beach combing yesterday, my son rescued a Portuguese Man of War Jelly Fish.  He had never seen one and was careful not to touch it as he was guiding it past the breaking waves.

Turns out the Portuguese Man of War is not really a jelly fish, but instead is a business model of teamwork.

With the help of Wikipedia (which I shall borrow from) I have learned the Portuguese Man of War (PMOW) is not one creature but a team of 4 living components (zooids) that come together to form the PMOW.  Let’s break this down:
  •     The Pneumatophore aka The “sail” represents the organism (organization) as the Chief Executive Officer - Not only the face of the organization, but also sets the goals and strategy. Without the sail the PMOW organization flounders (no pun intended).


  • The Dactylozooid (defense mechanisms) or rather Business Development and Marketing – Sends out feelers (literally) and brings in the revenue stream and defends the organization through a sound marketing strategy.


  • The Gonozooid (reproduction) or Business Operations- success breeds success. Without the successful execution by the operations component, the organization would be stifled and not grow.


  •     The Gastrozooid (feeding) or Accounting and SG&A – Optimizes the resources resulting from both biz development and operations to sustain the organization.
 
Without the teamwork of these zooid business components, the organism would need to outsource their various functions, much like some fruit trees outsource their pollination component to bees.  The PMOW is an integration of separate components each performing their role both efficiently and expertly thus proving that each zooid department is critical to the success of the organization.

Is the gonzooid jealous that the pneumatophore gets all of the glory?  Well that’s that talk around the salt water cooler anyway.