The Importance of Elephant Hunting

In 1993 I visited Cyprus with Dennis Bonner a long served Unilever hand. One of the most formidable characters I have had the privilege to work with and a man who taught me a heap of useful lessons. Genuinely good stuff that I continue to both use and quote at people on an almost daily basis.

The Importance of Elephant Hunting is one of them. Although he put it something like this:

"Look after the Elephants Young Clive, and the ants will look after themselves"

It was a hot day. We were sat in a cafe. His grizzled grey beard cracked in a huge smile at my incomprehension as he barked out a huge laugh and knocked back a thick strong Turkish, sorry, Cyrpiot coffee.

His point is a versatile rule for business.

Hunt the Elephants.
Herd the Elephants.
Feed the Elephants.

If you are engaged in a turnaround: List the elephant actions and take them.

Little drizzles of cost attrition won't do it. You don't have the time. Get the big gun out and give the trigger a bloody good squeeze.

If you are building a business. Know who the Elephantine prospects are. Work out which one you are most likely to bag. Focus on bagging them first.

Elephants are critical mass. Elephants are a meaningful difference. Elephants can swim.

And once you've bagged the elephantine prospects treat them with respect and keep them in the herd. Feed them and they grow into matriarchs and gather the smaller beasts around them. Ignore them and they wander away and feed in someone else's forest.

You will find that if you offer one of your big old elephants some new food they are more likely to give it a try than another creature who knows you not.

Your mother told you not to take sweets from a stranger, didn't she?

So look after the Elephants. The ants may not necessarily look after themselves, but they are more likely to take you seriously if you have an Elephant in your garden.