The ‘Monkey’ In An Organizational Hierarchy

You may have been recruited from a top-notched school as an undergraduate or a postgraduate or better still through networking for a summer internship with Bank of America or Goldman Sachs, a contract with Citi bank, or perhaps a permanent role with HSBC. Whatever and however you get the job, you would intend to reach the peak of the corporate hierarchy and hence, you may be mirrored a monkey in the forest looking forward to becoming a king. There is some hazing, a natural hierarchy and some organizational rituals you may go through to advance the corporate ladder. The nature and complexity of your job varies as you progress through the ranks of the organization.

As a junior employee starting from the base of the hierarchy, I will refer to you as a monkey. Don’t you like it? I don’t expect an answer though.

Again, you are a monkey and your primary role is to plan, analyze, organize, and collect bananas for the bigger monkeys (that is your superiors) along the food chain in your organization. You would be faced with the daunting tasks of organizing business meetings, keeping superior calendar, filing of records, etc as per your Job description.

Minor jobs requiring the use of Microsoft suite-personal computer operation, word processing, and spreadsheet would form a cardinal part of your responsibility. You would be expected to manage and prioritize multiple tasks and work under demanding conditions with many interruptions as you continue to fetch more bananas for your superiors. In my part of the world, you may have to run the random tasks of buying roasted plantain and peanuts or pick up laundry for the bigger monkeys in the office.

In some years ahead, you become a senior employee if you are lucky to be promoted by the telling of your hard work and other considerations. As a better and well groomed monkey now, you`ll be tasked to manage the junior employees to ensure that they don’t mess up in carrying out their responsibilities especially meeting clients orders.

You spend most of your time visiting and meeting clients outside the organization to persuade them to trade or transaction business with your firm especially if you have the business development executive tag in JP Morgan. Skills in customer relationship management, interpersonal communication, analysis, excellent judgment, and strong business acumen are typical of these bigger monkeys. Don’t forget so soon, these monkeys are also equally not liberated in fetching a basket of bananas for the bigger monkeys above the ladder.

Assuming you don’t press the exit button and rise through to a management position within the organization, and probably a CFO, you will be playing roles in financial strategy, treasury management, taxation, budgeting & forecasting, asset management, corporate finance and research. Beware we still get a lot more of the budding chimps below the ladder to revert to with some tasks to execute. Indeed, getting closer to the peak of the pyramid, it is quite challenging and brain exhausting to say the least. Chief among the responsibilities of these monkeys include building strong business relationships, and winning key clients especially from the grips of competitors, execution of deals and managing projects.

They ensure that decisions emanating from the meeting rooms meet the taste buds of the MD`s as well as seeing these decisions through. They interface the MD and the chimps below them to ensure that the latter don’t deviate from the corporate goals and strategies. If you are the COO or in a similar position, you naturally become the third eye of the MD in getting the work done through the burgeoning chimps that are within their jurisdiction. Increasing the asset under management-AUM to a competitive level in a bank or the commercial discovery of mineral deposits in petroleum and mining industry are star achievements that could catapult you to the next level – Managing Director.

Advancing the ladder through to becoming a Managing Director resembles a monkey being a king of the forest. In this piece, the MD position is the apex of the pyramid though we may have other higher roles especially in other nations like VP-Global IT, in Google, in USA. All the other chimps down the ladder owe their loyalty and commitment to the MD. The MD plays critical roles in bringing in new businesses, executes major negotiations, seal deals and sustains the business. It is either `in` or `out ‘for the role of the MD. The MD will often continue to have his head above the water as far as the bottom-line is remarkable or get kick out if the company hits a business Armageddon.