Akademik

n.

Anyone in middle management or a similar administrative position.

Lion Food: tech-term for middle managers.

— Keith Ferrell, "Tomorrow.net," Chief Executive, January 1, 1999

Within IBM they talk jokingly of middle management as 'lion food'; a reference to a hypothetical lion which hid near an IBM office and got away with eating a manager a day for a year because nobody noticed what it was doing.

— Alan Cane, "Management," Financial Times (London), December 18, 1991

This phrase is derived from the following joke:

Two lions escape from the zoo and split up to increase

their chances of survival. They meet again after two

months and find that one of them is skinny and the

other is overweight. The thin one says:

"How did you manage? I ate a human just once and

they turned out a small army to chase me — guns,

nets, it was terrible. Since then I've been

reduced to eating mice, insects, even grass."

The fat one replies:

"Well, I hid near an IBM office and ate a manager a

day. And nobody even noticed!"