When Disbelief and Pride turn into Disease

Speaking of the late nineteenth century. Then the era of colonialism is going on. Each of the colonial countries had a strong navy. But the problem was elsewhere. The rate at which the artillery fired from the cannons of the Navy’s largest warships hit the target was much lower. It was seen that if one hundred bullets were fired, at most three or five of them could hit the right target. The British began to think about this problem, looking for ways to get more ammunition accurately. Admiral Percy Scott of the British Royal Navy stationed in the South China Sea, while training his squadron, saw the use of ‘prototype gun-sites’ and a special technique to attack targets with relatively greater success. He then briefed his superiors on the matter, using his invented tactics throughout the British Navy.

The US Navy was suffering from a similar problem. Statistics show that only 30 out of 1,000 bullets were able to hit the target successfully during the Spanish-American War. It was pretty frustrating. William Sims, a young lieutenant in the US military, began to think about possible solutions. You see, if you want, you can achieve success by adopting this strategy of the British. But when he proposed to his superiors that the British firing strategy should be followed in the case of the US Navy, the senior officials argued in various ways that the British strategy could not be adopted in any way. There was so much controversy among Washington officials that it eventually led to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s resignation. Roosevelt had to intervene so that this strategy could also be applied to the US Navy!

Despite the controversy surrounding the invention of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell is a well-known scientist on paper. When he saw that no business was coming forward to do business with it after the discovery, he spontaneously stepped forward and decided to install hundreds of kilometers of wire along the vast railway line. But he couldn’t do it alone. He was looking for a partner. In the end, no one came forward, so he turned to the influential American organization, the Western Union. After hearing everything from his mouth, Western Union President William Orton (who was also one of America’s top electrical experts) made a remark that was extremely disrespectful to Graham Bell. He called the telephone a “child’s toy.”

Let us note the above two facts. In the first instance, the proposal to use British military tactics in the US Navy was turned down without any valid reason. US Navy officials and policymakers thought that they would discover a strategy that would bring more success than the British with a little effort. In the second case, Alexander Graham Bell, a scientist from the US-based Western Union, made derogatory as well as insulting remarks about Bell’s discovery. These two incidents are two great examples of NIH syndrome. The full form of ‘NIH’ syndrome is ‘Not Invented Here syndrome. In the case of such a disease, the people involved in an organization or organization like to show a kind of self-esteem and express their hatred or contempt towards the strategy, concept or idea invented by an outside organization without any proper reason.

This type of syndrome is more common in corporate companies. Numerous corporate companies conduct business based on a conventional concept called ‘corporate immune system.’ Take the case of the famous technology maker Apple. Steve Jobs, one of the company’s leaders, was forced to leave his company at one point. Then came the worst time in their history. Stay away from making a profit in ten years.

On the contrary, they had to calculate a loss of about one billion dollars. The main reason for this was that they did not make the decisions that should have been taken with the change of era. They were reluctant to accept any idea or strategy outside their own company, following the corporate immune system. But after the return of Steve Jobs in 1997, he welcomed new ideas. We all know the subsequent history. Apple became one of the biggest brands in the world.

In most cases, the main cause of ‘Not Invented Hair’ syndrome is self-esteem. The executives of the organization are much more confident about themselves. They began to think of themselves as “higher-level people” than others from this self-confidence. They tend to think that other theories, ideas or inventions that are gaining popularity, with a little effort, maybe a better or higher level of theories, ideas or inventions are possible. Many times they think that maybe the ideas or strategies invented by others may not be suitable for their business model. They have a kind of disbelief in the inventions of others. Many times out of sheer xenophobia, they return a lot of things from outside the country they ignore.

There are pros and cons to ‘Not Invented Hair Syndrome’ or NIH Syndrome. Many times, it has been observed that after returning the proposal, strategy or idea of ​​a foreign country or organization, a business organization or organization may later discover a strategy or theory that was actually better than the return theory or strategy. In this way, we have seen the discovery of innumerable scientific instruments in the world. We have also seen a number of developments in the field of various instruments, which have made the instrument more user-friendly and improved over the course of the day. For example, there are different generations in the field of computers or cellphone. The benefits of first-generation computers or cellphones were very limited. Then there is the possibility of inventing a better, more sophisticated cellphone or the computer than any other organization has ever thought possible. Thus once upon a time, we got a second-generation cellphone or computer because of research.

Usually, we see the disease nests in the body of the person. But ‘Not Invented Hair Syndrome’ is a disease that is entrenched in the body of the whole organization or company. This creates a tendency that often leads to events such as racism or xenophobia. At this stage of capitalism, there is no chance of isolation. Every organization or business organization is dependent on each other. So in the corporate world or in other cases, such a trend is declining.