Lessons From Nature: Series Introduction

This is an introduction to this new series “lessons from nature” where we will be examining how startups can learn from nature. The reason startups can take cues from nature will be explained further in this post.

Businesses are living entities. They are born, at the inception, can grow, age, and most, unfortunately, can die. If businesses are living entities then it, therefore, makes sense that lessons be taken from nature. For more reasons and explanations as to why businesses are living entities, check out this post. Life has been existing on earth for about 3.5 billion years according to LiveScience and has survived through time. This survival was through a lot of turbulent and unfavorable occurrences. As a result, in this series named lessons from nature, we will be examining different phenomena in nature and how startups can learn to better themselves.

Through the process of time, the nature of life on earth has become more and more complicated. This phenomenon is known as succession. Succession is usually due to changes in the environment/habitat which can result from a variety of factors. These “changes in habitat” can be likened to the ever-changing consumer tastes to which startups have to adapt to.

Life in nature has also survived through a number of extreme conditions, which saw the extinction of different species which could not keep up, and the rise of new organisms. These new organisms were usually better suited to the prevailing conditions and therefore able to thrive. However, there are some who have managed to stay alive by adapting to the new conditions. These and more will be examined in-depth in this new series, and how startups can learn to maintain their relevance.

Finally…

Startups need to learn from nature to prevent taking actions that can limit or totally prevent their productivity. Learning from nature affords the ability to apply principles that have developed, have been tested through time.

A lesson will be examined in each post of this series, which will see us explain the concepts, in detail with case studies both positive and negative. This is to help in relating the lesson to the business world and how heeding to the lesson can be rewarding or otherwise when ignored.

This series promises to be both informative and enlightening. Stay tuned as we go on this journey and learn how to succeed just has life has done in nature through time.