Search This Blog

Monday, February 27, 2012

Business Survival Lessons learned from the Wild


I came upon some interesting research out of Cranfield University in the UK, one of Europe’s leading Schools of Management.  As reported in BizJournals and Portfolio.com, a better understanding of animal survival instincts could improve a company’s chances of business survival this according to a new study by Cranfield School of Management. The research explores what business leaders preparing for hard times can learn from solutions that have evolved in the animal kingdom over billions of years.
Dr Tazeeb Rajwani, Lecturer in Strategic Management at Cranfield is one of the report’s co-authors. He commented: “It is too easy to blame market turbulence or unexpected events for a company’s poor performance but this is often the response of managers to circumstances beyond their control. As a consequence, businesses fail to develop strategies for coping with crisis. Animals thrive in environments that are much more deadly than the marketplaces that businesses operate in, so are ideal subjects to learn from. Our research identified four basic coping capabilities and survival strategies that businesses can develop to survive and thrive in unpredictable environments.”  Other researchers include Professor Patrick Reinmoeller from Cranfield School of Management and Professor Thomas Lawton from EM Lyon.  EM Lyon has a campus presence in France, Geneva and Shanghai.
The four survival strategies explored in the study were:
Bear strategy – embracing hibernation capabilities: displaying a superior capacity to conserve energy or costs is chosen by businesses in the tourist and farming industries whose services will have varying demand throughout the year. During the high season, all their resources are used, with the knowledge that seasonality will cause a slump in demand for the rest of the year. Understanding how you accumulate your resources, and slow energy usage before getting hit by a crisis, is crucial to surviving.  Think Peach farmer in Clanton or Citrus Farmer in Florida.

Lion strategy - building a fighting capability: putting up a fight is the strategy of choice for aggressive companies, specifically in hostile environments that threaten to erode their competitive advantage. They react quickly and can stage vicious attacks if challenged for resources or territory. Organizations in hostile environments that follow lion strategies take a proactive role in going after the weaknesses in competitors and may adopt direct and forceful approaches in doing so. However, these companies can also lose their battles depending on the territory.  Think hostile takeover bid for Vulcan Materials.

Seagull strategy - structuring flight capabilities: moving quickly away from hostile environments to avoid specific threats to survival is another strategy adopted by companies that train hard to become highly tolerant of changes in the business environment. Similar to seagulls, such companies are agile enough to fly away to escape danger and thrive in many different environments such as moving the business unit to another country during a crisis. However, following this strategy requires making hard choices.  Think Caterpillar as they moved out of the USA and now back into the USA.

Shark strategy – developing search capabilities: continuously looking for opportunities and threats and at the same time developing stamina is an approach followed by companies that seek predator’s rewards. Like sharks, companies in hard times can develop instincts about when and how to attack to reclaim territory and search hard for new customers. They can also use their strength and force to fight off competitors.  Think Proview blocking the sale by Apple of iPad in China.  Proview makes iFamily and says that rights bought by Apple to market in Taiwan are in valid in mainland China.

Bear, lion, seagull, shark?  Which instinct will you need in your bag today?  As we learn from an unofficial Marine slogan,   we should prepare to improvise, adapt, overcome ……survive.

1 comment:

  1. โปร สล็อต pg slot จากเว็บสล็อตออนไลน์ PG-SLOT.GAME ที่ยกเกมสล็อตออนไลน์จากค่ายดังมาอย่างหลากหลายค่ายเกม เช่น pg slot jili joker และอื่นๆอีกมากมายในเว็บเดียว มาแรง 2022

    ReplyDelete