Ant Colony Enterprises (ACE) was known throughout the meadow for its successful operations. ACE workers, where ever they were found, embodied their company’s legendary industry and task-focus. Former members had split off to form related enterprises that thrived together in an ecosystem.
In the spring, Ant Colony Enterprises 2 (ACE2) split off from ACE to form a new colony and to pioneer a new part of the meadow. By late summer, their success revealed an urgent need for special skills. Until then, the Department Engaging Ant Resources (DEAR) hadn’t worried about winter coming. Now they were a DEAR in the head-on lights.
The crisis wasn’t sudden – ACE2 had been working feverishly since spring to build the new nest and keep everyone fed. Shorter days and cooler nights reminded the ant leadership that winter was coming. If the nest wasn’t insulated properly winter would kill them all. No one at ACE2 knew what to do. Nest insulating hadn’t seemed important when deciding to split off from ACE. Very few new colonies survived as long as ACE2 had. Now, to survive winter, it was clear that they needed to figure out how to insulate the nest – right now!
A colony-wide nest meeting was arranged on August 30. The prospects of winter, a potential extermination event, were presented. Then the leadership opened up the meeting to suggestions.
“Let’s talk to ACE – workers there know how to insulate a nest against winter! They could tell us what to do!”- said an older worker ant.
“It can’t be that hard – we can figure this out ourselves – and do insulation better!”
“The Ant Insulation Guild sells insurance against winter-kill. Let’s skip the work and buy insurance!”
“Our competitor the Termite Mountain just keeps going – let’s ask them how they do it!”
Though there were many suggestions, ACE2 leadership heard no viable ideas. They knew outside ant help was needed.
A head worker was assigned to insulate the nest on September 15. The time was short and the stakes critical.
The head worker report to ACE2 leadership:
“There are three viable choices:
1) Select a specialist group to teach us how to insulate and be done before winter.
2) Hatch specialist workers to prepare for this winter and get ready properly next year.
3) Rejoin ACE and let them show us what to do.”
The choices each had a complication:
1) Teaching ACE2 staff to insulate was the cheapest but risked everything on skills no ACE2 worker had today.
2) Hatching specialist workers to insulate the nest before winter would consume valuable food stores and occupy food workers with nursery duty. Next year the problem would return.
3) Going back to the ACE nest was not an option.
DEAR wasn’t happy. If ACE2 leadership went to outside ants what of all the rules, antenna scraping, and caste systems they had put in place!
Sacrificing for the outside specialists ensured survival. Big plans to expand the nest and train more workers would have to take place the following spring. DEAR was challenged by ACE2 leadership. Questions remained:
“Can we learn how to do this ourselves for next year? Or is this a problem every winter?”
“What can be done now so this is sustainable for next year?”
“Can we keep the cost down?”
On September 20, the Head Worker responded to ACE2 Leadership questions:
“The X-factor Spurts Group (XSpurts) will use their workers and ours to do the insulating. They have an insulation technique called “Thaw-ts”. A joint effort between XSpurts and our workers will take a few more weeks and cost less than requiring XSpurts to bring in a whole team from more than 50 meters away.
If XSpurts did all the work it will be done sooner and stop all of our nest expansion before winter.
If we tried to do this ourselves it will take even longer, stop all of our nest expansion, and we might all be winter-kill.”
ACE2 leadership smelled the decision coming and put on a condition.
“This is more than we can chew ourselves. We know what needs to be done, but no ant here knows exactly what to do to avoid winter-kill. Establish a separate group of ACE2 workers to learn what we can so next year we’ll be sustainable.”
The Head Worker understood the command and went to work.
Thus, the “Ant Smells Works” (ASW) was formed.
ASW workers were tasked to:
1) Work with XSpurts and learn without slowing the schedule.
2) Build know-how and document for next year.
3) Train a worker's cadre with new skills for insulating starting in spring.
4) Not to work on anything else while the XSpurts were insulating the colony. Other workers would feed, take care of the young, and guard ASW.
And it worked! The XSpurts came, did, and provided Thaw-ts for the winter. ASW smelled better in the spring.
The moral of our Fable is when enterprises face crises that they can’t internally manage, they can solve the short-term problem and increase their sustainability simultaneously. They can employ experts to resolve the current crisis and build sustainability by training internal resources to handle future ones.
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