Last Friday ANZ held a Women in Business event at Taronga Zoo. The breakfast networking event was held at the Wild Asia Exhibit, the home of Luk Chai, the first Asian elephant calf to be born at Taronga Zoo.
The networking event (attended by local businesswomen and guests) was part of ANZ’s Be Money Confident initiative for women.
Be Money Confident ambassador, Antonia Kidman, gave a speech about business lessons we can learn from elephants.
The lessons, while light-hearted, held many truths and resonated with me.
These same lessons (and the recommendations that Antonia provided) are also very aligned with the work that we do at the Australian Businesswomen’s Network to support women.
Lessons we can learn from elephants
| The elephant’s gestational period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal.
| Lesson: It can take time for good ideas to gestate. Slow and steady is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s important to take the time to properly plan, since many new start-ups can fail simply because they haven’t done their homework first. |
| Elephants are born with fewer survival instincts than many other animals. Instead, they must rely on their elders to teach them the things they need to know.
| Lesson: Finding a good mentor with experience is critical. Being willing to accept their help, particularly in the formative stages can enhance your business’s success. It also provides a way to learn business skills as your business expands. Seek out advice from an accountant, financial specialist or take advantage of mentoring programmes. |
| Elephants are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence. | Lesson: Respect can take time to earn. Women tend to be less adept at self-promotion. In other words, we are not quick to tell other people about our achievements and successes and this has wider knock-on effects. Successful businesswomen should be celebrated and more widely promoted, not only to inspire other women, but also to encourage the business community to consider the huge potential that exists in female-run businesses. |
| An elephant’s skin is extremely tough and measures about an inch thick. But although tough, it is very sensitive.
| Lesson: Develop your own thick skin. For many of us, criticism can be hard to bear. Whether it’s peer response, a tough economic environment or one too many rejections, every business faces situations which make it easy to think about giving in. But by learning to view these situations objectively and figuring out what you need to learn from the experience you stand a better chance of weathering the storm. And at the same time, relish your ability to show sensitivity and empathy, which can be used to your advantage. |
| Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals.
| Lesson: A healthy business is the best defense. This starts with proper business planning, including a focus on cash flow. Many businesses – particularly those in the service-based sectors suffer sever paeaks and troughs in revenue. Make sure you really understand the financial demands and costs of your business. |
| Elephants have the ability to use their trunks like snorkels for breathing and are known to swim like that for up to 6 hours and 50km. | Lesson: Use what you’ve got! Our skills at multi-tasking and organisation can make us great entrepreneurs. Have self-belief and be prepared to recognize your success. |
| The elephant’s trunk may have over forty thousand individual muscles in it, making it sensitive enough to pick up a single blade of grass, yet strong enough to rip the branches off a tree.
| Lesson: Know how and when to use your strength. A factor that links many successful businesswomen is their determination to succeed. Often this manifests itself in competing just a little bit harder, and being prepared to make tough decisions when the situation requires it. While having clear goals and aspirations is important, real success requires self-confidence and courage. |
| Elephants display a wide variety of behaviours including those associated with music, art, altruism, play, use of tools, compassion and self awareness. | Lesson: A work/life balance is important. While it can be tempting to devote ourselves to our business, this can at times come at the expense of our families or ourselves. Women are very good at feeling terribly guilty when we take time out. However, this is so important! There is no doubt taking time out of your business can be hard to do if you don’t have the support system in place with good employees, friends or family. But when we do, the benefits are rewarding. Not only do you feel more refreshed, making you a better wife, partner, mother or friend, but it helps to centre you around what is important, providing the ability to look at your business with fresh eyes. |
| Elephants can communicate over long distances by producing and receiving a sub-sonic rumbling, which can travel in the air and through the ground much further than higher frequencies. | Lesson: Take advantage of the communication tools at your disposal. Modern communication like the internet can help keep networking connections strong, through use of email, blogs, and social networking tools. It can provide links to like-minded, experienced business owners through mentoring programs. There are great resources available online to assist in bringing a business idea to life, or helping to broaden and grow your business skills and best of all most are free. |
| Elephants live in a structured social order. Females spend their entire lives in tightly knit groups made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. | Lesson: As women we need to stand together and learn from each other’s skills, strength and experience Make an effort to find people who share common interests and a sense of community. Local business associations and local council networking groups offer the chance to meet other women – and gives you the chance to support and learn from each other’s experience and skills |
| And finally: When a group gets too big, a few of the elder daughters will break off and form their own small group. | Lesson: Women can be the driving force to create new enterprises, and explore new opportunities. Research from the UK suggests that women are more likely to be more innovative than men in their approach to business development and new ideas, which can only benefit the business community. If you have a good idea, a plan for success and the resources to strike out, then have the confidence to be entrepreneurial. |
You can learn more about ANZ’s Be Money Confident initiative here. You’ll find interesting articles and resources as well as budget calculators.
